Ubuntu Wiki

About Me

My name is Christian Brauner. I started using Ubuntu about ~12 years ago with Lucid Lynx while I was still at university. Over the years I have started contributing to Ubuntu in order to fix bugs that I encountered and to expand functionality of programs that I relied on heavily for my work.

Contact Information

Contributions

• Launchpad Profile: https://launchpad.net/~cbrauner

• Github Profile: https://github.com/brauner

• maintainer and core-developer of LXD, LXC, LXCFS, go-lxc, and glibc projects
• Reported, fixed, and helped with a lot of bugs. Here's just a very small excerpt:

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/criu/+bug/1620805

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/1645037

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/apparmor/+bug/1664679

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/apparmor/+bug/1732725

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1770481

    • Provided upstream fix for this bug: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/af984e137e7f53ca3e2fd885b03a25e17fdd0fad

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glibc/+bug/1732550

    • Provided a series of upstream fixes for this bug and to improve the situation in general: https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git&a=search&h=HEAD&st=commit&s=brauner

• Fixed CVE-2016-8649: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8649

• Fixed CVE-2017-5985: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5985

• Fixed CVE-2016-10124: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10124

• Did various work on systemd upstream to improve the experience for Ubuntu and the OSS community in general. This especially included improving handling of cgroups, service isolation mechanisms, and running systemd in containers.
• I've also been focused on doing a lot of kernel work that includes implementing new features and fixing critical bugs:
  • fixing the devpts filesystem:

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=7d71109df186d630a41280670c8d71d0cf9b0da9

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=a319b01d9095da6f6c54bd20c1f1300762506255

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4e15f760a43c7cb88e2b7ad6882501ccab5de29f

  • namespacing kobject uevents:

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=94e5e3087a67c765be98592b36d8d187566478d5

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=692ec06d7c92af8ca841a6367648b9b3045344fd

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=26045a7b14bc7a5455e411d820110f66557d6589

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=a3498436b3a0f8ec289e6847e1de40b4123e1639

  • making network namespace interactions faster (benefits LXD + LXC greatly):

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=7c4f63ba824302492985553018881455982241d6

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=c310bfcb6e1be993629c5747accf8e1c65fbb255

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=b61ad68a9fe85d29d5363eb36860164a049723cf

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=5bb8ed075428b71492734af66230aa0c07fcc515

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=7973bfd8758d05c85ee32052a3d7d5d0549e91b4

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git/commit/?id=4ff66cae7f10b65b028dc3bdaaad9cc2989ef6ae

  • improving user namespaces (benefits LXD + LXC greatly):

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=aa4bf44dc851c6bdd4f7b61b5f2c56c84dfe2ff0

    • https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6397fac4915ab3002dc15aae751455da1a852f25

In recent years I've work on pidfds (process file descriptors for Linux), idmapped mounts, various vfs and core kernel work. I further improved LXC, LXD, systemd and other projects. I continue to contribute heavily upstream and fix bugs.

At the time I joined Canonical new employees were still given @ubuntu.com addresses. This is how I got my christian.brauner@ubuntu.com mail address. I have been using that address for all my open source work. It is literally used in almost every single commit to every upstream project I have ever made.

I've been an active speaker on a wide range of conferences where I did not just represent the upstream projects that I actively maintain such as LXD and LXC but also talked about how we aim to make Ubuntu be the top platform to use for them and how we improve the Ubuntu experience for new users:

• FOSDEM 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
• Open Source Summit/Linuxcon 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
• Linux Plumbers Conference 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
• Linux Security Summit 2018 and 2019
• Debconf 2018

This is just a brief summary of conferences I represented Ubuntu in various forms.

Future Goals

I plan on improving the container and virtualization experience with LXD, LXC, and Ubuntu in general. Since Ubuntu aims to be the top operating system supporting containers this is something that Ubuntu will heavily benefit from. I'm currently in the process of working on various pieces in the upstream kernel benefiting containers and regular userspace alike. I'll continue to be a member of ~ubuntu-lxc and ~ubuntu-lxc-security helping with the bug triage and coordination for container related security issues in Ubuntu. I continue to have very close interaction with Ubuntu on LXC/LXCFS/LXD all of which I'm a maintainer for. The same goes for glibc. I also plan to continue my work with the Ubuntu kernel team to quickly handle container related bugs and security issues on Ubuntu kernels both stable (SRU) and development.

Testimonials

Note: If you have anything nice to say about this person, please do add it below along with @ SIG @ (no spaces). The @ SIG @ command will sign your name and date/time it after you "Save Changes".

I enthusiastically +1 Christian's application for Ubuntu membership. In the past I have worked with Christian on a number of features and bugs in Linux and lxc, and he has always been knowledgeable, responsive and extremely helpful. He has represented Ubuntu well through his numerous upstream contributions, kernel maintenance and participation in the Linux Plumbers Conference planning committee. His contributions to Ubuntu have been numerous, and I have no doubt that he will continue making Ubuntu better through his upstream work and continued collaboration with Ubuntu.

-- sforshee 2022-02-01 16:00:41

I wholeheartedly endorse Christian's application to become a Ubuntu member. I have always been very impressed by both his technical work, but more importantly by his willingness to engage and work with the upstream Linux kernel and other projects to ultimately benefit Ubuntu and the wider Linux ecosystem. IMO Ubuntu membership is long-overdue for Christian and he is thoroughly deserving of it.

-- alexmurray 2022-02-03 20:58:48

I very much support Christian's application for Ubuntu membership. He's been doing quite a lot of work over the years to improve Ubuntu's container experience, both in userspace and kernel space and has done a great job at representing Ubuntu at a variety of conferences. I look forward to Christian's continued involvement in the Ubuntu community and as an upstream maintainer of the Linux kernel, glibc, LXC/LXCFS/LXD and likely more to come!

-- stgraber 2022-02-04 05:53:39