1# How to contribute #
2
3We'd love to accept your patches and contributions to this project. There are
4a just a few small guidelines you need to follow.
5
6
7## Contributor License Agreement ##
8
9Contributions to any Google project must be accompanied by a Contributor
10License Agreement. This is not a copyright **assignment**, it simply gives
11Google permission to use and redistribute your contributions as part of the
12project.
13
14 * If you are an individual writing original source code and you're sure you
15 own the intellectual property, then you'll need to sign an [individual
16 CLA][].
17
18 * If you work for a company that wants to allow you to contribute your work,
19 then you'll need to sign a [corporate CLA][].
20
21You generally only need to submit a CLA once, so if you've already submitted
22one (even if it was for a different project), you probably don't need to do it
23again.
24
25[individual CLA]: https://developers.google.com/open-source/cla/individual
26[corporate CLA]: https://developers.google.com/open-source/cla/corporate
27
28
29## Submitting a patch ##
30
31 1. It's generally best to start by opening a new issue describing the bug or
32 feature you're intending to fix. Even if you think it's relatively minor,
33 it's helpful to know what people are working on. Mention in the initial
34 issue that you are planning to work on that bug or feature so that it can
35 be assigned to you.
36
37 1. Follow the normal process of [forking][] the project, and setup a new
38 branch to work in. It's important that each group of changes be done in
39 separate branches in order to ensure that a pull request only includes the
40 commits related to that bug or feature.
41
42 1. Go makes it very simple to ensure properly formatted code, so always run
43 `go fmt` on your code before committing it. You should also run
44 [golint][] over your code. As noted in the [golint readme][], it's not
45 strictly necessary that your code be completely "lint-free", but this will
46 help you find common style issues.
47
48 1. Any significant changes should almost always be accompanied by tests. The
49 project already has good test coverage, so look at some of the existing
50 tests if you're unsure how to go about it. [gocov][] and [gocov-html][]
51 are invaluable tools for seeing which parts of your code aren't being
52 exercised by your tests.
53
54 1. Do your best to have [well-formed commit messages][] for each change.
55 This provides consistency throughout the project, and ensures that commit
56 messages are able to be formatted properly by various git tools.
57
58 1. Finally, push the commits to your fork and submit a [pull request][].
59
60[forking]: https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo
61[golint]: https://github.com/golang/lint
62[golint readme]: https://github.com/golang/lint/blob/master/README
63[gocov]: https://github.com/axw/gocov
64[gocov-html]: https://github.com/matm/gocov-html
65[well-formed commit messages]: http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html
66[squash]: http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Tools-Rewriting-History#Squashing-Commits
67[pull request]: https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request
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