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[gitmo/Moose.git] / lib / Moose / Manual / Contributing.pod

package Moose::Manual::Contributing;

# ABSTRACT: How to get involved in Moose

__END__

=pod

=head1 GETTING INVOLVED

Moose is an open project, and we are always willing to accept bug fixes,
more tests, and documentation patches. Commit bits are given out freely, and
the L</STANDARD WORKFLOW> is very simple. The general gist is: clone the Git
repository, create a new topic branch, hack away, then find a committer to
review your changes.

=head1 NEW FEATURES

Moose already has a fairly large feature set, and we are currently
B<not> looking to add any major new features to it. If you have an
idea for a new feature in Moose, you are encouraged to create a
MooseX module first.

At this stage, no new features will even be considered for addition
into the core without first being vetted as a MooseX module, unless
it is absolutely 100% impossible to implement the feature outside the
core.

If you think it is 100% impossible, please come discuss it with us on IRC or
via e-mail. Your feature may need a small hook in the core, or a
refactoring of some core modules, and we are definitely open to that.

Moose was built from the ground up with the idea of being highly extensible,
and quite often the feature requests we see can be implemented through small
extensions. Try it, it's much easier than you might think.

=head1 PEOPLE

As Moose has matured, some structure has emerged in the process.

=over

=item Contributors - people creating a topic or branch

You.

If you have commit access, you can create a topic on the main Moose.git
repository.  If you don't have a commit bit, give us your SSH key or create your
own clone of the L<git://git.moose.perl.org/Moose.git> repository.

The relevant repository URIs are:

=over

=item Read-Only

L<git://git.moose.perl.org/Moose.git>

=item Read+Write

gitmo@git.moose.perl.org:Moose.git

=back

=item Cabal - people who can release moose

These people are the ones who have co-maint on Moose itself and can create a
release. They're listed under L<Moose/CABAL> in the Moose documentation. They
are responsible for reviewing branches, and are the only people who are allowed
to push to stable branches.

Cabal members are listed in L<Moose> and can often be found on irc in the
L<irc://irc.perl.org/#moose-dev> channel.

=back

=head1 BRANCH LAYOUT

The repository is divided into several branches to make maintenance easier for
everyone involved. The branches below are ordered by level of stability.

=over

=item stable/*

The branch from which releases are cut. When making a new major release, the
release manager makes a new C<stable/X.YY> branch at the current position of
C<master>. The version used in the stable branch should not include the last
two digits of the version number.

For minor releases, patches will be committed to C<master>, and
backported (cherry-picked) to the appropriate stable branch as needed. A
stable branch is only updated by someone from the Cabal during a release.

=item master

The main development branch. All new code should be written against this
branch. This branch contains code that has been reviewed, and will be included
in the next major release. Commits which are judged to not break backwards
compatibility may be backported into C<stable> to be included in the next minor
release.

=item rfc/*

Topic branches that are completed and waiting on review. A Cabal member will
look over branches in this namespace, and either merge them to C<master> if
they are acceptable, or move them back to a different namespace otherwise.

=item topic/*

Small personal branches that are still in progress. They can be freely rebased.
They contain targeted features that may span a handful of commits. Any change
or bugfix should be created in a topic branch.

=item attic/*

Branches which have been reviewed, and rejected. They remain in the repository
in case we later change our mind, or in case parts of them are still useful.

=item abandoned/*

Topic branches which have had no activity for a long period of time will be
moved here, to keep the main areas clean.

=back

Larger, longer term branches can also be created in the root namespace (i.e.
at the same level as master and stable). This may be appropriate if multiple
people are intending to work on the branch. These branches should not be
rebased without checking with other developers first.

=head1 STANDARD WORKFLOW

    # update your copy of master
    git checkout master
    git pull --rebase

    # create a new topic branch
    git checkout -b topic/my-feature

    # hack, commit, feel free to break fast forward
    git commit --amend        # allowed
    git rebase --interactive  # allowed
    git push --force          # allowed

    # keep the branch rebased on top of master, for easy reviewing
    git remote update
    git rebase origin/master
    git push --force

    # when finished, move the branch to the rfc/ namespace
    git branch -m rfc/my-feature
    git push
    git push origin :topic/my-feature

When your branch is completed, make sure it has been moved to the C<rfc/>
namespace and is rebased on top of master, and ask for review/approval (see
L</APPROVAL WORKFLOW>). If it is approved, the reviewer will merge it into
C<master>.

No actual merging (as in a human resolving conflicts) should be done when
merging into C<master>, only from C<master> into other branches.

=head1 APPROVAL WORKFLOW

Moose is an open project but it is also an increasingly important one. Many
modules depend on Moose being stable. Therefore, we have a basic set of
criteria for reviewing and merging branches. What follows is a set of rough
guidelines that ensures all new code is properly vetted before it is merged to
the master branch.

It should be noted that if you want your specific branch to be approved, it is
B<your> responsibility to follow this process and advocate for your branch. The
preferred way is to send a request to the mailing list for review/approval;
this allows us to better keep track of the branches awaiting approval and those
which have been approved.

=over 4

=item Small bug fixes, doc patches and additional passing tests.

These items don't really require approval beyond one of the core contributors
just doing a simple review. For especially simple patches (doc patches
especially), committing directly to master is fine.

=item Larger bug fixes, doc additions and TODO or failing tests.

Larger bug fixes should be reviewed by at least one cabal member and should be
tested using the F<xt/author/test-my-dependents.t> test.

New documentation is always welcome, but should also be reviewed by a cabal
member for accuracy.

TODO tests are basically feature requests, see our L</NEW FEATURES> section
for more information on that. If your feature needs core support, create a
C<topic/> branch using the L</STANDARD WORKFLOW> and start hacking away.

Failing tests are basically bug reports. You should find a core contributor
and/or cabal member to see if it is a real bug, then submit the bug and your
test to the RT queue. Source control is not a bug reporting tool.

=item New user-facing features.

Anything that creates a new user-visible feature needs to be approved by
B<more than one> cabal member.

Make sure you have reviewed L</NEW FEATURES> to be sure that you are following
the guidelines. Do not be surprised if a new feature is rejected for the core.

=item New internals features.

New features for Moose internals are less restrictive than user facing
features, but still require approval by B<at least one> cabal member.

Ideally you will have run the F<test-my-dependents.t> script to be sure you
are not breaking any MooseX module or causing any other unforeseen havoc. If
you do this (rather than make us do it), it will only help to hasten your
branch's approval.

=item Backwards incompatible changes.

Anything that breaks backwards compatibility must be discussed by the
cabal. Backwards incompatible changes should not be merged to master if there
are strong objections from any cabal members.

We have a policy for what we see as sane L</BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY> for
Moose. If your changes break back-compat, you must be ready to discuss and
defend your change.

=back

=head1 RELEASE WORKFLOW

    # major releases (including trial releases)
    git checkout master

    # minor releases
    git checkout stable/X.YY

    # do final changelogging, etc
    vim dist.ini # increment version number
    git commit
    dzil release # or dzil release --trial for trial releases
    git commit # to add the actual release date
    git branch stable/X.YY # only for non-trial major releases

=head2 Release How-To

Moose uses L<Dist::Zilla> to manage releases. Although the git repository comes
with a C<Makefile.PL>, it is a very basic one just to allow the basic
C<perl Makefile.PL && make && make test> cycle to work. In particular, it
doesn't include any release metadata, such as dependencies. In order to get
started with Dist::Zilla, first install it: C<cpanm Dist::Zilla>, and then
install the plugins necessary for reading the C<dist.ini>:
C<dzil authordeps | cpanm>.

Moose releases fall into two categories, each with their own level of release
preparation. A minor release is one which does not include any API changes,
deprecations, and so on. In that case, it is sufficient to simply test the
release candidate against a few different different Perls. Testing should be
done against at least two recent major version of Perl (5.8.8 and 5.10.1, for
example). If you have more versions available, you are encouraged to test them
all. However, we do not put a lot of effort into supporting older 5.8.x
releases.

For major releases which include an API change or deprecation, you should run
the F<xt/author/test-my-dependents.t> test. This tests a long list of MooseX
and other Moose-using modules from CPAN. In order to run this script, you must
arrange to have the new version of Moose in Perl's include path. You can use
C<prove -b> and C<prove -I>, install the module, or fiddle with the C<PERL5LIB>
environment variable, whatever makes you happy.

This test downloads each module from CPAN, runs its tests, and logs failures
and warnings to a set of files named F<test-mydeps-$$-*.log>. If there are
failures or warnings, please work with the authors of the modules in question
to fix them. If the module author simply isn't available or does not want to
fix the bug, it is okay to make a release.

Regardless of whether or not a new module is available, any breakages should
be noted in the conflicts list in the distribution's F<dist.ini>.

=head1 EMERGENCY BUG WORKFLOW (for immediate release)

The stable branch exists for easily making bug fix releases.

    git remote update
    git checkout -b topic/my-emergency-fix origin/master
    # hack
    git commit

Then a cabal member merges into C<master>, and backports the change into
C<stable/X.YY>:

    git checkout master
    git merge topic/my-emergency-fix
    git push
    git checkout stable/X.YY
    git cherry-pick -x master
    git push
    # release

=head1 PROJECT WORKFLOW

For longer lasting branches, we use a subversion style branch layout, where
master is routinely merged into the branch. Rebasing is allowed as long as all
the branch contributors are using C<git pull --rebase> properly.

C<commit --amend>, C<rebase --interactive>, etc. are not allowed, and should
only be done in topic branches. Committing to master is still done with the
same review process as a topic branch, and the branch must merge as a fast
forward.

This is pretty much the way we're doing branches for large-ish things right
now.

Obviously there is no technical limitation on the number of branches. You can
freely create topic branches off of project branches, or sub projects inside
larger projects freely. Such branches should incorporate the name of the branch
they were made off so that people don't accidentally assume they should be
merged into master:

    git checkout -b my-project--topic/foo my-project

(unfortunately Git will not allow C<my-project/foo> as a branch name if
C<my-project> is a valid ref).

=head1 BRANCH ARCHIVAL

Merged branches should be deleted.

Failed branches may be kept, but should be moved to C<attic/> to differentiate
them from in-progress topic branches.

Branches that have not been worked on for a long time will be moved to
C<abandoned/> periodically, but feel free to move the branch back to C<topic/>
if you want to start working on it again.

=head1 TESTS, TESTS, TESTS

If you write I<any> code for Moose, you B<must> add tests for that code. If you
do not write tests then we cannot guarantee your change will not be removed or
altered at a later date, as there is nothing to confirm this is desired
behavior.

If your code change/addition is deep within the bowels of Moose and your test
exercises this feature in a non-obvious way, please add some comments either
near the code in question or in the test so that others know.

We also greatly appreciate documentation to go with your changes, and an entry
in the Changes file. Make sure to give yourself credit! Major changes or new
user-facing features should also be documented in L<Moose::Manual::Delta>.

=head1 DOCS, DOCS, DOCS

Any user-facing changes must be accompanied by documentation. If you're not
comfortable writing docs yourself, you might be able to convince another Moose
dev to help you.

Our goal is to make sure that all features are documented. Undocumented
features are not considered part of the API when it comes to determining
whether a change is backwards compatible.

=head1 BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY

Change is inevitable, and Moose is not immune to this. We do our best
to maintain backwards compatibility, but we do not want the code base
to become overburdened by this. This is not to say that we will be
frivolous with our changes, quite the opposite, just that we are not
afraid of change and will do our best to keep it as painless as
possible for the end user.

Our policy for handling backwards compatibility is documented in more detail in
L<Moose::Manual::Support>.

All backwards incompatible changes B<must> be documented in
L<Moose::Manual::Delta>. Make sure to document any useful tips or workarounds
for the change in that document.

=cut