These contribution guidelines apply to all Project Liberty development, although a given sub-project repository may extend or override some of these guidelines to suit its specific needs.
As a relatively new project, Project Liberty is moving quickly in a quasi-"rocket ship" mode to get our open source technologies to market. When you see something is missing, please let us know by submitting an issue in the appropriate repository or by alerting us in the Forums).
A few useful resources:
- General Questions + Support: See the Forums
- Project Liberty Whitepaper on DSNP
- DSNP Spec
- DSNP Introduction
- Submit a bug: see Submitting Issues below
Our Code of Conduct applies across all Project Liberty development.
Instructions for setting up a development environment are specific to the particular repository/sub-project you're working with in Project Liberty, and should be provided there. If you don't see such instructions, please file a ticket in that repository to let them know!
First, ensure that the problem or feature idea was not already reported or suggested, by searching the repository's open issues.
If you're unable to find a related open issue, open a new one using one of the provided templates. Be sure to include a title and clear description, as much relevant information as possible, and -- in the case of a bug -- a code sample or an executable test case demonstrating the behavior that actually occurs, contrasted with the behavior you expected.
We use the typical GitHub pull request (PR) development workflow.
For trivial chnges -- like fixing a spelling mistake or an off-by-one error -- simply create a PR.
For non-trivial changes, we encourage you to first post about your plans in an issue (an existing one or a new one you create) so you can get useful design feedback or suggestions before you start coding. All PRs should reference any related issues.
It's also okay to post questions -- to our Discussion Forums or in an issue ticket -- before you've decided whether or not to contribute a change!
When composing a commit message, please use these guidelines. The quick summary is:
- Limit the subject line to 50 characters
- Capitalize the first letter of the subject line, but...
- ...Do not end the subject line with a period
- Use the imperative mood in the subject line
- Separate subject from body with a blank line
- Wrap the body at 72 characters
- Use the body to explain what and why more than how
The reason for the short initial subject line is to support commands
-- such as git show-branch -- that print summary lists of changes
showing just the first line of each commit message, usually prefixed
by some metadata on the left. (And the reason for leaving the period
off the subject line is thus to save space.)
Think of the commit message is an introduction to the change. A reviewer will read the commit message right before reading the diff itself, so the commit message's purpose is to put the reader in the right frame of mind to understand the code change. The level of detail and specificity used in the message depends on the change. If you're unsure, take a look at the repository's history, comparing commit messages with the corresponding diffs, and use that as a guide.
Mention related issues: If the commit is related to one or more issue tickets, please mention each ticket number in the commit message, like this: "issue #123".
Please uses spaces not tabs for indentation, and avoid trailing whitespace. If a language has a standard indentation amount, use that amount. E.g., indent Javascript code by 2 spaces per level, Python code by 4 spaces, etc.
Please put logically distinct changes into separate commits. For example, this commit message -- although correctly formatted -- should never happen:
Fix issue #51 latency bug; also, fix formatting
Stop syncing to permanent storage on every write. That was causing
latency problems for clients who sent many files in a single request.
Also, fix some longstanding formatting issues (trailing whitespace,
inconsistent indentation, etc) in the larger surrounding code block.
Even though one contiguous region of code was affected, there were really two logically unrelated changes made to it. The better way would be to first commit the formatting fixes by themselves, with a commit message like this (a subject line is enough for a change like this -- the commit message does not need a body):
Formatting fixes only; no substantive change
...and then make the real change as a separate commit:
Fix issue #51 latency bug
Stop syncing to permanent storage on every write. That was causing
latency problems for clients who sent many files in a single request.
Having the substantive change in its own commit means that now someone reviewing the change can see exactly the relevant diff, without being distracted by mere whitespace changes that don't affect the code's behavior. This same reasoning applies even when the "other" change isn't a whitespace-only change: it's much easier for a reviewer to comprehend one change at a time than to try to comprehend multiple changes mixed together.
Whenever possible, please include related documentation updates and test-suite updates directly in your change, i.e., in the same pull request as the core source code change.
Start branch names with the related issue number and title.
In Project Liberty repositories, once a branch has been merged to mainline we usually delete the branch. This can be done via the GitHub PR web interface (it offers a button to delete a PR's branch after merging), or from the command line:
# Make sure you're not on the branch you want to delete.
$ git branch | grep '^\* '
* main
# No output from this == up-to-date, nothing to fetch.
$ git fetch --dry-run
# Delete the branch locally, if necessary.
$ git branch -d some-now-fully-merged-branch
# Delete it upstream.
$ git push origin --delete some-now-fully-merged-branch
This only applies to branches in the repositories we manage, of course. For your own repositories (including the ones that are cloned from ours), you decide your own deletion policy, of course.
(coming soon)
As outlined in SECURITY.md, if you discover a security vulnerability that you feel is sensitive enough that it should not be posted publicly, please report it.