differs substantially from the prior version, are all good things
to have.
-Make sure that you have tests for the bug you are fixing.
+Make sure that you have tests for the bug you are fixing. See
+t/README for guidance.
When adding a new feature, make sure that you have new tests to show
-the feature triggers the new behaviour when it should, and to show the
-feature does not trigger when it shouldn't. Also make sure that the
-test suite passes after your commit. Do not forget to update the
-documentation to describe the updated behaviour.
-
-Speaking of the documentation, it is currently a liberal mixture of US
-and UK English norms for spelling and grammar, which is somewhat
-unfortunate. A huge patch that touches the files all over the place
-only to correct the inconsistency is not welcome, though. Potential
-clashes with other changes that can result from such a patch are not
-worth it. We prefer to gradually reconcile the inconsistencies in
-favor of US English, with small and easily digestible patches, as a
-side effect of doing some other real work in the vicinity (e.g.
-rewriting a paragraph for clarity, while turning en_UK spelling to
-en_US). Obvious typographical fixes are much more welcomed ("teh ->
-"the"), preferably submitted as independent patches separate from
-other documentation changes.
+the feature triggers the new behavior when it should, and to show the
+feature does not trigger when it shouldn't. After any code change, make
+sure that the entire test suite passes.
+
+If you have an account at GitHub (and you can get one for free to work
+on open source projects), you can use their Travis CI integration to
+test your changes on Linux, Mac (and hopefully soon Windows). See
+GitHub-Travis CI hints section for details.
+
+Do not forget to update the documentation to describe the updated
+behavior and make sure that the resulting documentation set formats
+well. It is currently a liberal mixture of US and UK English norms for
+spelling and grammar, which is somewhat unfortunate. A huge patch that
+touches the files all over the place only to correct the inconsistency
+is not welcome, though. Potential clashes with other changes that can
+result from such a patch are not worth it. We prefer to gradually
+reconcile the inconsistencies in favor of US English, with small and
+easily digestible patches, as a side effect of doing some other real
+work in the vicinity (e.g. rewriting a paragraph for clarity, while
+turning en_UK spelling to en_US). Obvious typographical fixes are much
+more welcomed ("teh -> "the"), preferably submitted as independent
+patches separate from other documentation changes.
Oh, another thing. We are picky about whitespaces. Make sure your
changes do not trigger errors with the sample pre-commit hook shipped
(4) Sending your patches.
+Learn to use format-patch and send-email if possible. These commands
+are optimized for the workflow of sending patches, avoiding many ways
+your existing e-mail client that is optimized for "multipart/*" mime
+type e-mails to corrupt and render your patches unusable.
+
People on the Git mailing list need to be able to read and
comment on the changes you are submitting. It is important for
a developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard
You often want to add additional explanation about the patch,
other than the commit message itself. Place such "cover letter"
-material between the three dash lines and the diffstat. Git-notes
-can also be inserted using the `--notes` option.
+material between the three-dash line and the diffstat. For
+patches requiring multiple iterations of review and discussion,
+an explanation of changes between each iteration can be kept in
+Git-notes and inserted automatically following the three-dash
+line via `git format-patch --notes`.
Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not.
Do not let your e-mail client send quoted-printable. Do not let
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.
+ (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 saying
- Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
+ Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
This line can be automatically added by Git if you run the git-commit
command with the -s option.
spend their time to improve your patch. Go back to step (2).
(4) The list forms consensus that the last round of your patch is
- good. Send it to the list and cc the maintainer.
+ good. Send it to the maintainer and cc the list.
(5) A topic branch is created with the patch and is merged to 'next',
and cooked further and eventually graduates to 'master'.
entitled "What's cooking in git.git" and "What's in git.git" giving
the status of various proposed changes.
+--------------------------------------------------
+GitHub-Travis CI hints
+
+With an account at GitHub (you can get one for free to work on open
+source projects), you can use Travis CI to test your changes on Linux,
+Mac (and hopefully soon Windows). You can find a successful example
+test build here: https://travis-ci.org/git/git/builds/120473209
+
+Follow these steps for the initial setup:
+
+ (1) Fork https://github.com/git/git to your GitHub account.
+ You can find detailed instructions how to fork here:
+ https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/
+
+ (2) Open the Travis CI website: https://travis-ci.org
+
+ (3) Press the "Sign in with GitHub" button.
+
+ (4) Grant Travis CI permissions to access your GitHub account.
+ You can find more information about the required permissions here:
+ https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/github-oauth-scopes
+
+ (5) Open your Travis CI profile page: https://travis-ci.org/profile
+
+ (6) Enable Travis CI builds for your Git fork.
+
+After the initial setup, Travis CI will run whenever you push new changes
+to your fork of Git on GitHub. You can monitor the test state of all your
+branches here: https://travis-ci.org/<Your GitHub handle>/git/branches
+
+If a branch did not pass all test cases then it is marked with a red
+cross. In that case you can click on the failing Travis CI job and
+scroll all the way down in the log. Find the line "<-- Click here to see
+detailed test output!" and click on the triangle next to the log line
+number to expand the detailed test output. Here is such a failing
+example: https://travis-ci.org/git/git/jobs/122676187
+
+Fix the problem and push your fix to your Git fork. This will trigger
+a new Travis CI build to ensure all tests pass.
+
+
------------------------------------------------
MUA specific hints