====== Plank - Contribute ======

====== Testing the latest build ======

Get daily builds on Launchpad for Ubuntu 12.04 and later.
    https://launchpad.net/~ricotz/+archive/ubuntu/docky

Get release builds on Launchpad for Ubuntu 12.04 and later.
    https://launchpad.net/~docky-core/+archive/ubuntu/stable


====== Join IRC chat rooms ======

Join #plank on Freenode (irc.freenode.net).


====== Contribute without touching code ======

Go through problem reports and check unconfirmed bugs or those lacking
information and mark any duplicates you spot.
    http://bugs.launchpad.net/plank

Help getting Plank translated in your language!
    https://translations.launchpad.net/plank

Answer questions.
    https://answers.launchpad.net/plank


====== Check out the sources ======

    bzr branch lp:plank

The development trunk (master, tip) is the latest iteration of the next release.
Browse it online and look for other branches at http://code.launchpad.net/plank


====== Build the code ======

Prepare the source and compile:
    ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
    make -j2

Run Plank:
    ./src/plank


====== Debugging issues ======

Testing an installed release may reveal crashers or memory corruption issues
which require investigating from a local build to obtain a stacktrace
(backtrace, crash log).

    libtool --mode=execute gdb --args src/plank -d


====== Important: Keep fixes for different bugs in different branches ======

Branches that contain patches to fix more than one bug will be rejected, and you
will be asked to supply a separate branch for every bug fix.
However, this doesn't apply to patches that are indivisible by nature, and that
fix multiple bugs.

The reasons to work in this way are the following:

If one of the bugs targeted by your branch is correctly fixed, but one of the
other bugs is incorrectly fixed or needs corrections, the branch won't be
accepted until everything looks ok for all bugs. This causes an unnecessary
delay for the bugs that where fixed correctly.

Suppose your branch was accepted for merging in the main one. Later, it is 
discovered that your branch introduces faulty behavior. The standard course of
action for these situations is to revert the merge that introduced that faulty
behavior. This will cause that all of your fixes are reverted (even the ones
that didn't cause problems) because there was no way of discriminating between
them. If a separate branch for each bug fixed existed, only the offending one
would have been reverted, and not all of them.

Be sure to understand this, and avoid a headache later!


====== Coding style ======

Plank's source code in general follows the K&R "One True Brace Style" (1TBS),
with a caveat: spaces are inserted before opening parenthesis.

For indenting the source code only tabs are used!
Tabs should be 4 spaces wide for code to look good.

Consider the following snippet as an example:

    int test_check ()
    {
        if (x < 0) {
            message ("Negative");
            negative (x);
        } else {
            message ("Non-negative");
            nonnegative (x);
        }
        
        return 0;
    }

Of course the best example is the current source code itself.


====== Committing code ======

Make a branch which will contain your changes for fixing bug 123456:
    bzr branch lp:plank fix-123456

Tell Bazaar your name if you haven't yet:
    bzr whoami "Real Name <email@address>"

See what you did so far:
    bzr diff
    bzr diff | less

Get an overview of changed and new files:
    bzr status

Add new files, move/ rename or delete:
    bzr add FILENAME
    bzr mv OLDFILENAME NEWFILENAME
    bzr rm FILENAME

Note: 'bzr add' should be used only when new source or data files are added
to Plank's source directory.

After making your changes, you need to commit your work as a new revision.
    bzr commit

Bazaar will open the default text editor (in most systems, nano) where you will
write the commit message, save the document, and close it.
Bazaar will use the commit message as commentary for the new revision, so it
should be a concise summary of what you did.

To change Bazaar's text editor, add the following line to Bazaar's
configuration file (usually located at ~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf):
    editor = your_text_editor_here
For example:
    editor = gedit

Commit your changes in small increments. It is better to keep different changes
in different commits.

If a commit fixes a reported bug in Launchpad, it is useful to make a reference
to that bug report when committing:
    bzr commit --fixes lp:123456

Did you make changes to more than one file, but don't want to commit the changes
of them all? You can specify which files you want to commit:
    bzr commit file1 file2

To see the last 5 revisions in the current branch:
    bzr log -l5
    bzr log -l5 -p | less

In the case you committed something wrong or want to ammend it:
    bzr uncommit

If you want to revert all the changes made after the last revision:
    bzr revert

Remember to keep your branch updated:
    bzr pull

As a general rule of thumb, 'bzr help COMMAND' gives you an explanation of any
command and 'bzr help commands' lists all available commands.


====== Push proposed changes ======

If you haven't yet, https://launchpad.net/~/+editsshkeys check that Launchpad
has your SSH key - you can create an SSH key with Passwords and Keys aka
Seahorse or 'ssh-keygen -t rsa' - and use 'bzr launchpad-login' to make youself
known to bzr locally.

If you checked out trunk, and commited your patch(es), just push it under your
username in Launchpad and you can propose it for merging into trunk. This will
automatically request a review from other developers who can then comment on it
and provide feedback.

    bzr push lp:~USERNAME/plank/fix-123456
    bzr lp-open

The last command will open a summary of the current branch in your web browser.
There, you will be able to propose it for merging into trunk.
Your branch will be reviewed by another developer. At this stage, you may be
notified that changes need to be made to your branch, so keep an eye on your
email inbox!
After the branch is approved by the reviewer, it will get merged into the main
project's source code.


What happens to all the branches?

Leave the branches alone, approved branches are cleared automatically by
Launchpad.

For larger feature branches, use the team in Launchpad to allow other developers
to work on the code with you.


What if I want to help out on an existing merge request that I can't push to?

    bzr branch lp:~OTHERPERSON/plank/fix-123456
    cd fix-123456
    # make commits
    bzr push lp:~USERNAME/plank/fix-123456
    bzr lp-open

And in the Launchpad web overview of your branch, propose your branch for
merging into lp:~OTHERPERSON/plank/fix-123456


Updating a branch that may be out of sync with trunk:

    bzr pull
    bzr: ERROR: These branches have diverged
    bzr merge lp:plank
    # Hand-edit conflicting changes
    bzr resolve FILENAME
    # If any conflicts remain continue fixing
    bzr commit -m 'Merge changes from lp:plank'


Save a little bandwidth, branch from an existing local copy that you keep
around:

    bzr branch lp:plank plank
    bzr branch plank/ plank-fix-123456
    cd plank-fix-123456
    bzr pull lp:plank


====== License ======

This document is licensed under the GPL version 3.
