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How To Submit a Pull Request

MagerValp edited this page Oct 29, 2013 · 1 revision

First of all thank you for contributing back to the project, collaboration is the lifeblood of open source projects.

A pull request is GitHub's mechanism for submitting patches to a project. They have some excellent help articles on how to create one:

In order to create a clean pull request that can me merged automatically (the best kind!) there are a few things you should keep in mind:

1. One issue, one pull request

This is the most important point. Don't conflate multiple issues into one pull request, create separate requests and make sure that each one stands on its own.

2. Avoid unnecessary changes

This includes reformatting whitespace, changes to unrelated parts of the code, debug print statements, and so on.

3. Follow the project's code style

Be mindful to follow the same style for indentation, naming, casing, and quoting.

4. Make sure you fork the right branch

Development might be happening in a feature branch at the moment, or in a branch preparing for a point release. Check the current branches and their latest commits.

5. Create an issue before embarking on any major adventures

For bug small bug fixes feel free to create a pull request straight away, but please file an issue before implementing new features or perform any major undertakings.

6. Keep your commits descriptive and your history clean

Avoid commits with descriptions like "Fixes", "WIP", or "Forgot to add foo.py". They're fine in your local repository, but rebase before creating the pull request.