mirror of
https://github.com/moparisthebest/curl
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160 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
160 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
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To Think About When Contributing Source Code
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This document is intended to offer some simple guidelines that can be useful
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to keep in mind when you decide to contribute to the project. This concerns
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new features as well as corrections to existing flaws or bugs.
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Join the Community
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Skip over to http://curl.haxx.se/mail/ and join the appropriate mailing
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list(s). Read up on details before you post questions. Read this file before
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you start sending patches! We prefer patches and discussions being held on
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the mailing list(s), not sent to individuals.
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The License Issue
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When contributing with code, you agree to put your changes and new code under
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the same license curl and libcurl is already using unless stated otherwise.
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If you add a larger piece of code, you can opt to make that file or set of
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files to use a different license as long as they don't enforce any changes to
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the rest of the package and they make sense. Such "separate parts" can not be
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GPL (as we don't want the GPL virus to attack users of libcurl) but they must
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use "GPL compatible" licenses.
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What To Read
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Source code, the man pages, the INTERNALS document, the TODO, the most recent
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CHANGES. Just lurking on the libcurl mailing list is gonna give you a lot of
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insights on what's going on right now. Asking there is a good idea too.
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Naming
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Try using a non-confusing naming scheme for your new functions and variable
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names. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that you should use the same as in
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other places of the code, just that the names should be logical,
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understandable and be named according to what they're used for. File-local
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functions should be made static. We like lower case names.
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See the INTERNALS document on how we name non-exported library-global
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symbols.
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Indenting
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Please try using the same indenting levels and bracing method as all the
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other code already does. It makes the source code a lot easier to follow if
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all of it is written using the same style. We don't ask you to like it, we
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just ask you to follow the tradition! ;-) This mainly means: 2-level indents,
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using spaces only (no tabs) and having the opening brace ({) on the same line
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as the if() or while().
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Commenting
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Comment your source code extensively using C comments (/* comment */), DO NOT
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use C++ comments (// this style). Commented code is quality code and enables
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future modifications much more. Uncommented code risk having to be completely
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replaced when someone wants to extend things, since other persons' source
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code can get quite hard to read.
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General Style
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Keep your functions small. If they're small you avoid a lot of mistakes and
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you don't accidentally mix up variables etc.
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Non-clobbering All Over
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When you write new functionality or fix bugs, it is important that you don't
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fiddle all over the source files and functions. Remember that it is likely
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that other people have done changes in the same source files as you have and
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possibly even in the same functions. If you bring completely new
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functionality, try writing it in a new source file. If you fix bugs, try to
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fix one bug at a time and send them as separate patches.
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Platform Dependent Code
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Use #ifdef HAVE_FEATURE to do conditional code. We avoid checking for
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particular operating systems or hardware in the #ifdef lines. The
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HAVE_FEATURE shall be generated by the configure script for unix-like systems
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and they are hard-coded in the config-[system].h files for the others.
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Separate Patches
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It is annoying when you get a huge patch from someone that is said to fix 511
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odd problems, but discussions and opinions don't agree with 510 of them - or
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509 of them were already fixed in a different way. Then the patcher needs to
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extract the single interesting patch from somewhere within the huge pile of
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source, and that gives a lot of extra work. Preferably, all fixes that
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correct different problems should be in their own patch with an attached
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description exactly what they correct so that all patches can be selectively
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applied by the maintainer or other interested parties.
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Patch Against Recent Sources
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Please try to get the latest available sources to make your patches
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against. It makes the life of the developers so much easier. The very best is
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if you get the most up-to-date sources from the CVS repository, but the
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latest release archive is quite OK as well!
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Document
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Writing docs is dead boring and one of the big problems with many open source
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projects. Someone's gotta do it. It makes it a lot easier if you submit a
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small description of your fix or your new features with every contribution so
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that it can be swiftly added to the package documentation.
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The documentation is always made in man pages (nroff formatted) or plain
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ASCII files. All HTML files on the web site and in the release archives are
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generated from the nroff/ASCII versions.
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Write Access to CVS Repository
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If you are a frequent contributor, or have another good reason, you can of
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course get write access to the CVS repository and then you'll be able to
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check-in all your changes straight into the CVS tree instead of sending all
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changes by mail as patches. Just ask if this is what you'd want. You will be
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required to have posted a few quality patches first, before you can be
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granted write access.
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Test Cases
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Since the introduction of the test suite, we can quickly verify that the main
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features are working as they're supposed to. To maintain this situation and
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improve it, all new features and functions that are added need to be tested
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in the test suite. Every feature that is added should get at least one valid
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test case that verifies that it works as documented. If every submitter also
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posts a few test cases, it won't end up as a heavy burden on a single person!
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How To Make a Patch
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Keep a copy of the unmodified curl sources. Make your changes in a separate
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source tree. When you think you have something that you want to offer the
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curl community, use GNU diff to generate patches.
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If you have modified a single file, try something like:
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diff -u unmodified-file.c my-changed-one.c > my-fixes.diff
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If you have modified several files, possibly in different directories, you
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can use diff recursively:
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diff -ur curl-original-dir curl-modified-sources-dir > my-fixes.diff
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The GNU diff and GNU patch tools exist for virtually all platforms, including
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all kinds of Unixes and Windows:
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For unix-like operating systems:
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http://www.fsf.org/software/patch/patch.html
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http://www.gnu.org/directory/diffutils.html
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For Windows:
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http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/patch.htm
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http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm
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