                     How to contribute to Empire

Introduction
------------

Basing your contribution on a tarball may work out okay for simple
patches, but for anything serious, you will need the "git" version
control tools.

The primary purpose of this document is to help you setting up a
proper development environment, and guide you towards good practices.
It is not a git tutorial (but read on for some pointers).  It is not
about how to do the actual hacking; see doc/coding for that.


Getting git
-----------

On Fedora-based systems, do "yum install git".  On Debian-based ones
install the "git-core" package.  You can always download from
<http://git-scm.com/>.

If you're new to git, try the gittutorial(7) manual page, and the Git
User's Manual.  Both are also available at <http://git-scm.com/>,
along with other resources, including the the "Pro Git" book.


Getting sources
---------------

You can get a copy of the Empire source repository with this command:

    $ git clone git://git.pond.sub.org/~armbru/empserver

If that doesn't work because you're behind a restrictive firewall, try

    $ git clone http://git.pond.sub.org/empserver

Cloning downloads the entire repository, including revision control
history dating back to 2003.  The repository (the part you download,
and which resides in empserver/.git) currently weighs in at about
25MiB.  But once you got it, you can update it to later versions very
efficiently; see "Pulling updates".

If you prefer working with github, we maintain a mirror at
<https://github.com/gefla/empserver>.


Building
--------

Use of a separate build directory is recommended, like this:

    $ cd empserver
    $ ./bootstrap
    $ mkdir bld
    $ cd bld
    $ ../configure
    $ make
    $ make check

See README in the top level directory for more detailed information on
building.


Identify yourself
-----------------

We can only take patches that record authorship.  That is important
not just to give credit where due, but also from a legal standpoint
(see below).  Git records authorship automatically, but you must first
tell git who you are.  That information is best recorded in your
~/.gitconfig file.  Edit that file, creating it if needed, and put
your name and email address in place of these example values:

[user]
	name = Joe X. User
	email = joe.user@example.com


Work on a "topic branch"
------------------------

Cloning the repository created a "master" branch for you, tracking the
origin's master branch.  We recommend you use your master branch only
for tracking the origin, and make all your changes on separate topic
branches, because doing both on the same branch creates problems when
you later pull updates from origin.

If you don't know how to create a branch, check out section "Managing
branches" in gittutorial(7).


Committing changes to your local repository
-------------------------------------------

If you don't know how to commit, check out section "Making changes" in
gittutorial(7).

Commit related changes together, unrelated changes separately.

Write meaningful commit messages.  Start with a single summary line,
followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.

The purpose of the commit message is not to explain how the code
works; that should be done in the source code itself.  It's to explain
*why* you made the change, and what is affected by it.

The summary line should begin with "keyword: ".  The keyword should
identify what area of Empire gets changed.  Could be a command name, a
directory name, or any other succinct term.  You may want to peruse
commit logs for inspiration.

Keep the summary line short, ideally less than 60 characters.
Nevertheless, it should make sense on its own, independently of the
description.  Yes, coming up with a good summary line can be hard.

The description may be as long as you wish.  Limit line length to 70
characters.  Don't use TABs.

If your commit fixes a bug, point to the commit that introduced the
bug, e.g. "broken in commit 3a7d7fa".  If the bug is in a released
version, add the first release containing it, like "broken in commit
14ea670 (v4.3.8)", or "broken in commit 774b590f, v4.3.17".  If the
bug predates version control, point just to the release.  If you can't
find out when it was broken, say so.

You may want to sign off your commit now by adding a line

    Signed-off-by: Your Name <your-email-address>"

The easiest way to do so is "git commit" option -s (assuming you
followed the "Identify yourself" instructions above).

Similar Reported-by:, Tested-by:, and Reviewed-by: lines can be added
to give credit for reporting, testing, and reviewing.  Do not add them
without the credited person's permission.

More on these tags can be found at
<http://gerrit.googlecode.com/svn/documentation/2.0/user-signedoffby.html>.


Submitting patches
------------------

The first step is to prepare patches for e-mail.  Remove any stale
patches you may have lying around:

    $ rm *.patch

If you want to submit a single commit, prepare it like this:

    $ git format-patch -s -1

This produces a file 0001-<subject>.patch, where <subject> is derived
from the first line of the commit message.

If you want to submit a whole topic branch based on master, do:

    $ git format-patch -ns --cover-letter master

This produces 0000-cover-letter.patch 0001-<subject1>.patch
0002-<subject2>.patch and so on.  Edit 0000-cover-letter.patch so it
serves as an introduction to your patch series.

Option -s adds your Signed-off-by, if it's not already present.  Your
Signed-off-by line certifies that you wrote the patch or otherwise
have the right to pass it on, as follows:

    Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

    By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

    (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
	have the right to submit it under the open source license
	indicated in the file; or

    (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
	of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
	license and I have the right under that license to submit that
	work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
	by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
	permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
	in the file; or

    (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
	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.

Each patch needs to be signed off by everyone who contributed to it,
with their real names, not pseudonym, or else we can't accept it as a
contribution to Empire.

The second step is to e-mail the patches.  Common e-mail programs
notoriously mangle patches.  Therefore, use of "git send-email" is
strongly recommended:

    $ git send-email --to wolfpack@wolfpackempire.com *.patch

You may use option --cc to copy yourself and/or other persons.

Some configuration may be required to make "git send-email" work with
your e-mail account.  If you use Gmail, check out
<http://morefedora.blogspot.de/2009/02/configuring-git-send-email-to-use-gmail.html>.

Of course, you can also submit pull requests.


Pulling updates
---------------

First make sure your working tree is clean, i.e. there are no
uncommitted changes.  You can use "git stash" to save and restore
uncommitted changes.

Switch to branch master:

    $ git checkout master

If you mistakenly committed to master, move the commits to a topic
branch, then reset your master to match the origin's:

    $ git branch work
    $ git reset --hard origin/master

Pull update's from origin into your master:

    $ git pull


Rebasing topic branches
-----------------------

After pulling updates, you may want to "rebase" topic branches, so
they branch off the latest master.  The Git User's Manual covers this
in section "Keeping a patch series up to date using git rebase".
