When I published on Twitter that my first code patch (you know, the one about hyperbolic functions) was pushed into Postgres core and that it will be shipped in Postgres 12, I was surprised by an answer. The guy was saying “How did you managed to do that, I’ve written tons of patches and couldn’t manage to have one pushed into Postgres git repo.”

I will suppose this guy was genuinely asking the question and wanted an answer because the only other possibility I got for this message is that the guy was implying Postgres committers weren’t fair with him and that I had somehow profited of some kind of favoritism which I haven’t (Just read the thread here if you don’t think so).

So, here is my advice to help your patch being pushed into Postgres core:

• Be sure your modification isn’t against the SQL standard
• Try to mitigate if you break backward compatibility. If you can’t, be prepared to explain why your patch is worth it.
• Be prepared to explain why your patch would be a good thing for Postgres. In Postgres community, people discuss a feature to approve it.
• Don’t forget to add your patch to commitfest if you want reviewers to see it.
• People are not against you, they’re in favor of Postgres. Try to understand their point of view (I’m not saying you need to embrace their opinion, just to understand it)
• When someone criticizes your patch, either correct it or answer to explain why you don’t think that approach would be good.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for advice if you don’t know how to do something.

Voilà! That’s all I could think of. Maybe I’d add other items to the list later.