Where to download Ubuntu source code from

[tech291083]

Hi friends,

I often download and install new versions of Ubuntu, but if someone with proper programming knowledge wants to read and possibly modify the actual source code of Ubuntu OS itself (its open-source, so code is made available free of cost, I guess) where can he download the same from? There must be millions of lines of code, with comments thrown in to make it easier for a developer to identify as to what a particular piece of code does. There must be some suggested way of going through these millions of lines of code as well.

Thanks a lot.

[Y^2om&#7sgP]

Try this

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/16.04/release/source/

[colmax]

Hi T
Maybe go settings>software&updates>ubuntu software & tick source code
Cheers

[yetimon_64]

Hi T
Maybe go settings>software&updates>ubuntu software & tick source code
Cheers

OP, the suggestion above should give you access to the system package sources.

Once you have the access to the source code, here are a couple of links regarding how to compile a package ... the first one is specifically about building a java runtime environment, but the commands used are typical for building packages. The second howtogeek link is a more general guide about building from a downloaded tar archive using pidgin as an example (it is an older guide from 2012)...
http://askubuntu.com/questions/246690/how-to-use-apt-to-get-source-code-and-then-do-separate-compile
http://www.howtogeek.com/105413/how-to-compile-and-install-from-source-on-ubuntu/

These next 2 are Ubuntu documentation links for compiling from source, both contain sections for "getting the software you want" or "obtaining the sources" ...
CompilingEasyHowTo (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompilingEasyHowTo)
CompilingSoftware (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompilingSoftware)

Regards, yeti.

[tech291083]

Thanks a lot friends and sorry for the delayed response.

[oldos2er]

You simply run
apt-get source <package name> in a terminal.

[tech291083]

You simply run
apt-get source <package name> in a terminal.

Brilliant, thanks a lot.