Contributing to Documentation

Here's how you can contribute to the Berkeley Research Computing (BRC) draft documentation, thus helping campus researchers make productive use of BRC services:

1. Get a (free) GitHub account.
2. Browse any of the Pages in the current documentation.
   (See the list of current Pages at right; it will look something like this:)
   
3. If you notice anything that needs to be changed or added to the documentation, you can also report that by creating an Issue:

• Visit the main BRC Documentation page on GitHub.
• Click the Issues link in the right sidebar:
  
• To create a new Issue, click the New Issue button near top right. Then enter a Title and Comment for your Issue, and click the Submit New Issue button. (GitHub's documentation on creating Issues.)
• To comment on an existing Issue, click the Issue's Title. Then leave a Comment at the bottom of the Issue's page and click the Comment button.

4. If you wish, you can directly edit these wiki Pages yourself. Or even create new wiki Pages:

• To edit a Page, navigate to that Page, then click the Edit button at top right. Make your edits, previewing them as you go via the Preview tab at top. When done, you can optionally leave an Edit Message at the bottom, and click the Save Page button. (GitHub's documentation on editing wiki Pages.)
• To create a new Page, click the New Page button at top right. Add a Title, enter some content on the Page, optionally leave an Edit Message at the bottom, and click the Save Page button. (GitHub's documentation on creating wiki Pages.)
• To learn more about Markdown - the simple codes that you enter to style and format text on your wiki Pages - see Markdown Basics and GitHub-flavored Markdown.

5. You can contribute to the source code and other materials that accompany the BRC documentation. While the specific set of steps for doing this are beyond the scope of the current document, here's a high level summary:

• One time:
  • Download and set up a Git client application (command-line or graphical) on your computer.
  • On GitHub, fork the BRC documentation repository. (GitHub's documentation on how to fork a repository.)
  • Using your Git client application, make a local 'clone' of the forked BRC documentation repository, onto your own computer. (See the steps beginning with "Keep your fork synced" in GitHub's documentation on how to fork a repository.)
• For each set of changes you wish to make:
  • Make your changes (edits, additions, deletions) to the relevant files, in your local copy of the forked repository.
  • Using your Git client application, commit those changes locally.
  • Using your Git client application, push those committed changes to your forked copy of the repository on GitHub.
  • Using GitHub, make a pull request from your forked copy of the repository, to the original BRC documentation repository. (GitHub's documentation on making pull requests.)