Integration Procedure

Chapter 6. Integration Procedure

 The integration procedure is documented at the Development Process page.

• 6.1 Code Review Process
• 6.2 Licensing Requirements

6.1 Code Review Process

 Code review is the "last defense against brokenness." It is a critical part of the development process: no change can be putback by anyone, no matter how knowledgeable or experienced, without first being reviewed. As a version nears release, code review requirements become more strict; more reviewers may be required. The code review process can take anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, depending on the type, size, and intrusiveness of the changes being made. Normally, developers will ask others to review their changes who are familiar with the code being modified.

 The purpose of code review is to find subtle and non-obvious problems with the changes being made, not to absolve the implementor of responsibility for his or her changes. Specifically, developers must conduct their own self-review and testing before requesting a formal code review.

6.2 Licensing Requirements

All code integrated into ON will typically have one or more copyright owners, as well as associated license terms.  If the code was written by an Oracle employee (or by someone that Oracle contracted to do the work), the copyright owner will usually be Oracle, and the code will be covered by the CDDL.  In other cases (i.e., the code was written by a third party), there are two paths that lead to integration. 

The first path is for the copyright owner(s) to assign joint ownership to Oracle, via a contributor agreement.  A contributor agreement assures the community that contributors have sufficient rights to the code being contributed, and that any third party intellectual property issues are disclosed.  It also allows defense should there be a legal dispute regarding the software at some time in the future.

With this path, Oracle will make the code available under the same license terms as code written by Oracle employees.  The original copyright owner is free to distribute the code under whatever terms she chooses.

Under the second path, Oracle does not obtain joint ownership.  Instead, the person who wants to integrate the code files a request as per Oracle's Software Acquisition Approval Policy.  This will trigger a review to ensure that the code's license is acceptable, and to ensure that we follow any requirements specified by the license.  (For example, some licenses require that binaries ship with a copy of the license).

With this path, the code remains covered by its original license terms.  If you follow this path, please be sure to review Section 4.4.4.3 "Team Responsibilities" for some specific logistical requirements.

Code that will be owned by Oracle must contain the usual Oracle copyright notice (see 7.2.3 "Non-Formatting Considerations").  This includes the case where a third party assigns joint ownership to Sun/Oracle.  Contributors who add significant changes to an existing file or add new files may include a brief copyright notice similar to the standard Oracle copyright notice. See 7.2.3 "Non-Formatting Considerations" and the contributor agreement for more information.