I've been sponsoring Shawn Walker with what started as a relatively simple and bite sized fix for CR 6397024. The usage output of /usr/lib/fs/nfs/umount was incorrect:

# /usr/lib/fs/nfs/umount
Usage: nfs umount [-o opts] {server:path | dir}

The only flag allowed is -f, so this is the desired output:

# /usr/lib/fs/nfs/umount
Usage: nfs umount [-f] {server:path | dir} 

All this takes is a small change to what is basically a printf() string. We've been going back and forth on it for some time. Shawn decided to add a new lint library and he didn't do it correctly. And I decided that was cool to do. I never discussed with him that he should pull it, he made a choice to improve lint time checking and it could help catch an issue later on. And we want to encourage OpenSolaris developers to own decisions.

The problem was that Shawn didn't understand how the build space interacted with the install space. And the new lint library was not being installed. I knew what was going on, I just didn't know how to describe it succinctly to him. (I was also under pressure to get the Mirror Mounts project out on time - try it, you will love it.) We went back and forth a couple of times, until he finally prodded me to say it such that he understood it. Don't laugh, explaining a system without documentation and not fully understanding it yourself is hard to do - I intuitively understood parts that he didn't and visa versa.

Anyway, he came back later with new changes which compiled and installed correctly. So, I sent out a code review. And promptly stumbled across this resource on OpenSolaris Developer's Reference Guide. I know it would have helped Shawn. I know it would have helped me in both the In Kernel Sharetab and Mirror Mount projects.