mirror of
https://github.com/moparisthebest/curl
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268 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
268 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
# Contributing to the curl project
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This document is intended to offer guidelines on how to best contribute to the
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curl project. This concerns new features as well as corrections to existing
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flaws or bugs.
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## Learning curl
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### Join the Community
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Skip over to [https://curl.haxx.se/mail/](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/) and join
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the appropriate mailing list(s). Read up on details before you post
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questions. Read this file before you start sending patches! We prefer
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questions sent to and discussions being held on the mailing list(s), not sent
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to individuals.
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Before posting to one of the curl mailing lists, please read up on the
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[mailing list etiquette](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/etiquette.html).
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We also hang out on IRC in #curl on irc.freenode.net
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If you're at all interested in the code side of things, consider clicking
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'watch' on the [curl repo on github](https://github.com/curl/curl) to get
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notified on pull requests and new issues posted there.
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### License and copyright
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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 and agreed
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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 licensed (as we don't want copyleft to affect users of libcurl) but they
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must use "GPL compatible" licenses (as we want to allow users to use libcurl
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properly in GPL licensed environments).
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When changing existing source code, you do not alter the copyright of the
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original file(s). The copyright will still be owned by the original creator(s)
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or those who have been assigned copyright by the original author(s).
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By submitting a patch to the curl project, you are assumed to have the right
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to the code and to be allowed by your employer or whatever to hand over that
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patch/code to us. We will credit you for your changes as far as possible, to
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give credit but also to keep a trace back to who made what changes. Please
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always provide us with your full real name when contributing!
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### What To Read
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Source code, the man pages, the [INTERNALS
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document](https://curl.haxx.se/dev/internals.html),
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[TODO](https://curl.haxx.se/docs/todo.html),
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[KNOWN_BUGS](https://curl.haxx.se/docs/knownbugs.html) and the [most recent
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changes](https://curl.haxx.se/dev/sourceactivity.html) in git. Just lurking on
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the [curl-library mailing
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list](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/list.cgi?list=curl-library) will give you a
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lot of insights on what's going on right now. Asking there is a good idea too.
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## Write a good patch
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### Follow code style
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When writing C code, follow the
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[CODE_STYLE](https://curl.haxx.se/dev/code-style.html) already established in
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the project. Consistent style makes code easier to read and mistakes less
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likely to happen. Run `make checksrc` before you submit anything, to make sure
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you follow the basic style. That script doesn't verify everything, but if it
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complains you know you have work to do.
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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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### Write Separate Changes
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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 person merging
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this change needs to extract the single interesting patch from somewhere
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within the huge pile of source, and that creates a lot of extra work.
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Preferably, each fix that corrects a problem should be in its own patch/commit
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with its own description/commit message stating exactly what they correct so
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that all changes can be selectively applied by the maintainer or other
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interested parties.
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Also, separate changes enable bisecting much better for tracking problems
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and regression in the future.
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### Patch Against Recent Sources
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Please try to get the latest available sources to make your patches against.
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It makes the lives of the developers so much easier. The very best is if you
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get the most up-to-date sources from the git repository, but the latest
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release archive is quite OK as well!
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### Documentation
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Writing docs is dead boring and one of the big problems with many open source
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projects. But someone's gotta do it! It makes things a lot easier if you
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submit a small description of your fix or your new features with every
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contribution so 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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### 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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If you don't have test cases or perhaps you have done something that is very
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hard to write tests for, do explain exactly how you have otherwise tested and
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verified your changes.
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## Sharing Your Changes
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### How to get your changes into the main sources
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Ideally you file a [pull request on
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github](https://github.com/curl/curl/pulls), but you can also send your plain
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patch to [the curl-library mailing
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list](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/list.cgi?list=curl-library).
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Either way, your change will be reviewed and discussed there and you will be
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expected to correct flaws pointed out and update accordingly, or the change
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risks stalling and eventually just getting deleted without action. As a
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submitter of a change, you are the owner of that change until it has been merged.
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Respond on the list or on github about the change and answer questions and/or
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fix nits/flaws. This is very important. We will take lack of replies as a
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sign that you're not very anxious to get your patch accepted and we tend to
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simply drop such changes.
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### About pull requests
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With github it is easy to send a [pull
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request](https://github.com/curl/curl/pulls) to the curl project to have
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changes merged.
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We strongly prefer pull requests to mailed patches, as it makes it a proper
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git commit that is easy to merge and they are easy to track and not that easy
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to loose in the flood of many emails, like they sometimes do on the mailing
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lists.
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Every pull request submitted will automatically be tested in several different
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ways. Every pull request is verfied that:
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- ... it still builds, warning-free, on Linux and macOS, with both
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clang and gcc
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- ... it still builds fine on Windows with several MSVC versions
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- ... it still builds with cmake on Linux, with gcc and clang
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- ... it follows rudimentary code style rules
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- ... the test suite still runs 100% fine
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- ... the release tarball (the "dist") still works
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- ... it builds fine in-tree as well as out-of-tree
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- ... code coverage doesn't shrink drastically
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If the pull-request fails one of these tests, it will show up as a red X and
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you are expected to fix the problem. If you don't understand whan the issue is
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or have other problems to fix the complaint, just ask and other project
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members will likely be able to help out.
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When you adjust your pull requests after review, consider squashing the
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commits so that we can review the full updated version more easily.
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### Making quality patches
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Make the patch against as recent source versions as possible.
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If you've followed the tips in this document and your patch still hasn't been
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incorporated or responded to after some weeks, consider resubmitting it to the
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list or better yet: change it to a pull request.
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### Write good commit messages
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A short guide to how to write commit messages in the curl project.
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---- start ----
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[area]: [short line describing the main effect]
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-- empty line --
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[full description, no wider than 72 columns that describe as much as
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possible as to why this change is made, and possibly what things
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it fixes and everything else that is related]
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-- empty line --
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[Closes/Fixes #1234 - if this closes or fixes a github issue]
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[Bug: URL to source of the report or more related discussion]
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[Reported-by: John Doe - credit the reporter]
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[whatever-else-by: credit all helpers, finders, doers]
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---- stop ----
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Don't forget to use commit --author="" if you commit someone else's work, and
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make sure that you have your own user and email setup correctly in git before
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you commit
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### Write Access to git Repository
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If you are a very frequent contributor, you may be given push access to the
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git repository and then you'll be able to push your changes straight into the
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git repo instead of sending changes as pull requests or by mail as patches.
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Just ask if this is what you'd want. You will be required to have posted
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several high quality patches first, before you can be granted push access.
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### How To Make a Patch with git
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You need to first checkout the repository:
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git clone https://github.com/curl/curl.git
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You then proceed and edit all the files you like and you commit them to your
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local repository:
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git commit [file]
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As usual, group your commits so that you commit all changes at once that
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constitute a logical change.
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Once you have done all your commits and you're happy with what you see, you
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can make patches out of your changes that are suitable for mailing:
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git format-patch remotes/origin/master
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This creates files in your local directory named NNNN-[name].patch for each
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commit.
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Now send those patches off to the curl-library list. You can of course opt to
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do that with the 'git send-email' command.
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### How To Make a Patch without git
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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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- [https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/](https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/)
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- [https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/](https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/)
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For Windows:
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- [https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.io/packages/patch.htm](https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.io/packages/patch.htm)
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- [https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.io/packages/diffutils.htm](https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.io/packages/diffutils.htm)
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