gtk/README.commits.md

GTK+ is part of the GNOME git repository. At the current time, any person with write access to the GNOME repository, can make changes to GTK+. This is a good thing, in that it encourages many people to work on GTK+, and progress can be made quickly. However, GTK+ is a fairly large and complicated package that many other things depend on, so to avoid unnecessary breakage, and to take advantage of the knowledge about GTK+ that has been built up over the years, we'd like to ask people committing to GTK+ to follow a few rules:

0. Ask first. If your changes are major, or could possibly break existing code, you should always ask. If your change is minor and you've been working on GTK+ for a while it probably isn't necessary to ask. But when in doubt, ask. Even if your change is correct, somebody may know a better way to do things. If you are making changes to GTK+, you should be subscribed to gtk-devel-list@gnome.org. (Subscription address: gtk-devel-list-request@gnome.org.) This is a good place to ask about intended changes. #gtk+ on GIMPNet (irc.gimp.org, irc.us.gimp.org, irc.eu.gimp.org, ...) is also a good place to find GTK+ developers to discuss changes with, however, email to gtk-devel-list is the most certain and preferred method.

1. Ask first.

2. With git, we no longer maintain a ChangeLog file, but you are expected to produce a meaningful commit message. Changes without a sufficient commit message will be reverted. See below for the expected format of commit messages.

Notes:

• When developing larger features or complicated bug fixes, it is advisable to work in a branch in your own cloned GTK+ repository. You may even consider making your repository publically available so that others can easily test and review your changes.

• The expected format for git commit messages is as follows:

Short explanation of the commit

Longer explanation explaining exactly what's changed, whether any
external or private interfaces changed, what bugs were fixed (with bug
tracker reference if applicable) and so forth. Be concise but not too brief.

• Always add a brief description of the commit to the first line of the commit and terminate by two newlines (it will work without the second newline, but that is not nice for the interfaces).

• First line (the brief description) must only be one sentence and should start with a capital letter unless it starts with a lowercase symbol or identifier. Don't use a trailing period either. Don't exceed 72 characters.

• The main description (the body) is normal prose and should use normal punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. Normally, for patches sent to a mailing list it's copied from there.

• When committing code on behalf of others use the --author option, e.g. git commit -a --author "Joe Coder <joe@coder.org>" and --signoff.

Owen Taylor 13 Aug 1998 17 Apr 2001

Matthias Clasen 31 Mar 2009