Pull requests

Good pull requests - patches, improvements, new features - are a fantastic help. They should remain focused in scope and avoid containing unrelated commits.

Please ask first before embarking on any significant pull request (e.g. implementing features, refactoring code, porting to a different language), otherwise you risk spending a lot of time working on something that the project’s developers might not want to merge into the project.

Please adhere to the coding conventions used throughout a project (indentation, accurate comments, etc.) and any other requirements (such as test coverage).

Follow this process if you’d like your work considered for inclusion in the project:

  1. Fork the project, clone your fork, and configure the remotes:

    # Clone your fork of the repo into the current directory
    git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/<repo-name>
    # Navigate to the newly cloned directory
    cd <repo-name>
    # Assign the original repo to a remote called "upstream"
    git remote add upstream https://github.com/<upstream-owner>/<repo-name>
    
  2. If you cloned a while ago, get the latest changes from upstream:

    git checkout <dev-branch>
    git pull upstream <dev-branch>
    
  3. Create a new topic branch (off the main project development branch) to contain your feature, change, or fix:

    git checkout -b <topic-branch-name>
    
  4. Commit your changes in logical chunks. Please adhere to these git commit message guidelines or your code is unlikely be merged into the main project. Use Git’s interactive rebase feature to tidy up your commits before making them public.

  5. Locally merge (or rebase) the upstream development branch into your topic branch:

    git pull [--rebase] upstream <dev-branch>
    
  6. Push your topic branch up to your fork:

    git push origin <topic-branch-name>
    
  7. Open a Pull Request with a clear title and description.

IMPORTANT: By submitting a patch, you agree to allow the project owner to license your work under the same license as that used by the project.