Contributing

This document provides guidelines for people who want to contribute to the mlvtools project.

Create tickets

Please use bugtracker before starting some work:

Check if the bug or feature request has already been filed. It may have been answered too!
Else create a new ticket.
If you plan to contribute, tell us, so that we are given an opportunity to give feedback as soon as possible.
Then, in your commit messages, reference the ticket with some Refs #TICKET-ID syntax.

Use feature branches

Work in branches.
Prefix your branch with the ticket ID corresponding to the issue. As an example, if you are working on ticket #23 which is about contribute documentation, name your branch like 23-contribute_doc.
If you work in a development branch and want to refresh it with changes from master, please rebase or merge-based rebase, i.e. do not merge master.

Tests

There is 3 levels of tests:

unit and functional: close to the code, they test function/module behavior (make test).
large: run inside a docker container on the freshly packaged tool. Ensure packaging is well done and it tests global scenario (large-test-local).

Each PR must contain at least unit tests and it can be merged only if the Continuous Integration is "green".

Usual actions

The Makefile is the reference card for usual actions in development environment:

Install development toolkit with pip: make develop.
Run tests: make test, make large-test-local.
Check syntax: make lint
Cleanup local repository: make clean
Package local sources: make package

See also make help.