Contributing as a Non-Committer

If you're a committer on an Apache project, it means that you can commit directly to the project's repository. For instance, with Apache CloudStack committers are allowed to directly push commits into the git repository.

Non-committers, however, have to submit patches for review. Apache CloudStack accepts GitHub pull requests. If you are new to Git and GitHub, check these two links:

• GitHub 15 minutes tutorial
• Creating Pull Requests

Apache CloudStack has a read-only mirror on GitHub that is kept in sync with the canonical Git repo maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. Submitting GitHub pull requests is the easiest way to get your contribution upstream. For detailed instructions see the link below:
GitHub Contribution Guidelines

Submitting a patch

While we encourage you to submit your contribution through GitHub pull requests, you can also attach a patch in a JIRA ticket. For the purpose of these instructions, we'll assume that you already have a system with Git and have found a bug to fix or have a feature that you'd like to submit, and you're willing to contribute that code or documentation under the Apache License 2.0.

Further, if you're fixing a bug we'll assume that you've either filed a bug report (where you will attach your patch) or are submitting a fix for a known bug. If you find a bug and would like to fix it, that's awesome! Please be sure to file the bug too, though.

If you want to add a feature, you should bring it up for discussion on the dev@cloudstack.apache.org mailing list before implementing it. This ensures that it meshes with the plans that other contributors have for Apache CloudStack, and that you're not doing redundant work. Other developers may also have ideas for the feature or suggestions that will help you land the feature without having to re-do the work. More information about our mailing lists can be found here.

In short, communication is a vital part of making a contribution to an Apache project.

Getting Started

Fork the code

In your browser, navigate to: https://github.com/apache/cloudstack.

Fork the repository by clicking on the 'Fork' button on the top right hand side. The fork will happen and you will be taken to your own fork of the repository. Copy the Git repository URL by clicking on the clipboard next to the URL on the right hand side of the page under 'HTTPS clone URL'. You will paste this URL when doing the following git clone command.

On your computer, follow these steps to setup a local repository for working on ACS:

$ git clone https://github.com/YOUR_ACCOUNT/cloudstack.git
$ cd cloudstack
$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/apache/cloudstack.git
$ git checkout main
$ git fetch upstream
$ git rebase upstream/main

Making Changes

It is important that you create a new branch to make changes on and that you do not change the main branch (other than to rebase in changes from upstream/main). In this example I will assume you will be making your changes to a branch called feature_x. This feature_x branch will be created on your local repository and will be pushed to your forked repository on GitHub. Once this branch is on your fork you will create a Pull Request for the changes to be added to the ACS project.

It is best practice to create a new branch each time you want to contribute to the project and only track the changes for that pull request in this branch.

$ git checkout -b feature_x
   (make your changes)
$ git status
$ git add .
$ git commit -a -m "descriptive commit message for your changes"

The -b specifies that you want to create a new branch called feature_x. You only specify -b the first time you checkout because you are creating a new branch. Once the feature_x branch exists, you can later switch to it with only git checkout feature_x.

Rebase feature_x to include updates from upstream/main

It is important that you maintain an up-to-date main branch in your local repository. This is done by rebasing in the code changes from upstream/main (the official ACS project repository) into your local repository. You will want to do this before you start working on a feature as well as right before you submit your changes as a pull request. We recommend you do this process periodically while you work to make sure you are working off the most recent project code.

This process will do the following:

1. Checkout your local main branch;
2. Synchronize your local main branch with the upstream/main so you have all the latest changes from the project;
3. Rebase the latest project code into your feature_x branch so it is up-to-date with the upstream code.

$ git checkout main
$ git fetch upstream
$ git rebase upstream/main
$ git checkout feature_x
$ git rebase main

Now your feature_x branch is up-to-date with all the code in upstream/main.

Make a GitHub pull request to contribute your changes

When you are happy with your changes and you are ready to contribute them, you will create a Pull Request on GitHub to do so. This is done by pushing your local changes to your forked repository (default remote name is origin) and then initiating a pull request on GitHub.

Please include JIRA ID or GitHub ID, detailed information about the bug/feature, what all tests are executed, how the reviewer can test this feature etc. In case of UI PRs, a screenshot is preferred.

IMPORTANT:Make sure you have rebased your feature_x branch to include the latest code from upstream/main before you do this.

$ git push origin main
$ git push origin feature_x

Now that the feature_x branch has been pushed to your GitHub repository, you can initiate the pull request.

To initiate the pull request, do the following:

1. In your browser, navigate to your forked repository: https://github.com/YOUR_ACCOUNT/cloudstack;
2. Click the new button called 'Compare & pull request' that showed up just above the main area in your forked repository;
3. Validate the pull request will be into the upstream main and will be from your feature_x branch;
4. Enter a detailed description of the work you have done and then click 'Send pull request'.

If you are requested to make modifications to your proposed changes, make the changes locally on your feature_x branch, re-push the feature_x branch to your fork. The existing pull request should automatically pick up the change and update accordingly.

Cleaning up after a successful pull request

Once the feature_x branch has been committed into the upstream/main branch, your local feature_x branch and the origin/feature_x branch are no longer needed. If you want to make additional changes, restart the process with a new branch.

IMPORTANT:Make sure that your changes are in upstream/mainbefore you delete your feature_x and origin/feature_x branches!

You can delete these deprecated branches with the following:

$ git checkout main
$ git branch -D feature_x
$ git push origin :feature_x

Further Reading

You might want to peruse the Get Involved page on Apache.org. Please, respect the original style of the CloudStack code, and ensure that you're using spaces rather than tabs, and your code have Unix line endings (LF) rather than Windows-type line endings (CRLF).