This document provides a set of best practices for contributions - bug reports, code submissions / pull requests, etc.
This document is based on the open source document Contributing to Open Source Projects by Jeff Forcier.
Before submitting a bug, please do the following:
- Perform basic troubleshooting steps:
- Make sure you’re on the latest version. If you’re not on the most recent version, your problem may have been solved already!
Upgrading is always the best first step. - Try older versions. If you’re already on the latest release, try rolling back a few minor versions (e.g. if on 1.7, try 1.5 or 1.6) and see if the problem goes away. This will help the devs narrow down when the problem first arose in the commit log.
- Try switching up dependency versions. If the software in question has dependencies (other libraries, etc) try upgrading / downgrading those as well.
- Make sure you’re on the latest version. If you’re not on the most recent version, your problem may have been solved already!
- Search the project’s issue tracker to make sure it’s not a known issue.
Make sure your report gets the attention it deserves: bug reports with missing information may be ignored or punted back to you, delaying a fix. The below constitutes a bare minimum; more info is almost always better:
- What PHP version are you using?
- Which additional core libraries and extensions in which versions are available?
- What operating system in which version are you on? Again, more detail is better.
- Which version of the software are you using? Ideally, you followed the advice above and have ruled out (or verified that the problem exists in) a few different versions.
- How can the developers recreate the bug on their end? If possible, include a copy of your code, the command you used to invoke it, and the full output of your run (if applicable.)
A common tactic is to pare down your code until a simple (but still bug-causing) “base case” remains. Not only can this help you identify problems which aren’t real bugs, but it means the developer can get to fixing the bug faster.
Always make a new branch for your work, no matter how small. This makes it easy for others to take just that one set of changes from your repository, in case you have multiple unrelated changes floating around.
- A corollary: don’t submit unrelated changes in the same branch / pull request! The maintainer shouldn’t have to reject your awesome bugfix because the feature you put in with it needs more review.
Base your new branch off of the appropriate branch on the main repository:
- Bug fixes should be based on the branch named after the oldest supported release line the bug affects.
- E.g. if a feature was introduced in 1.1, the latest release line is 1.3, and a bug is found in that feature - make your branch based on 1.1. The maintainer will then forward-port it to 1.3 and master.
- Bug fixes requiring large changes to the code or which have a chance of being otherwise disruptive, may need to base off of
masterinstead. This is a judgement call – ask the devs!
- New features should branch off of the
masterbranch.- Note that depending on how long it takes for the dev team to merge your patch, the copy of
masteryou worked off of may get out of date! If you find yourself ‘bumping’ a pull request that’s been sidelined for a while, make sure you rebase or merge to latestmasterto ensure a speedier resolution.
- Note that depending on how long it takes for the dev team to merge your patch, the copy of
Follow the style you see used in the primary repository! Consistency with the rest of the project always trumps other considerations. It doesn’t matter if you have your own style or if the rest of the code breaks with the greater community - just follow along.
PHP projects usually follow the PHP Standards Recommendations guidelines (though many have minor deviations depending on the lead maintainers’ preferences.)
It’s not! Patches without documentation will be returned to sender. By “documentation” we mean:
- Docstrings / DocBlocks must be created or updated for public and private API methods.
- New features should ideally include a brief description of business logic, including useful example code snippets.
- All submissions should have changelog styled commit and pull request messages crediting the contributor and / or any individuals instrumental in identifying the problem.
Any bugfix that doesn’t include a test proving the existence of the bug being fixed, may be suspect. Ditto for new features that can’t prove they actually work.
We’ve found that test-first development really helps make features better architected and identifies potential edge cases earlier instead of later. Writing tests before the implementation is strongly encouraged.
Here’s an example workflow for php-google-datastructures hosted on Github, which is currently in version 1.0.2. Your username is yourname and you’re submitting a basic bugfix.
- Hit ‘fork’ on Github, creating e.g.
yourname/php-google-datastructures - Clone your project
git clone git@github.com:yourname/php-google-datastructures
- Create a branch
cd php-google-datastructures
git checkout -b fix-issue-269 1.0.0
- Write tests expecting the correct / fixed functionality; make sure they fail.
- Hack, hack, hack.
- Run tests again, making sure they pass.
- Commit your changes
git commit -m "Changelog styled commit message crediting yourself"
- Push your commit to get it back up to your fork
git push origin HEAD
- Visit Github, click handy “Pull request” button that it will make upon noticing your new branch.
- In the description field, write down issue number (if submitting code fixing an existing issue) or describe the issue + your fix (if submitting a wholly new bugfix).
- Hit ‘submit’! And please be patient - the maintainers will get to you when they can.