guide/CONTRIBUTING.md

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# Contributions Welcome!
The maintainers of this Copyleft Guide project encourage contribution from
the community. Part of the impetus for this project was to create a
community around a "copyleft codebase" for information about copyleft. In
other words, this project is a tutorial project about Copyleft that is like a
Free Software project.
## Who Is In Charge?
Currently, [Bradley M. Kuhn](http://ebb.org/bkuhn/) is the editor-in-chief of
this Guide project. However, many other contributors have given patches and
improvements to the text. Review the
[commit log in the Git repository](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/commits/master)
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for more details on who has contributed to the project.
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## How Do I Get Involved?
The Guide is maintained in a copylefted distributed version control system called
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[Git](http://git-scm.com/). Currently, the project utilizes the services of
a Git hosting website called [Gitorious](https://gitorious.org). (The
software which runs Gitorious is, itself, copylefted, too.)
Those who are comfortable with Gitorious can submit
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[merge requests on copyleft.org's gitorious site](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/merge_requests).
See the section "Merge Request and Patch Workflow" below for more information
on the details of doing that.
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However, lack of Git and/or LaTeX knowledge is *not a barrier* for
contribution to this project. Useful contributions will be accepted by the
following means as well:
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* Patches posted to
[the mailing list](http://lists.copyleft.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss).
* New sections of text or simply ideas and input emailed to
[the mailing list](http://lists.copyleft.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss).
* Ideas and suggestions mentioned on the
[irc channel #copyleft on freenode](irc://irc.freenode.net/#copyleft).
Please, do not worry if your patches or new sections of text are not properly
formatted as patches and/or are not formatted in LaTeX properly. Indeed,
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feel free to offer patches that break LaTeX formatting, or to just write up
your suggestion in an email. If the content is appropriate for the Guide,
the editor-in-chief or someone else will format your contribution properly
for LaTeX.
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Note: by submitting contributions via any of these means, you agree to the
"Author's Certificate of Origin" (see below).
## How Do I Figure Out What To Contribute?
If you're looking for something to fix, just grep the *.tex files for "FIXME"
and you'll find plenty. Many of them are simple and easy to do. Some of
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them are writing, and some of them are simply formatting-related.
If you want a larger, more involved writing project, take a look at the
[TODO list in this repository](TODO.md). That list has bigger items that
other contributors have identified as necessary. (BTW, the project
contributors are considering various possible copylefted bug-tracking
solutions, but admittedly haven't picked a bug-tracker yet.)
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There is also a [TODO list on the website](https://copyleft.org/todo/), which
are mostly related to formatting, layout and infrastructure, but if you'd
like to help there, such help is also welcome.
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## Merge Request and Patch Workflow
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Currently, the main location for work on this project is
[on Gitorious](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial), and active new
development on the project happens on the
['next' branch](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/source/next:)
(which is
[auto-published on the copyleft.org/guide-next URL](https://copyleft.org/guide-next/)).
Here is a suggested workflow for submitting patches — first doing so
*with* the Gitorious infrastructure, second *avoiding* the Gitorious
infrastructure but still using Git, and third avoiding Git altogether.
Merge requests and/or patches against
['next' branch](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/source/next:) are
typically much preferred, and the workflow explanations below assume that.
However, merge requests and/or patches against
['master' branch](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/source/master:)
are not necessarily rejected. In fact, if your change is a fix for typo,
spelling, grammar, formatting or anything urgent, submitting a patch against
'master' may make more sense.
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### Contributing via Gitorious
First-time contributors may want to do the following four items first:
0. [Create an account on Gitorious](https://gitorious.org/users/new)
1. [Visit gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial)
and click "Clone".
Instead of the default, you might call your clone
"MYNAME-copyleft-tutorial-suggestions".
2. On the command line create a *local* clone of your Clone, by typing:
$ git clone git@gitorious.org:copyleft-org/MYNAME-copyleft-tutorial-suggestions.git copyleft-tutorial
$ cd copyleft-tutorial
$ git remote rename origin MYNAME-copyleft-tutorial-suggestions
(The last part isn't strictly necessary; you just might want to name the
upstream repository a more descriptive name, since below you'll add the
official repository as well).
3. Now, add to your clone a copy of the "real" Conservancy policies
repository, and make a branch that tracks the official version:
$ git remote add copyleft-tutorial-official git@gitorious.org:copyleft-org/tutorial.git
$ git fetch copyleft-tutorial-official
$ git branch --track official-master copyleft-tutorial-official/master
$ git branch --track official-next copyleft-tutorial-official/next
That completes the first-time setup. Next is a workflow each proposed merge
request.
0. First, ensure the Git repository points at the right branch and all old
changes are committed.
$ git checkout official-next
$ git pull copyleft-tutorial-official
$ git status
The output of the last command should look like this:
# On branch official-next
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
If you don't get that output, you probably have uncommitted changes, which
is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
1. Next, create a new branch to hold your changes:
$ git checkout -b my-new-idea-for-tutorial official-next
Use a name that briefly describes your planned proposal for
"my-new-idea-for-tutorial".
2. Make your edits. If you're editing the tutorial, you likely want to focus
on the files ending in '.tex'. Commit frequently while you're editing
with:
$ git commit -a
Write useful and clear commit messages that explain the purpose of the
changes.
3. When you are done all the changes related to 'my-new-idea-for-tutorial',
verify they've all been committed this way:
$ git status
# On branch my-new-idea-for-tutorial
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
4. Next, upload and publish those ideas to your own clone on Gitorious.
$ git push MYNAME-copyleft-tutorial-suggestions my-new-idea-for-tutorial
That's the end of the command-line part.
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5. Now, visit Gitorious' merge-request creation web interface at
https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/MYNAME-copyleft-tutorial-suggestions/merge_requests/new
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Initiate your merge request with by setting:
Summary: Briefly describe your proposal
Description: More completely describe your proposal
Target: tutorial
Target Branch: next
Source Branch: my-new-idea-for-tutorial