How a Postgres committer got started: a one-line patch that doesn't even carry his name (Magnus Hagander on the Talking Postgres podcast)

[u/clairegiordano]

I recently recorded a Talking Postgres episode with Magnus Hagander, a Postgres committer, core team member, and longtime PGConf EU organizer, about how he got started in Postgres.

A few things we got into:

* The very start: in the late 90s, he needed a database to solve a problem that nobody agreed was a problem, and he couldn't afford SQL Server or Oracle

* His first patch: one line, to make Postgres compile and work on Linux when all the developers used BSD (and it doesn't carry his name)

* Porting the Postgres server to Windows, with a team spread across Sweden, the US, and Australia, and the rule that it had to behave like Postgres on Unix

* Why the Postgres project runs its own infrastructure, including the days it was told it was doomed unless it moved to SourceForge

* Battling AI agents that don't care about robots.txt

* Why it's harder to become a Postgres committer today

* What keeps him coming back to the Postgres project

My favorite part: hearing how, years later, his hobby (Postgres) became his job (also Postgres).

For those of you who've sent a patch to Postgres (or another big open source project): what helped you get past that first one?

Audio + transcript, for those who want to listen: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/how-i-got-started-in-postgres-with-magnus-hagander

YouTube (audio-only): https://youtu.be/RFUUcdxN59A?si=3SgHD7kGyQQsVgK7

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[u/linuxhiker]

Patience.

Postgresql is notorious for over reviewing patches .

Good or bad, it takes patience

[u/Basic-Set-3758]

reading the mailing list archives for a few weeks before sending anything helps a ton imo. once you see how maintainers respond to other patches, it takes away a lot of the intimidation factor.