Open Source
Code Review in Open Source
Linus Torvalds was known for harsh public reviews on LKML. In 2018 he took a break and reconsidered his communication style. If the creator of Linux understood that tone matters - it really does.
- Google Code Review Guidelines - a public document that influenced all of OSS
- Rust Core Team is known for exceptionally polite and constructive reviews
- Linus Torvalds in 2018: "I need to change some of my behaviour" - CoC adoption in Linux
- Vue.js contributor guide explicitly describes how to frame review comments
How to Give a Good Code Review
Code review in OSS is a public conversation. Your comments are read not just by the PR author, but by hundreds of developers in the future. Tone matters as much as content.
**Prefix-based review** is a convention popularized by Google and many OSS projects. Prefixes `nit:`, `blocker:`, `suggestion:`, `question:` instantly show the PR author how important the comment is and whether a response is expected.
You spot a potential SQL injection vulnerability in a PR. How should you frame the comment?
How to Receive Feedback
Receiving public criticism is a skill. Especially when you spent hours on an implementation and the reviewer wrote three lines about why it's wrong. The golden rule: **they're critiquing the code, not you**.
**After making changes - say what you did.** Don't go quiet. Write "Done" or "Fixed in a7b3c2d" after each resolved comment. This respects the reviewer's time and signals that re-review is possible. In GitHub you can click "Resolve conversation" - use it.
A reviewer left 15 comments on your PR, most of them nits. You've fixed everything. What next?
Key Ideas
- Blocker/nit/suggestion/question - prefix system for classifying comments
- Good review: specific problem + explanation why + example of correct approach
- Receiving review: they critique the code, not you. Ask questions, don't get defensive
- After making fixes: explicitly notify the reviewer, ask for re-review
- Security issues are always blockers, always with a concrete fix example
Related Topics
Code review is part of the broader topic of communication in the OSS community.
- Next Lesson — Logical continuation
Вопросы для размышления
- Find a PR in a well-known OSS project (React, Vue, TypeScript) with active review. What communication patterns do you see?
- How would you respond to the comment: "This whole approach is wrong, you should have done X from the beginning"?