Open source contributions

RonDB is based on MySQL Cluster 8.0.23 and newer versions of MySQL Cluster. This means that RonDB is using the GPL v2 open source license.

Thus it is possible to contribute to RonDB and continue using your changes. There are many reasons why you might want to contribute to an open source project like RonDB.

One reason could be that you are working for a company that uses RonDB in its operation and have seen the need to do some specific changes to the RonDB source code. This is probably the most common reason.

Another common reason is that you are doing research on DBMSs and want to use RonDB as a platform for your research. Actually RonDB started up from a ten year long research project at KTH and SICS (later RISE), research institutes in Stockholm, Sweden.

One chapter in the documentation lists a couple of research projects that already have been performed in the context of RonDB. Obviously it is interesting to see ones research being used for other projects as well.

Another reason for doing open source development could be as part of your education where you use open source projects to learn about programming. Sometimes this also leads to a career in open source projects as I noted in my 20 years of open source experience.

Now in order to contribute to RonDB it is necessary to understand the source code and how it is structured. This has been explained in previous chapters.

However to be able to change the source code one need to first be able to build the software. Next one has to find ways to test the changes in the source code. Finally to contribute a pull request must be prepared.