115 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
115 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
# Contributing
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Contributions should be made via pull requests. Pull requests will be reviewed
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by one or more maintainers and merged when acceptable.
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This project is in an early state, making the impact of contributions much
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greater than at other stages. In this respect, it is important to consider any
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changes or additions for their future impact more so than their current impact.
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## Successful Changes
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We ask that before contributing, please make the effort to coordinate with the
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maintainers of the project before submitting large or high impact PRs. This
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will prevent you from doing extra work that may or may not be merged.
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PRs that are just submitted without any prior communication will likely be
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summarily closed.
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While pull requests are the methodology for submitting changes to code, changes
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are much more likely to be accepted if they are accompanied by additional
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engineering work. While we don't define this explicitly, most of these goals
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are accomplished through communication of the design goals and subsequent
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solutions. Often times, it helps to first state the problem before presenting
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solutions.
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Typically, the best methods of accomplishing this are to submit an issue,
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stating the problem. This issue can include a problem statement and a
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checklist with requirements. If solutions are proposed, alternatives should be
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listed and eliminated. Even if the criteria for elimination of a solution is
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frivolous, say so.
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Larger changes typically work best with design documents, similar to those found
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in `design/`. These are focused on providing context to the design at the time
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the feature was conceived and can inform future documentation contributions.
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## Commit Messages
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There are times for one line commit messages and this is not one of them.
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Commit messages should follow best practices, including explaining the context
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of the problem and how it was solved, including in caveats or follow up changes
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required. They should tell the story of the change and provide readers
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understanding of what led to it.
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If you're lost about what this even means, please see [How to Write a Git
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Commit Message](http://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/) for a start.
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In practice, the best approach to maintaining a nice commit message is to
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leverage a `git add -p` and `git commit --amend` to formulate a solid
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changeset. This allows one to piece together a change, as information becomes
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available.
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If you squash a series of commits, don't just submit that. Re-write the commit
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message, as if the series of commits was a single stroke of brilliance.
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That said, there is no requirement to have a single commit for a PR, as long as
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each commit tells the story. For example, if there is a feature that requires a
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package, it might make sense to have the package in a separate commit then have
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a subsequent commit that uses it.
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Remember, you're telling part of the story with the commit message. Don't make
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your chapter weird.
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## Sign your work
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The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for the patch. Your
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signature certifies that you wrote the patch or otherwise have the right to pass
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it on as an open-source patch. The rules are pretty simple: if you can certify
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the below (from [developercertificate.org](http://developercertificate.org/)):
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```
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Developer Certificate of Origin
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Version 1.1
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Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.
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660 York Street, Suite 102,
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San Francisco, CA 94110 USA
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Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
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license document, but changing it is not allowed.
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Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
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By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
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(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
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have the right to submit it under the open source license
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indicated in the file; or
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(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
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of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
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license and I have the right under that license to submit that
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work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
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by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
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permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
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in the file; or
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(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
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person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
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it.
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(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
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are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
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personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
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maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
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this project or the open source license(s) involved.
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```
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Then you just add a line to every git commit message:
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Signed-off-by: Joe Smith <joe.smith@email.com>
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Use your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)
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If you set your `user.name` and `user.email` git configs, you can sign your
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commit automatically with `git commit -s`.
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