Application
Description
Tcpreplay is a suite of utilities for editing and replaying network traffic stored in pcap files. Tcpreplay is used by a variety of universities, security labs, network equipment manufacturers, carriers and individuals to test all sorts of networking equipment including firewalls, IDS/IPS and routers.
Why?
Tcpreplay is a small project with most of the work done by a single author. The goals of participating in the GSoc are:
- Work on some long outstanding feature ideas
- Encourage others to contribute to the project on an on-going basis
- Give back to the open source community by mentoring others
Criteria
Members contribute quality code over a period of time and show an interest in the future development of tcpreplay. Generally speaking there are tasks appropriate for a variety of skill levels, so the primary selection criteria is interest in contributing to the project rather then on a technical basis.
Template
Name:
Email:
Previous development experience (programming languages, operating systems, frameworks, etc):
How fluent are you in English?
Have you used Tcpreplay before? If so, for what?
What feature(s) are you interested in developing? Why?
Describe what you think this feature will look like when you're done.
Who do think will find this feature(s) useful?
What challenges do you expect to run into?
What areas do you want mentorship on?
How long do you think this will take you to complete?
What do you want out of participating in the GSoC?
Disappearing Contributors
Obviously my goal is to reduce the likelihood of contributors disappearing by initiating regular communication via email and at minimum weekly IRC chats. Some students may need a lot of structure while others less so to keep them on track and motivated. I hope to encourage weekly status reports (what was completed, what's next, any issues limiting their ability to move forward).
Contributors who disappear without notice will be reported to Google.
Disappearing Mentors
I have been leading Tcpreplay development since 2001 and have no plans of going anywhere.
Interaction
- Encourage most discussion (especially planning, design, etc) to be done in public (mailing lists, IRC) rather then private (direct email).
- Officially introduce contributors to the user/developer community and what he/she will be working on.
- Encourage the user base to provide input on their work.
- Use private communication for anything which might be embarrassing or might be construed as negative feedback.
- Identify user(s) who will be beta testers/key users of the feature so that the contributor will have someone to identify with for their feature.
Stick with it
Provide a positive experience where the contributor was able to complete their feature sufficiently so that it can be integrated in the next major Tcpreplay release. By identifying end users who will find value in these features and who will provide feedback and encouragement I hope to get them entrenched within the small but vibrant Tcpreplay community.
