66 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
Contribution Guidelines
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=======================
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Because Gluon is such a universal software package that is used by several
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different communities with different expectations and requirements, it is both
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essential and difficult to have contributions from the communities. While they
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are sometimes necessary to adapt Gluon to the needs of the communities, they
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also have to be adaptable enough to fit as many needs as possible. On the other
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hands, very special needs are better addressed in packages in [community
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repositories], because the Gluon maintainers would not use or test them and
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thus couldn't do their "job" of maintaining them.
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To ease the work for the maintainers and to reduce the frustration of
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contributors, please adhere to the following guidelines:
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Discuss first, build later
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--------------------------
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If you have some non-trivial enhancement like a new package, some modification
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of what is announced by a node, it is often best to first discuss the precise
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solution first. The maintainers might have hints as to how a solution could be
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implemented easiest, point out solutions how the same thing can already be done
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using other parts or why the proposed change breaks other parts of the system.
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They might even refuse the idea altogether - after all, they have to sleep well
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after merging the changes, too.
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The preferred way to discuss in the IRC channel ([#gluon] on irc.hackint.org)
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or on the [mailing list], however, you can also open a new issue on Github to
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discuss there.
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Develop on top of master
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------------------------
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If you are not developing something specific to a release (like for example a
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security fix to a feature that got completely rewritten since the release),
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develop it on top of the master branch. New features and even feature changes
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aren't usually backported to old releases, but will be included in the upcoming
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release, which will be built from master.
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Use descriptive commit messages
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-------------------------------
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If you modify a single package, start the first line of your commit message
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with the package name followed by a colon. The first line should be enough to
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identify the commit a week later and still know roughly what it did. If you
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fix some bug, detail in the remaining commit message exactly how it could be
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triggered and what you did to fix it. If in question, have a glance at the
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existing commit messages to get the idea.
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Squash commits
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--------------
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Most changes are trivial enough to fit in one single commit in order to not
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clutter the history. While developing a new feature, you are free to use
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multiple commits, but if your feature is to be merged, reduce the number of
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commits to a minimum. Even huge feature introductions like the 802.11s mesh
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(commit 2a93c58) fit into a single commit.
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If you developed your change in multiple smaller commits, you can easily
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[squash] those before opening the pull request. While discussing, it is okay to
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do your changes using `git commit --amend` and force-push them to your head of
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the pull request. This way, your change always consists of only one commit and
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can be merged in the instant everybody is content with the whole thing.
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[community repositories]: http://gluon.readthedocs.org/en/latest/user/site.html#packages
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[#gluon]: irc://irc.hackint.org/gluon
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[mailing list]: mailto:gluon@luebeck.freifunk.net
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[squash]: https://www.git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Rewriting-History#Squashing-Commits
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