dogecoin/CONTRIBUTING.md

# Contributing to Dogecoin Core

Dogecoin Core is an open source project, and we would welcome contributions which provably
improve the state of the software. For those wanting to discuss changes, or look for work
that needs doing, please see:

* [Help requests](https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/labels/help%20wanted)
* [Projects](https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/projects)
* [Dogecoindev on reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoindev/)

## Branch Strategy

Dogecoin Core's default branch is intentionally a stable release, so that anyone downloading the code and compiling it gets a stable release.
Active development occurs on branches named after the version they are targetting, for example the 1.14.4 branch is named `1.14.4-dev`.
When raising PRs, please raise against the relevant development branch, **not** against the `master` branch.

## Contributor Workflow

The codebase is maintained using the "contributor workflow" where everyone
without exception contributes patch proposals using "pull requests". This
facilitates social contribution, easy testing and peer review.

To contribute a patch, the workflow is as follows:

  - Fork the repository in GitHub, and clone it your development machine.
  - Create a topic branch from the relevant development branch.
  - Commit changes to the branch.
  - Test your changes, which **must** include the unit and RPC tests passing.
  - Push topic branch to your copy of the repository.
  - Raise a Pull Request via GitHub.

The project coding conventions in the [developer notes](doc/developer-notes.md)
must be adhered to.

In general [commits should be atomic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_commit#Atomic_commit_convention)
and diffs should be easy to read. For this reason do not mix any formatting
fixes or code moves with actual code changes.

Commit messages should be verbose by default consisting of a short subject line
(50 chars max), a blank line and detailed explanatory text as separate
paragraph(s); unless the title alone is self-explanatory (like "Corrected typo
in init.cpp") then a single title line is sufficient. Commit messages should be
helpful to people reading your code in the future, so explain the reasoning for
your decisions. Further explanation [here](http://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/).

If a particular commit references another issue, please add the reference, for
example `refs #1234`, or `fixes #4321`. Using the `fixes` or `closes` keywords
will cause the corresponding issue to be closed when the pull request is merged.

Please refer to the [Git manual](https://git-scm.com/doc) for more information
about Git.

  - Push changes to your fork
  - Create pull request

The body of the pull request should contain enough description about what the
patch does together with any justification/reasoning. You should include
references to any discussions (for example other tickets or mailing list
discussions).

At this stage one should expect comments and review from other contributors. You
can add more commits to your pull request by committing them locally and pushing
to your fork until you have satisfied all feedback.


## Squashing Commits

If your pull request is accepted for merging, you may be asked by a maintainer
to squash and or [rebase](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rebase) your commits
before it will be merged. The basic squashing workflow is shown below.

    git checkout your_branch_name
    git rebase -i HEAD~n
    # n is normally the number of commits in the pull
    # set commits from 'pick' to 'squash', save and quit
    # on the next screen, edit/refine commit messages
    # save and quit
    git push -f # (force push to GitHub)

If you have problems with squashing (or other workflows with `git`), you can
alternatively enable "Allow edits from maintainers" in the right GitHub
sidebar and ask for help in the pull request.

Please refrain from creating several pull requests for the same change.
Use the pull request that is already open (or was created earlier) to amend
changes. This preserves the discussion and review that happened earlier for
the respective change set.

The length of time required for peer review is unpredictable and will vary from
pull request to pull request.


## Pull Request Philosophy

Patchsets should always be focused. For example, a pull request could add a
feature, fix a bug, or refactor code; but not a mixture. Please also avoid super
pull requests which attempt to do too much, are overly large, or overly complex
as this makes review difficult.


### Features

When adding a new feature, thought must be given to the long term technical debt
and maintenance that feature may require after inclusion. Before proposing a new
feature that will require maintenance, please consider if you are willing to
maintain it (including bug fixing). If features get orphaned with no maintainer
in the future, they may be removed by the Repository Maintainer.


### Refactoring

Refactoring is a necessary part of any software project's evolution. The
following guidelines cover refactoring pull requests for the project.

There are three categories of refactoring, code only moves, code style fixes,
code refactoring. In general refactoring pull requests should not mix these
three kinds of activity in order to make refactoring pull requests easy to
review and uncontroversial. In all cases, refactoring PRs must not change the
behaviour of code within the pull request (bugs must be preserved as is).

Project maintainers aim for a quick turnaround on refactoring pull requests, so
where possible keep them short, uncomplex and easy to verify.


## "Decision Making" Process

The following applies to code changes to the Dogecoin Core project, and is not
to be confused with overall Dogecoin
Network Protocol consensus changes.

Whether a pull request is merged into Dogecoin Core rests with the project merge
maintainers.

Maintainers will take into consideration if a patch is in line with the general
principles of the project; meets the minimum standards for inclusion; and will
judge the general consensus of contributors.

In general, all pull requests must:

  - have a clear use case, fix a demonstrable bug or serve the greater good of
    the project (for example refactoring for modularisation);
  - be well peer reviewed;
  - have unit tests and functional tests where appropriate;
  - follow code style guidelines;
  - not break the existing test suite;
  - where bugs are fixed, where possible, there should be unit tests
    demonstrating the bug and also proving the fix. This helps prevent regression.

Patches that change Dogecoin consensus rules are considerably more involved than
normal because they affect the entire ecosystem and so must be preceded by
extensive mailing list discussions and have a numbered BIP. While each case will
be different, one should be prepared to expend more time and effort than for
other kinds of patches because of increased peer review and consensus building
requirements.


### Peer Review

Anyone may participate in peer review which is expressed by comments in the pull
request. Typically reviewers will review the code for obvious errors, as well as
test out the patch set and opine on the technical merits of the patch. Project
maintainers take into account the peer review when determining if there is
consensus to merge a pull request (remember that discussions may have been
spread out over GitHub, mailing list and IRC discussions). The following
language is used within pull-request comments:

  - ACK means "I have tested the code and I agree it should be merged";
  - NACK means "I disagree this should be merged", and must be accompanied by
    sound technical justification (or in certain cases of copyright/patent/licensing
    issues, legal justification). NACKs without accompanying reasoning may be
    disregarded;
  - utACK means "I have not tested the code, but I have reviewed it and it looks
    OK, I agree it can be merged";
  - Concept ACK means "I agree in the general principle of this pull request";
  - Nit refers to trivial, often non-blocking issues.

Reviewers should include the commit hash which they reviewed in their comments.

Project maintainers reserve the right to weigh the opinions of peer reviewers
using common sense judgement and also may weight based on meritocracy: Those
that have demonstrated a deeper commitment and understanding towards the project
(over time) or have clear domain expertise may naturally have more weight, as
one would expect in all walks of life.

Where a patch set affects consensus critical code, the bar will be set much
higher in terms of discussion and peer review requirements, keeping in mind that
mistakes could be very costly to the wider community. This includes refactoring
of consensus critical code.

Where a patch set proposes to change the Dogecoin consensus, it must have been
discussed extensively on the mailing list and IRC, be accompanied by a widely
discussed BIP and have a generally widely perceived technical consensus of being
a worthwhile change based on the judgement of the maintainers.


## Release Policy

The project leader is the release manager for each Dogecoin Core release.

## Copyright

By contributing to this repository, you agree to license your work under the 
MIT license unless specified otherwise in `contrib/debian/copyright` or at 
the top of the file itself. Any work contributed where you are not the original 
author must contain its license header with the original author(s) and source.