Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi,

Katherine Cox-Buday <cox.katherine.e@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

> Here's my understanding of the process to contribute a patch:
>
>   1. Check out main, and run `./bootstrap`, then `./configure
> --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc`
>   2. Run `make`
>   3. You need to determine whether the change can be targeted against
> main or
>      needs to target a feature branch, so you go read about that.
>
> [I'm usually starting here]
>
>   4. Run `./pre-inst-env guix refresh --list-dependent <package>`
>   5. Create a git worktree for your patch
>   6. Run `./bootstrap`, then `./configure --localstatedir=/var
> --sysconfdir=/etc`
>   7. Run `make`
>   8. Make your changes
>   9. Build to ensure your changes are workable.
>   10. Try and determine how your changes should be factored into individual
>       commits (sometimes it's not always so clear when changing two
> things might
>       need to be done atomically).
>   11. Try and get each commit message close to correct and commit.
>   12. Run `guix lint`
>   13. Run `guix style` (this is still in the manual although I have since
>       learned this is not actually advisable).

The intent is for it to be advisable -- when it's not, a bug should
be/have been reported against it to track its resolution.

[...]

>   19. Run `guix pull --url=/path/to/your/checkout
> --profile=/tmp/guix.master` to
>       ensure you didn't break Guix in a different way.

'make as-derivation' is probably more efficient to test for that

>   20. Run `git format-patch -1 --cover-letter [--reroll-count]`
>   21. Run `./pre-inst-env ./etc/teams.scm cc-members <patch>` to get
> the CC flags for Git
>   22. Remember that if you're sending multiple patches, an email first
> has to be
>       sent to `guix-patches@gnu.org` to get an ID, and then...
>   23. Run `git send-email --to guix-patches <patches> <CC flags>`

You don't need to manually do 21 (and add the cc flags in 23), as
advances to git and our teams.scm script automates that for you (the
patches are checked for which files they touched; and the team, if any,
that has such files in their scope is CC'd via a X-Debbugs-CC header).

--
Thanks,
Maxim