5 Moose::Manual::Contributing - How to get involved in Moose
7 =head1 GETTING INVOLVED
9 Moose is an open project, and we are always willing to accept bug fixes,
10 more tests, and documentation patches. Commit bits are given out freely, and
11 the L</STANDARD WORKFLOW> is very simple. The general gist is: clone the Git
12 repository, create a new topic branch, hack away, then find a committer to
15 Note that this document applies to both Moose and L<Class::MOP> development.
19 Moose already has a fairly large feature set, and we are currently
20 B<not> looking to add any major new features to it. If you have an
21 idea for a new feature in Moose, you are encouraged to create a
24 At this stage, no new features will even be considered for addition
25 into the core without first being vetted as a MooseX module, unless
26 it is absolutely 100% impossible to implement the feature outside the
29 If you think it is 100% impossible, please come discuss it with us on IRC or
30 via e-mail. Your feature may need a small hook in the core, or a
31 refactoring of some core modules, and we are definitely open to that.
33 Moose was built from the ground up with the idea of being highly extensible,
34 and quite often the feature requests we see can be implemented through small
35 extensions. Try it, it's much easier than you might think.
39 As Moose has matured, some structure has emerged in the process.
43 =item Contributors - people creating a topic or branch
47 If you have commit access, you can create a topic on the main Moose.git
48 repository. If you don't have a commit bit, give us your SSH key or create your
49 own clone of the L<git://git.moose.perl.org/Moose.git> repository.
51 The relevant repository URIs are:
57 L<git://git.moose.perl.org/Moose.git>
61 L<gitmo@git.moose.perl.org:Moose.git>
65 =item Core Committers - people reviewing and merging a branch
67 These people have worked with the Moose codebase for a while.
69 They've been responsible for large features or branches and can help review
70 your changes and apply them to the master branch using the basic
71 L</APPROVAL WORKFLOW>.
73 They are also fairly well versed in Git, in order to merge the branches with
74 no mistakes (especially when the merge fails), and to provide advice to
77 =item Cabal - people who can release moose
79 These people are the ones who have co-maint on Moose itself and can create a
80 release. They're listed under L<Moose/CABAL> in the Moose documentation. They
81 merge from Master to Stable.
87 The repository is divided into several branches to make maintenance easier for
88 everyone involved. The branches below are ordered by level of stability.
92 =item Stable (refs/heads/stable)
94 The branch from which releases are cut. When making a new release, the
95 release manager merges from master to stable. The stable branch is only
96 updated by someone from the Cabal during a release.
98 =item Master (refs/heads/master)
100 The branch for new development. This branch is merged into and branched from.
102 =item Branches (refs/heads/*)
104 Large community branches for big development "projects".
106 =item Topics (refs/heads/topic/*)
108 Small personal branches that have been published for review, but can get
109 freely rebased. Targeted features that may span a handful of commits.
111 Any change or bugfix should be created in a topic branch.
115 =head1 STANDARD WORKFLOW
117 # update your copy of master
121 # create a new topic branch
122 git checkout -b topic/my-feature origin/master
124 # hack, commit, feel free to break fast forward
125 git commit --amend # allowed
126 git rebase --interactive # allowed
127 git push --force origin topic/my_feature # allowed
129 Then ask for a review/approval (see L</APPROVAL WORKFLOW>), and merge
130 to master. If it merges cleanly and nobody has any objections, then it
131 can be pushed to master.
133 If it doesn't merge as a fast forward, the author of the branch needs to run
136 git rebase origin/master # or merge
138 and bring the branch up to date, so that it can be merged as a fast forward
141 No actual merging (as in a human resolving conflicts) should be done when
142 merging into master, only from master into other branches.
144 =head2 Preparing a topic branch
146 Before a merge, a topic branch can be cleaned up by the author.
148 This can be done using interactive rebase to combine commits, etc, or even
149 C<git merge --squash> to make the whole topic into a single commit.
151 Structuring changes like this makes it easier to apply git revert at a later
152 date, and encourages a clean and descriptive history that documents what the
153 author was trying to do, without the various hangups that happened while they
154 were trying to do it (commits like "oops forgot that file" are not only
155 unnecessary noise, they also make running things like git bisect or git revert
158 However, by far the biggest benefit is that the number of commits that go into
159 master is eventually reduced, and they are simple and coherent, making it much
160 easier for people maintaining branches to stay up to date.
162 All large changes should be documented in L<Moose::Manual::Delta>.
164 =head1 APPROVAL WORKFLOW
166 Moose is an open project but it is also an increasingly important one. Many
167 modules depend on Moose being stable. Therefore, we have a basic set of
168 criteria for reviewing and merging branches. What follows is a set of rough
169 guidelines that ensures all new code is properly vetted before it is merged to
172 It should be noted that if you want your specific branch to be approved, it is
173 B<your> responsibility to follow this process and advocate for your branch.
174 The preferred way is to send a request to the mailing list for review/approval,
175 this allows us to better keep track of the branches awaiting approval and those
176 which have been approved.
180 =item Small bug fixes, doc patches and additional passing tests.
182 These items don't really require approval beyond one of the core contributors
183 just doing a simple review.
185 =item Larger bug fixes, doc additions and TODO or failing tests.
187 Larger bug fixes should be reviewed by at least one cabal member and should be
188 tested using the F<xt/author/test-my-dependents.t> test.
190 New documentation is always welcome, but should also be reviewed by a cabal
193 TODO tests are basically feature requests, see our L</NEW FEATURES> section
194 for more information on that. If your feature needs core support, create a
195 topic/ branch using the L</STANDARD WORKFLOW> and start hacking away.
197 Failing tests are basically bug reports. You should find a core contributor
198 and/or cabal member to see if it is a real bug, then submit the bug and your
199 test to the RT queue. Source control is not a bug reporting tool.
201 =item New user-facing features.
203 Anything that creates a new user-visible feature needs to be approved by
204 B<more than one> cabal member.
206 Make sure you have reviewed L</NEW FEATURES> to be sure that you are following
207 the guidelines. Do not be surprised if a new feature is rejected for the core.
209 =item New internals features.
211 New features for Moose internals are less restrictive than user facing
212 features, but still require approval by B<at least one> cabal member.
214 Ideally you will have run the F<test-my-dependents.t> script to be sure you
215 are not breaking any MooseX module or causing any other unforeseen havoc. If
216 you do this (rather than make us do it), it will only help to hasten your
219 =item Backwards incompatible changes.
221 Anything that breaks backwards compatibility must be discussed by the cabal
222 and agreed to by a majority of the members.
224 We have a policy for what we see as sane L</BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY> for
225 Moose. If your changes break back-compat, you must be ready to discuss and
230 =head1 RELEASE WORKFLOW
233 # edit for final version bumping, changelogging, etc
234 # prepare release (test suite etc)
239 git merge master # must be a fast forward
241 shipit # does not ship the tarball, but does everything else
242 cpan-upload ~/shipit-dist/Moose-X.YZ.tar.gz
244 Development releases are made without merging into the stable branch.
246 =head2 Release How-To
248 Moose (and L<Class::MOP>) releases fall into two categories, each with their
249 own level of release preparation. A minor release is one which does not
250 include any API changes, deprecations, and so on. In that case, it is
251 sufficient to simply test the release candidate against a few different
252 different Perls. Testing should be done against at least two recent major
253 version of Perl (5.8.8 and 5.10.1, for example). If you have more versions
254 available, you are encouraged to test them all. However, we do not put a lot
255 of effort into supporting older 5.8.x releases.
257 For major releases which include an API change or deprecation, you should run
258 the F<xt/author/test-my-dependents.t> test. This tests a long list of MooseX
259 and other Moose-using modules from CPAN. In order to run this script, you must
260 arrange to have the new version of Moose and/or Class::MOP in Perl's include
261 path. You can use C<prove -b> and C<prove -I>, install the module, or fiddle
262 with the C<PERL5LIB> environment variable, whatever makes you happy.
264 This test downloads each module from CPAN, runs its tests, and logs failures
265 and warnings to a set of files named F<test-mydeps-$$-*.log>. If there are
266 failures or warnings, please work with the authors of the modules in question
267 to fix them. If the module author simply isn't available or does not want to
268 fix the bug, it is okay to make a release.
270 Regardless of whether or not a new module is available, any breakages should
271 be noted in the conflicts list in the distribution's F<Makefile.PL>.
273 Both Class::MOP and Moose have a F<.shipit> file you can use to make sure the
274 release goes smoothly. You are strongly encouraged to use this instead of
275 doing the final release steps by hand.
277 =head1 EMERGENCY BUG WORKFLOW (for immediate release)
279 Anyone can create the necessary fix by branching off of the stable branch:
282 git checkout -b topic/my-emergency-fix origin/stable
286 Then a cabal member merges into stable:
289 git merge topic/my-emergency-fix
295 =head1 PROJECT WORKFLOW
297 For longer lasting branches, we use a subversion style branch layout, where
298 master is routinely merged into the branch. Rebasing is allowed as long as all
299 the branch contributors are using C<git pull --rebase> properly.
301 C<commit --amend>, C<rebase --interactive>, etc. are not allowed, and should
302 only be done in topic branches. Committing to master is still done with the
303 same review process as a topic branch, and the branch must merge as a fast
306 This is pretty much the way we're doing branches for large-ish things right
309 Obviously there is no technical limitation on the number of branches. You can
310 freely create topic branches off of project branches, or sub projects inside
311 larger projects freely. Such branches should incorporate the name of the branch
312 they were made off so that people don't accidentally assume they should be
315 git checkout -b my-project--topic/foo my-project
317 (unfortunately Git will not allow C<my-project/foo> as a branch name if
318 C<my-project> is a valid ref).
320 =head1 THE "PU" BRANCH
322 To make things easier for longer lived branches (whether topics or projects),
323 the 'pu' branch is basically what happens if you merge all of the branches and
324 topics together with master.
326 We can update this as necessary (e.g. on a weekly basis if there is merit),
327 notifying the authors of the respective branches if their branches did not merge
334 git reset --hard origin/master
335 git merge @all_the_branches
337 If the merge is clean, 'pu' is updated with C<push --force>.
339 If the merge is not clean, the offending branch is removed from
340 C<@all_the_branches>, with a small note of the conflict, and we try again.
342 The authors of the failed branches should be told to try to merge their branch
343 into 'pu', to see how their branch interacts with other branches.
345 'pu' is probably broken most of the time, but lets us know how the different
348 =head1 BRANCH ARCHIVAL
350 Merged branches should be deleted.
352 Failed branches may be kept, but consider moving to refs/attic/ (e.g.
353 http://danns.co.uk/node/295) to keep git branch -l current.
355 Any branch that could still realistically be merged in the future, even if it
356 hasn't had work recently, should not be archived.
358 =head1 TESTS, TESTS, TESTS
360 If you write I<any> code for Moose or Class::MOP, you B<must> add
361 tests for that code. If you do not write tests then we cannot
362 guarantee your change will not be removed or altered at a later date,
363 as there is nothing to confirm this is desired behavior.
365 If your code change/addition is deep within the bowels of
366 Moose/Class::MOP and your test exercises this feature in a non-obvious
367 way, please add some comments either near the code in question or in
368 the test so that others know.
370 We also greatly appreciate documentation to go with your changes, and
371 an entry in the Changes file. Make sure to give yourself credit!
373 =head1 BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
375 Change is inevitable, and Moose is not immune to this. We do our best
376 to maintain backwards compatibility, but we do not want the code base
377 to become overburdened by this. This is not to say that we will be
378 frivolous with our changes, quite the opposite, just that we are not
379 afraid of change and will do our best to keep it as painless as
380 possible for the end user.
382 The rule is that if you do something that is not backwards compatible, you
383 B<must> do I<at least> one deprecation cycle (more if it is larger change).
384 For really larger or radical changes dev releases may be needed as well (the
385 Cabal will decide on this on a case-per-case basis).
387 Our policy with deprecation is that each deprecation should go through several
388 stages. First, we simply add a deprecation notice the documentation in
389 F<Changes> and L<Moose::Manual::Delta>. In a future release, we then make the
390 deprecated feature warn loudly and often so that users will have time to fix
391 their usages. Finally, the feature is removed in a later release.
393 All backwards incompatible changes B<must> be documented in
394 L<Moose::Manual::Delta>. Make sure to document any useful tips or workarounds
395 for the change in that document.
399 Stevan Little E<lt>stevan@iinteractive.comE<gt>
401 Chris (perigrin) Prather
403 Yuval (nothingmuch) Kogman
405 =head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
407 Copyright 2009 by Infinity Interactive, Inc.
409 L<http://www.iinteractive.com>
411 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
412 it under the same terms as Perl itself.