Atom: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/www-community/?format=atom "community@apache.org feed" Title: Contributors Tech Guide Notice: Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at . http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 . Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. This document is targetted at Apache *contributors*. A contributor is any individual who wants to contribute to the projects hosted by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). If you are not a contributor and not interested in becoming one, this page is not for you. This document is about the technical means you can use to contribute. See the [ASF Foundation contribution page](../foundation/contributing.html) for other ways to contribute (i.e. donations). If you have commit access to a repository, please also read the [Committers FAQ](committers). # Contents # [TOC] # How Open Source Works # {#howitworks} Several books and many papers have been written about the way open source works and how you become a valuable member of the open source/free software community. This document isn't one. Try the [ASF front page](http://www.apache.org/) , the [ASF How it works](../foundation/how-it-works.html) document, the [Apache Jakarta: Understanding Opensource](http://jakarta.apache.org/site/understandingopensource.html) document, the [FSF website](http://www.opensource.org/) , the [Open Source Initiative Website](http://www.opensource.org/) , the [The Cathedral and the Bazaar](http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/) paper and [Google](http://www.google.com/). # Getting the sources from the Subversion repository # {#svnbasics} Subversion (SVN), is the version control system used at Apache. See [The Subversion Homepage](http://subversion.apache.org/) for more about SVN. ## Bleeding-edge ## {#bleeding-edge} Getting the source directly from the source repository usually gives you the bleeding edge version of that particular project. To be more precise, in the Subversion repository, there are usually three separate top-level directories: `trunk` , `tags` and `branches`.

The `trunk` directory contains the current source code, and thus it's usually used in the source code access urls given by the projects.

The `tags` directory contains specific versions of the project that were tagged with some name. These were created for some specific reason. For instance, you usually find a tag for each released version of the project.

The branches directory finally contains versions of the project that are different in some respect, such as experimental versions, or former released versions.

So, in short, if you are looking to download the source code for stable versions of the ASF projects, you should go to a normal [mirror site](http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/) and simply download it from there. Only if you want the bleeding edge source (from the `trunk` folder, or if you need an older version for which you don't get the source code from the mirrors anymore, use the source repository. Before you start using source code from the source repository, you need to check out a local copy of the remote repository. Here's how. Subversion, which is the technology/tool used by Apache to maintain the source repository, is an open source project hosted by [Apache](http://subversion.apache.org/). You will find most tools noted here on this site or related sites at [Tigris](http://tigris.org) the previous home of Subversion. So, if your system is not listed here, please go to Tigris and see what options are available to you.

Also, if you want info about Subversion, you'll find it for instance in the [Subversion book](http://svnbook.red-bean.com/). Under Windows, there are a few options for you: ## Use cygwin ## {#svn-cygwin} [Cygwin](http://www.cygwin.com/) is a free software suite of ports of popular Linux tools and utilities to run natively under windows. Among it is a port of the svn application which is the Subversion client required for checking out source code from the Apache source repositories. If you use cygwin, please follow the Unix/Linux instructions below. ## Use the command-line tools ## {#svn-cli} The Subversion utilities are available as native Windows binaries. Get them from [the Subversion homepage](http://subversion.apache.org). To use these tools, open a command window (click Start > Run..., then type 'cmd'), then enter the following commands:

(Note: you can use any directory in place of `C:\checkout`. Replace `%SVNUTILS%` with where you installed the svn binary, e.g. with, `C:\svn-win32-1.3.2\bin`, or with nothing if you added the SVN utility to your PATH.) mkdir C:\checkout cd /D C:\checkout %SVNUTILS%\svn.exe svn checkout ^ http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/infrastructure/site/trunk/ site This will checkout the ASF website into a sub-directory called site. The checkout will take a while, depending on your connection. Go ahead and grab yourself a coffee or ten. When done, you should have checked out the sources for the website you're reading now (unfortunately it won't suffice for actually re-creating it, you'll also need [Apache Ant](http://ant.apache.org/) , which you should go install right now if you haven't already). Yes, you can enter these URLs into a browser and actually look at the sources before checking out anything. However, for this you should probably use the Web view at `http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/` as it is much nicer to use than the raw view.The above URL gives you read-only access. If you're a committer, then you should use instead `svn checkout --username [username] https://...`. The https access requires authentication and allows you to commit your changes. ## Use TortoiseSVN ## {#svn-tortoise} [TortoiseSVN](http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) is a neat extension for the Windows Explorer which integrates SVN. Using it is real simple: After you've created a folder where you want to check out the sources to, right-click and select `SVN Checkout...` : ![screenshot of SVN checkout](images/tortoisesvn-checkout.jpg "screenshot of SVN checkout") Then, fill out the settings like in the screenshot below, and then click ok. ![screenshot of SVN settings](images/tortoisesvn-settings.jpg "screenshot of SVN settings") This checks out the source of the site that you're looking at. Under Unix/Linux, there are multiple options, too: ## Use the command-line tools ## {#svn-nix-cli} The Subversion utilities are available as native Unix and Linux binaries. Chances are you already have them installed. Try it by opening a console and typing 'svn'. If you get an error along the lines of "bash: svn: command not found", then you need to install them first. How you do that, depends on what Unix or Linux you have. For instance, with Debian or Ubuntu, you can do so by opening a console window and entering the commands: su - # enter the root password when prompted apt-get update apt-get install svn exit Other systems have graphical installers or use the rpm tool. Please refer to the documentation of your system for instructions on how to install software Once you have these tools installed, open a command window, then enter the following commands: # you can use any directory in place of ~/checkout mkdir ~/checkout cd ~/checkout svn checkout http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/infrastructure/site/trunk/ site This will checkout this very documentation that you're reading, into a sub-directory called site. Note that depending on your connection this will take a while. ## Using an IDE for source repository access ## {#svn-ide} Most decent IDEs these days provide Subversion integration. See the [IDE Developer's Guide](http://jakarta.apache.org/site/idedevelopers.html) if you need information on how to configure your IDE (note this is a java-centric paper). For Java IDEs, you might have to install a plugin in order to get SVN support: | IDE | Plugin/Extension | |-----|------------------| | [Eclipse](http://www.eclipse.org) | [Subclipse](ext:tigris/subclipse) | | [JetBrains IDEA before version 5](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea) | [svn-up](http://svnup.tigris.org) | | [NetBeans](http://www.netbeans.org) | [Subversion profile](http://vcsgeneric.netbeans.org/profiles/index.html) | Please refer to the documentation of the IDE and the plugin/extension for how to install and use the plugin/extension. ## Updating your checked-out module ## {#svn-update} You don't need to check out a entire module every time something is changed. To synchronize your local copy with the remote repository, you use the `svn update` which goes like this: # location where the module is stored cd checkout # either you call the update in the module's directory # or you supply the list of modules to update, like this svn update site With graphical clients, the process is similar. For example, in TortoiseSVN you can right-click on any subversion checkout directory, and select the "SVN Update" option # Providing feedback # {#providingfeedback} A valuable way to contribute to ASF projects is by using the software, and then providing feedback about them to its developers. Different software projects have different preferences about how you should go around to submitting feedback. Check out the project website for more information. In absence of information on how to provide feedback on a project's website, follow these guidelines. A vital part of the ASF projects are the project mailing lists. Most have a users list named users@${project}.apache.org. Subscribe to it by sending an e-mail to users-subscribe@${project}.apache.org, then follow the instructions. Be sure to follow [netiquette](http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html#3) and be nice to the developers. Then, tell the developer and user community about your use of the software product, your experiences in setting it up, issues you encountered, stuff like that. Your story will likely be very welcome if well-written and you Read The Manual before doing anything silly, and you'll probably receive some enthusiastic response from some of the developers and other users (if not, don't worry. They're probably just busy with other things). If you found specific issues or have a specific idea about how things should work, you'll likely be asked to submit a bug report or patch to improve things :D... # Sending in a Bug Report # {#bugreports} We take bugs very seriously. To help us to quickly fix the bug, be sure to include as much information with your report as possible such as your platform, version numbers, error logs, configuration, etc. When you are not sure whether a piece of information is relevant, include it. To submit a bug report, first make sure the bug hasn't been reported before, fixed in a newer version of the software, or fixed in the current development version. Then file a report. Different projects have different preferences for this. Usually you are asked to enter the bug into a bug tracking database, which is normally either [Bugzilla](http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi), or [Jira](http://issues.apache.org/jira). Some projects don't use an issue tracker. In that case, send the bug report to the appropriate mailing list. If you have the knowledge to supply a patch that fixes the issue, please do so... Note most issue trackers also support placing requests for enhancements in the database. Feel free to do so. Make sure to set the appropriate flags in the issue tracker to indicate that your request is not about a bug. When your bug report is not addressed, try and submit a patch for it. It'll increase the chances of the bug getting fixed. # Sending in Patches # {#patches} A patch is a computer-generated file that describes differences between different versions of one or more sourcefiles. Once again, different software projects have different preferences about how you should go around to submitting patches. Check out the project website for more information. In absence of information on how to provide feedback on a project's website, follow these guidelines. Patches are generated using the unix utility `diff` or the `svn diff` command. They can be applied using the unix utility `patch`. When you want to contribute a change or addition to existing sourcecode, you should: - check out the latest copy of the sources from SVN (see above) - change the sourcefiles to incorporate your change or addition. Make sure you also provide appropriate source code documentation (like javadoc for java sources), and follow a project's coding conventions. - check the software still compiles and runs correctly - run any unit or regression tests the software may have If this works, you can create your patch. Remove all build products and remnants from the module tree (like any 'build', 'dist' or 'bin' directories), then build the actual patch. Here's how to do it using the commandline SVN client under unix: Apache projects prefer the unified diff format. The subversion tool creates that automatically. If you use other tools, please refer to their documentation for details on set the diff format. # location where the modules are stored cd checkout # directory of the module cd site # creation of the diff svn diff > site.patch The Subversion client now examines all subdirectories for changed files, then compares the changed file to the one on the server. It generates the patch. The '>' redirection results in the resulting patch being put in a textfile named (in this case) `site.patch`. With your patch generated, you need to send it to the developers. Different projects have different preferences for this. Usually you are asked to add it as an attachment to the relevant bug report in the bug tracking database, which is normally either [Bugzilla](https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/) or [Jira](https://issues.apache.org/jira/) depending on the project. If a bug report doesn't exist yet, create one. A very few projects don't use an issue tracker. In that case, send the patch as an attachment to an e-mail with a subject prefixed with "[PATCH]". Patches should be sent to the appropriate development mailing list. If the patch is large, please ask before e-mailing it in case there is a better way to provide it. You should supply a patch-per-issue, that is, a patch can span multiple files but you should normally try not to fix multiple bugs in a single patch, unless those bugs are intimately related. Please show some patience with the developers if your patch is not applied as fast as you'd like or a developer asks you to make changes to the patch. If you do not receive any feedback in a reasonable amount of time (say a week or two), feel free to send a follow-up e-mail to the developer list. Open Source developers are all volunteers, often doing the development in their spare time.