OpenProblems

This repository collects lists of open problems in universal algebra and related areas. Contributors welcome!

If you would like to contribute and make additions or revisions to the files in this repository, the best way is to fork the repo to your own GitHub account and then submit a pull request.

If you don't know what the last sentence means, don't worry---there are detailed instructions below. But if this all seems too complicated, feel free to simply post a message on the Wiki pages, or open a new issue, or send email.

Contributing using fork and pull requests

To fork the OpenProblems repository to your own GitHub account login to your GitHub account, navigate to the UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems repository, then click the Fork link on the upper right. Then clone the forked repository to your local drive with a command like

$ git clone [email protected]:your-user-name/OpenProblems.git

or

$ git clone https://github.com/your-user-name/OpenProblems.git

Now you can modify the files in your local copy of the repository as you see fit and then, if you want to recommend that your changes be incorporated into the main UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems repository, follow these steps:

1. Commit your changes to your local repository. (Please include an informative commit message.)

    $ git commit -m "crossed an open problem off the list after solving it"
   

2. Push the changes to your remote repository (i.e., to the fork you created above).

    $ git push origin master
   

3. Create a pull request by navigating to your fork's GitHub page and clicking the Pull Request link (which appears next to a message like, "This branch is 1 commit ahead of UniversalAlgebra:master").

   Be sure to include an informative comment justifying the recommendation to merge your changes into the main respository.

To keep your fork current with the main UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems repo, see the section Updating your fork below.

Updating your fork

When improvements are made to the "upstream" UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems repo, you will probably want to update your fork to incorporate these changes. Below is a list of the commands that accomplish this, but see this page and this page for more details.

1. Change to the working directory of your local copy of the repository and specify the upstream repository.

    $ cd ~/git/OpenProblems
    $ git remote add upstream [email protected]:UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems.git
   

2. Verify that it worked.

    $ git remote -v
   

   The output should look something like this:

    origin	[email protected]:your-user-name/OpenProblems.git (fetch)
    origin	[email protected]:your-user-name/OpenProblems.git (push)
    upstream	[email protected]:UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems.git (fetch)
    upstream	[email protected]:UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems.git (push)
   

   If the foregoing fails, try

    git remote add upstream https://github.com/UniversalAlgebra/OpenProblems.git
   

3. In the working directory of your local project, fetch the branches and their respective commits from the upstream repository and merge upstream/master into your local master branch.

    git fetch upstream
    git checkout master
    git merge upstream/master
   

   This brings your fork's master branch into sync with the upstream repository, without losing your local changes.

4. Finally, commit the changes and push to your remote fork.

    git commit -m "merged changes from upstream"
    git push origin master
   

   If you now visit the GitHub page for your fork's repo, it should show the message, "This branch is even with UACalc:master."

5. If there are other branches besides master that you want to update, repeat the checkout and merge steps above replacing master with another branch name.

Bugs and Other Issues

If you encounter a problem with the instructions on this page, or if you have any other issue that you'd like to call attention to, please create a new issue.