# Contributing to GNSS-SDR [comment]: # ( SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later ) [comment]: # ( SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2011-2021 Carles Fernandez-Prades ) :+1::tada: Thanks for taking the time to contribute! :tada::+1: Third-party contributions are essential for keeping GNSS-SDR continuously improving. We simply cannot access the huge number of platforms and myriad configurations for running GNSS-SDR. We want to keep it as easy as possible to contribute changes that get things working in your environment. There are a few guidelines that we need contributors to follow so that we can have a chance of keeping on top of things. The following is a set of guidelines for contributing to GNSS-SDR, which is hosted in the [GNSS-SDR Organization](https://github.com/gnss-sdr) on GitHub. These are just guidelines, not rules. Use your best judgment, and feel free to propose changes to this document in a [pull request](#how-to-submit-a-pull-request). ## Code of Conduct This project adheres to the Contributor Covenant [code of conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please report unacceptable behavior. ## Reporting an issue Have you found a bug in the code which is not in the [list of known bugs](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/issues)? Do you have a suggestion for improvement? Then by all means please [submit a new issue](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/issues/new), and do not hesitate to comment on existing [open issues](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/issues). When filling a new issue, please remember to: - **Use a clear and descriptive title** for the issue to identify the problem. - **Describe the exact steps which reproduce the problem** in as many details as possible. For example, start by describing your computing platform (Operating System and version, how did you installed GNSS-SDR and its dependencies, what file or front-end are you using as a signal source, etc.). You can also include the configuration file you are using, or a dump of the terminal output you are getting. The more information you provide, the more chances to get useful answers. - **Please be patient**. This organization is run on a volunteer basis, so it can take some time to the Developer Team to reach your issue. They will do their best to fix it as soon as possible. - If you opened an issue that is now solved, it is a good practice to **close it**. The list of [open issues](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/issues) can be a good starting point and a source of ideas if you are looking to contribute to the source code. ## Contributing to the source code ### Preliminaries 1. If you still have not done so, [create your personal account on GitHub](https://github.com/join). 2. [Fork GNSS-SDR from GitHub](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/fork). This will copy the whole gnss-sdr repository to your personal account. 3. Then, go to your favorite working folder in your computer and clone your forked repository by typing (replacing `YOUR_USERNAME` by the actual username of your GitHub account): $ git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/gnss-sdr 4. Your forked repository https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/gnss-sdr will receive the default name of `origin`. You can also add the original gnss-sdr repository, which is usually referred to as `upstream`: $ cd gnss-sdr $ git remote add upstream https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr.git To verify the new upstream repository you have specified for your fork, type `git remote -v`. You should see the URL for your fork as `origin`, and the URL for the original repository as `upstream`: ``` $ git remote -v origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/gnss-sdr.git (fetch) origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/gnss-sdr.git (push) upstream https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr.git (fetch) upstream https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr.git (push) ``` ### Start working on your contribution Checkout the `next` branch of the git repository in order to get synchronized with the latest development code: ``` $ git checkout next $ git pull upstream next ``` When start working in a new improvement, please **always** branch off from `next`. Open a new branch and start working on it: ``` $ git checkout -b my_feature ``` Now you can do changes, add files, do commits (please take a look at [how to write good commit messages](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/), and do not forget to [sign your commits](https://gnss-sdr.org/docs/tutorials/using-git/#sign-your-commits) if you plan to submit your code to the upstream repository in a pull-request, see below) and push them to your repository: ``` $ git push origin my_feature ``` If there have been new pushes to the `next` branch of the `upstream` repository since the last time you pulled from it, you might want to put your commits on top of them (this is mandatory for pull requests): ``` $ git pull --rebase upstream next ``` ### How to submit a pull request Any code contributions going into GNSS-SDR will become part of a GPL-licensed, open source repository. It is therefore imperative that code submissions belong to the authors, and that submitters have the authority to merge that code into the public GNSS-SDR codebase. For that purpose, we use the [Developer's Certificate of Origin](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/blob/next/.github/DCO.txt). It is the same document used by other projects. Signing the DCO states that there are no legal reasons to not merge your code. To sign the DCO, suffix your git commits with a `Signed-off-by:` line. When using the command line, you can use `git commit -s` to automatically add this line. If there were multiple authors of the code, or other types of stakeholders, make sure that all are listed, each with a separate `Signed-off-by:` line. See [how to sign commits](https://gnss-sdr.org/docs/tutorials/using-git/#sign-your-commits) for details on how to tell Git to sign commits by default. Before submitting your code, please be sure to [apply clang-format](https://gnss-sdr.org/coding-style/#use-tools-for-automated-code-formatting). When the contribution is ready, you can [submit a pull request](https://github.com/gnss-sdr/gnss-sdr/compare/). Head to your GitHub repository, switch to your `my_feature` branch, and click the _**Pull Request**_ button, which will do all the work for you. Code comparison must be always to the `next` branch. Once a pull request is sent, the Developer Team can review the set of changes, discuss potential modifications, and even push follow-up commits if necessary. Some things that will increase the chance that your pull request is accepted: - Your commits must be signed. - Avoid platform-dependent code. If your code require external dependencies, they must be available as packages in [Debian OldStable](https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOldStable). - Write tests. - Follow our [coding style guide](https://gnss-sdr.org/coding-style/). Specifically, please make sure that you have applied [clang-format](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormat.html) and [clang-tidy](https://clang.llvm.org/extra/clang-tidy/) to your changes before you do your pull request. Please check the [final recommendations](https://gnss-sdr.org/coding-style/#final-recommendations) for guidelines on how to apply those tools. - Write a descriptive and detailed summary. Please consider that reviewing pull requests is hard, so include as much information as possible to make your pull request's intent clear. For more details about Git usage, please check out [our tutorial](https://gnss-sdr.org/docs/tutorials/using-git/). ## Contributing to the website The content of https://gnss-sdr.org lives in a GitHub repository at https://github.com/gnss-sdr/geniuss-place You can fork that repository, reproduce the entire website on your computer using [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/), do changes and submit pull requests, just as explained above. For more details, please check out [how to contribute](https://gnss-sdr.org/contribute/). Last but not the least, you can leave your comments on the website. --- ![GeNiuSS contributes](https://gnss-sdr.org/assets/images/geniuss-contribute.png) Thanks for your contribution to GNSS-SDR!