WORK IN PROGRESS
Email Context
Nathan sent this email which is a reasonable outline. So I have it here for a reference to work toward, I will be making some changes where I think are appropriate. At the end of the day this probably should go into a CONTRIBUTING file on GitHub.
At this point, much has been written in this and other threads. Now I recommend that we should have a Confluence page where the information can be edited to make it: * Plain English * Flow well * Readable * Coherent * Specific * Not assume knowledge * In one easy to find place I say "I recommend that we should" instead of just going ahead and creating that Confluence page because I want to ensure that this happens with community agreement. Rationale for creating the document: I don't want or expect anyone to memorize our workflow, nor to go digging all over the place to piece together what it is. I want it documented clearly so that veteran contributors and total newbies alike will be able to understand exactly what to do. I also want this documented for purpose of on-boarding future committers and so that committers will know what is expected of them whenever they commit. And furthermore I want it in a clear document that we can officially vote on to make it our "blessed" workflow, until such time as we decide to make changes and vote to update the "blessed" process. The document should flow in a manner that makes information easy to find. I suggest to organize it as follows: 1. Overview. This section defines "WHAT" the steps of the workflow are. This is a simple bulleted or numbered list. No rationale, no git jargon, no DevOps nonsense, just clear plain English. Where is the code. What basic steps take place to apply changes to it. Greg literally wrote this list a few emails ago and it contains 80% of what should be in that list. It needs minimal improvement. 2. How To Submit Changes For Review. This section defines the "HOW" of the workflow for ANYONE who wants to get a change into NuttX, whether committer or not. Committers do not get to bypass this process. This section should document: How to obtain a copy of the code. What steps to take before beginning work on a change. Once you've made your change and want to contribute it, what steps to take to turn it into a PR or patch. How to submit the PR or patch to us? We should NOT assume knowledge. If a step requires using git, then give the exact git command followed by an explanation of every element of that command, so that anyone who knows how to enter a command in a terminal with zero prior knowledge of git will be able to understand exactly how to issue that git command and exactly what it will do. I want to make it straightforward and easy for a HARDWARE engineer to be able to submit changes. 3. Criteria For Acceptance. This section defines what sorts of things committers will examine and verify before allowing changes into NuttX. First, the universal requirements that apply to all parts of NuttX. This includes INVIOLABLES, coding standard, rules that govern clean architecture, POSIX compliance, not breaking the build, etc. The word INVIOLABLES should be a link to that file. After the universal requirements, there should be requirements by area. Requirements for boards. Requirements for drivers. Requirements for the scheduler. Requirements for architectural support. Etc. All of the checks in this section can be performed manually by a committer for now. This section should be documented clearly and specifically enough that it can directly be used as the specification of automated checks to implement in a CI system. 4. Reference For Committers. This section explains to committers how to carry out all the steps to process a proposed change from start to finish. "Start" means a patch or a PR arrived. If a patch, how to convert it into a PR. "Finish" can mean either applying the change to master, or reject the change / send it back to the submitter for additional work. And all steps in between. This section (item #4) is a continuation of item #2. Item #2 explained how anyone submits a proposed change for review. Now we explain what happens next. Like item #2, we should NOT assume knowledge. If a step requires using git, then give the exact git command followed by an explanation of every element of that command. This is not excessive. This will help on-boarding of new committers as well as help veteran committers avoid mistakes. 5. Rationale. This section explains the "WHY" behind all of the above. So that people won't cut an inch off each end of a ham without knowing why. Cheers, Nathan
From My Email (will drop this after I fill in the rest)
Submit a PR on GitHub against master if it is approved by one commiter (that did not propose it) it can be merged. The approval is done via the GitHub approval system.
A commiter may create a PR on behalf of a patch submitted to the mailing list.
Commiters can ask for others to review or approve. But at the end of the day they are the ones who approve and merge.
Overview
Purpose
The purpose is simple: We'd like to help everyone participate in the future of NuttX by providing clear and open documentation on how to contribute.
This document can be declared a success if newbies and veteran NuttX developers alike find it valuable as both a how-to and a reference. We hope you'll find it easy to read and that it eliminates the need to hunt, memorize, or guess about parts of the workflow.
Enthusiastic Contributors Welcome!
NuttX is a free open-source project. If you'd like to participate, whether it's to enhance documentation (even this workflow document) or dive into the nitty gritty of some low-level drivers, please read on!
Also, join the conversation at our dev mailing list by emailing dev-subscribe@nuttx.apache.org. The mailing list is open to the public and archived. You can browse older messages at https://lists.apache.org/list.html?dev@nuttx.apache.org.
Who Are The Players?
- Contributor: Anyone who wants to participate in NuttX by contributing improvements.
- Committer: A person who can commit improvements directly to the codebase.
- PMC: Project Management Committee. (Currently, NuttX is a Podling of the Apache Incubator, so currently this is called the PPMC.)
- Upstream: In this document, "upstream" refers to the NuttX project.
- Downstream: In this document, "downstream" means anyone who packages, customizes, and/or uses NuttX in their own projects.
Where is The Code?
Sources of NuttX Code
NuttX source code is available in two forms:
- As a clone or fork from a NuttX GIT repository, or
- As a versioned, release in the form of a GZIP'ed tarball
The versioned, release tarballs contain no SCM information. They are intended for use with whatever SCM you select in your custom environment. The versioned released are also available within the NuttX GIT repository clones or forks. Older releasse used tags to identify releases. For example, the tag nuttx-8.2 would identify the nuttx-8.2 release and a versioned branch could be created with the git command:
git checkout -b newbranch v1.0
REVISIT: We do not yet know the form of releases for future Apache releases. These will most likely already be on a branch.
NuttX GIT Repositories
The Apache NuttX project uses Git SCM as its version control system.
There are two primary repositories:
- nuttx - The real time operating system itself.
- apps - Optional applications for the operating system. You can use this repository or make your own custom one.
The main "Single Source of Truth" repositories are hosted by the ASF:
- https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf?p=incubator-nuttx.git
- https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf?p=incubator-nuttx-apps.git
These are synchronized with repositories hosted at GitHub:
The repositories are mirrored at these additional read-only locations:
Released Code Tarballs
REVISIT: We do not know the form or location of future Apache NuttX releases.
TODO: This section makes no mention of the buildroot, tools, and uclibc repositories!
Creating and Submitting Improvements
How you submit a release will depend upon what kind of local environment that you have created to management your NuttX-based development:
- If you are using a versioned NuttX release with no SCM information, you will probably need to send patches.
- If you are using a clone or fork of the GIT repositories, then you might want to send Pull Requests (PRs) to submit changes, but
- If you are using a versioned release branch in the GIT repositories, then you will have to do things a little differently.
By GitHub Pull Request (PR)
By Emailing a Patch
How To Submit Changes For Review
Criteria For Acceptance
This section defines what sorts of things committers will examine and verify before allowing changes into NuttX.
This is documented here for three reasons:
- To make it easier for NuttX contributors to get their changes accepted.
- As a checklist of things for NuttX committers to look for when reviewing a potential change.
- As a specification of checks that can be automated over time, eventually saving everyone a lot of work!
First, there are the universal requirements that apply to all parts of NuttX:
- INVIOLABLES, the overarching principles of this project
- Coding standard: nx-style
- Clean architecture
- POSIX compliance
- Successful build
All new files contributed to the project must begin with an Apache Source File License Header: https://www.apache.org/legal/src-headers.html
In addition to the universal requirements, various parts of the NuttX system have their own specific needs:
- The build system
- Tools
- Architectural support
- Board support
- Scheduler
- System calls
- Libraries
TODO: This section is incomplete! Please leave the bulletpoints above as-is, and develop the text in new subheadings below.