[[PageOutline]] = How to contribute = We welcome any effort to make HelenOS a better operating system. Here are some tips on what to do when you feel like contributing code. Make sure to subscribe to the HelenOS development [wiki:MailingList mailing list] and join the HelenOS [wiki:IRCChannel IRC channel] so that you can communicate with us efficiently. A natural first prerequisite for any contribution is that you are able to [wiki:UsersGuide/CompilingFromSource compile HelenOS from sources and run it]. == Ideas to work on == First of all, you need to know what to contribute or what to do. If you don't have your own idea, you can pick from [report:1 open tickets]. These includes both enhancements and bugs. Please note that most tickets do not have their difficulty specified. The ''Priority'' field is about how much we want this ticket to be completed and there are quite a lot ''minor'' tickets that required hours of work while some ''major''s required few minutes. There are few tickets marked with [query:keywords~=first-patch&status=!closed first-patch] keyword: these are good starting points for your first contribution. [[TicketQuery(keywords~=first-patch,status=!closed,format=table,col=summary|component,order=id)]] If none of these tickets appeals to you, feel free to pick from the full list. And don't be afraid to ask on the mailing list if a particular ticket is a good candidate for the first tinkering with HelenOS. If you want to ask ''what is some nice ticket to start with?'', please, specify the area you are interested in. Is it memory management? Networking stack? USB keyboards? Drivers for ARM? Be concrete, please. We encourage you to file new tickets if you think that your great idea is missing on the list, but please do discuss the issue with us on the mailing list. Also please follow our [wiki:HowToFileABug guidelines for filing a ticket]. When you found or created a ticket that you would like to work on, make sure it is not owned by someone else. If the ticket is available, feel free to assign it to yourself. Otherwise you may want to ping the ticket owner on our mailing list to see if he or she is really working on the ticket. It can happen that the owner will gladly agree to pass the ticket ownership onto you. == Working on your branch == Now that you know what to do, you should go and create your private [https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials Git clone] of HelenOS. The easiest way is to [https://github.com/HelenOS/helenos#fork-destination-box fork HelenOS on GitHub]. This is essential so that we can later merge your changes together with your initials in the development history of the branch. During the coding phase, keep in mind that we will require your changes to meet our [wiki:CStyle coding style standards]. It will happen to you from time to time that you will need to consult something with the other people from the project. Don't be shy and feel free to discuss things with us either in the mailing list or on IRC. For example, you can create a patch and send it to the mailing list for code review. Alternatively, you can open a [https://github.com/HelenOS/helenos/compare PR on GitHub]. Make smaller, logically related changesets rather than one huge changeset. Make sure that each changeset is accompanied by a clear commit message in English. == Submitting patches == If you have a change that you would like us to merge into HelenOS, the easiest way is to [https://github.com/HelenOS/helenos/compare create a PR] (pull request) at [https://github.com/ GitHub]. Alternatively, you can point us to a public Git branch of yours by sending an e-mail to [http://lists.modry.cz/cgi-bin/listinfo/helenos-devel HelenOS-devel]. You can also send us a traditional patch. To submit your work as a patch, please follow these rules: * Please avoid describing the patch manually (e.g. "this piece of code is to be inserted at line XYZ of file ABC") and use proper tools and formats as explained below. * Always use unified diff format, as produced by running either `git diff` or `diff -u`. * Test the patch before submitting and run `make check -j 6` to see if the patch didn't break the build. * Review the patch prior to submitting. Make sure it stays focused and does not introduce unrelated changes, including whitespace changes. * Always send the patch to [http://lists.modry.cz/cgi-bin/listinfo/helenos-devel HelenOS-devel]. Note that the mailing list is moderated, so make sure you are subscribed to it first or your message will be held up for moderation. * Specifically, do not just attach the patch to a ticket as most developers won't be made aware of it * Send the patch as an attachment. Inline patches will get broken by the MTAs. * You must let your identity be known to us so that we know who contributed to HelenOS and who to give credit to. == Compiling the system == Once you have your Git branch ready you will want to compile the system so that you can test your changes. There are some common mistakes people make when trying to compile HelenOS so please read the [wiki:UsersGuide/CompilingFromSource compiling instructions] carefully before running to us claiming that HelenOS does not build or does not work. == Integrating your changes == When you have tested your changes carefully and are confident enough that there are no bugs, you can ask one of us to merge your changes to our official repository. For that, you need to do one of two things. Either create a PR at !GitHub or publish your branch in a publicly accessible location (e.g. !GitHub) so that we can merge from there. Note that publishing your branch is a good idea anyway because others can see your progress and your changes are backed up. Eventually, if your changes look good to us, we will merge them and you will become part of the history. However, this final step might require some patience. We never merge any code only because we want the functionality. The overall design, the quality and the readability of the code has the same importance for us as the functionality. Properly and thoroughly reviewing the code takes time and time is something nobody has in abundance.