coreutils/CONTRIBUTING

When contributing a pull request to the main branch, please sign your commits
with a PGP key and add your name and the year to the bottom of the list of
copyright holders for the file. For example, an existing copyright header might
read:

 * Copyright (c) 2022–2023 Emma Tebibyte <emma@tebibyte.media>

You would add your name below it like this:

 * Copyright (c) 2022–2023 Emma Tebibyte <emma@tebibyte.media>
 * Copyright (c) 20XX Your Name <your e-mail address or website>

We accept contributions from people using aliases.

Only list years in which you modified the source file. For example:

 * Copyright (c) 2020–2021, 2023 Your Name <your-address@example.com>

This header shows that “Your Name” worked on this source file in 2020, 2021, and
2023. Please use the en dash (“–”) to separate the years in the copyright
notice.

If you are contributing a new file, please prepend the following license header
text to it, replacing the proper text on the copyright line:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 20XX Your Name <your-address@example.com>
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
 *
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
 * the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free
 * Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
 * later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
 * FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more
 * details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
 */

When including code provided under an AGPLv3-compatible license, please modify
the license notice. The following example contains an Expat (MIT) license
notice:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 20XX Your Name <your-address@example.com>
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-or-later
 *
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
 * the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free
 * Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
 * later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
 * FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more
 * details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
 *
 * This file incorporates work covered by the following copyright and permission
 * notice:
 *
 *     MIT License
 *
 *     Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>
 *
 *     Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 *     copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
 *     "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
 *     without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
 *     distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit
 *     persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the
 *     following conditions:
 *
 *     The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
 *     paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
 *     Software.
 *
 *     THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
 *     OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
 *     MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN
 *     NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
 *     DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
 *     OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE
 *     USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 */

Make sure lines never exceed 80 columns in width when using four-character
indentation steps. This helps contributors with smaller screens, those using
side-by-side editor windows or panes, and those who have no text wrapping in
their editor or terminal.

For usage text and help messages, do not implement a -h option. Instead, print
usage information when any erroneous option is specified. Follow the NetBSD
style guide for the usage text’s output format [1].

[1] <http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/share/misc/style>

If committing a new source file, format the commit message following these
guidelines:

$ git commit -m 'tool(1): add feature x'

If committing a new library or header file:

$ git commit -m 'library(3): fix overflow'
$ git commit -m 'header.h(3): add header.h(3)'

If committing a new manual page:

$ git commit -m 'tool.1: add author details'

If modifying some other file or directory:

$ git commit -m 'README: clarify'
$ git commit -m 'tests/posix: fix bug #47'

For multiple of these:

$ git commit -m 'Makefile, tool(1): add tool(1)'
$ git commit -m 'tool(1): add tool(1); library(3), library.3: add library(3)'
$ git commit -m 'tool(1): fix #42 & add feature x'

Commit messages should be written in the present tense.

--
This work © 2023–2024 by Emma Tebibyte is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a
copy of this license, visit <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/>