This page contains information about reporting issues as well as some tips and guidelines useful to experienced open source contributors. Make sure you read the contribution guideline before you start participating.
A great way to contribute to the project is to send a detailed report when you encounter an issue. We always appreciate a well-written, thorough bug report, and will thank you for it!
Check that the issue database doesn't already include that problem or suggestion before submitting an issue. If you find a match, add a quick "+1" or "I have this problem too." Doing this helps prioritize the most common problems and requests.
When reporting issues, please include your host OS and compiler vendor and version. Please also include the steps required to reproduce the problem if possible and applicable.
This section gives the experienced contributor some tips and guidelines.
Fork the repository and make changes on your fork in a feature branch:
- If it's a bug fix branch, name it
XXXX-somethingwhere XXXX is the number of the issue. - If it's a feature branch, create an enhancement issue to announce
your intentions, and name it
XXXX-somethingwhere XXXX is the number of the issue.
Submit unit tests for your changes.
Update the documentation when creating or modifying features. Test your documentation changes for clarity, concision, and correctness.
Pull request descriptions should be as clear as possible and include a reference to all the issues that they address.
Commit messages must start with a capitalized and short summary (max. 50 chars) written in the imperative, followed by an optional, more detailed explanatory text which is separated from the summary by an empty line.
Code review comments may be added to your pull request. Discuss, then make the suggested modifications and push additional commits to your feature branch. Post a comment after pushing. New commits show up in the pull request automatically, but the reviewers are notified only when you comment.
Pull requests must be cleanly rebased on top of development without multiple branches mixed into the PR.
Tip
Git tip: If your PR no longer merges cleanly, use
rebase development in your feature branch to update your pull
request rather than merge development.
Before you make a pull request, squash your commits into logical units
of work using git rebase -i and git push -f. A logical unit of
work is a consistent set of patches that should be reviewed together:
for example, upgrading the version of a vendored dependency and taking
advantage of its now available new feature constitute two separate units
of work. Implementing a new function and calling it in another file
constitute a single logical unit of work. The very high majority of
submissions should have a single commit, so if in doubt: squash down to
one.
After every commit, make sure the test suite passes. Include documentation changes in the same pull request so that a revert would remove all traces of the feature or fix.
Include an issue reference like Closes #XXXX or Fixes #XXXX in
commits that close an issue. Including references automatically closes
the issue on a merge.
If your change is large enough to warrant a copyright statement, add
yourself to the COPYRIGHT file, using the same style as the existing
entries.
The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for the patch. Your signature certifies that you wrote the patch or otherwise have the right to pass it on as an open-source patch. The rules are pretty simple: if you can certify the below (from developercertificate.org):
Developer Certificate of Origin
Version 1.1
Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.
660 York Street, Suite 102,
San Francisco, CA 94110 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
have the right to submit it under the open source license
indicated in the file; or
(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
license and I have the right under that license to submit that
work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
in the file; or
(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
it.
(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
this project or the open source license(s) involved.
Then you just add a line to every git commit message:
Signed-off-by: Joe Smith <[email protected]>
Use your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions).
If you set your user.name and user.email git configs, you can
sign your commit automatically with git commit -s.