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.. _contributing:
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============================
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How to contribute to IPython
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============================
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Overview
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========
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IPython development is done using Git [Git]_ and Github.com [Github.com]_.
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This makes it easy for people to contribute to the development of IPython.
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There are several ways in which you can join in.
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Merging a branch into trunk
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===========================
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Core developers, who ultimately merge any approved branch (from themselves,
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another developer, or any third-party contribution) will typically use
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:command:`git merge` to merge the branch into the trunk and push it to the main
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Git repository. There are a number of things to keep in mind when doing this,
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so that the project history is easy to understand in the long run, and that
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generating release notes is as painless and accurate as possible.
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* When you merge any non-trivial functionality (from one small bug fix to a
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big feature branch), please remember to always edit the appropriate file in
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the :ref:`What's new <whatsnew_index>` section of our documentation.
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Ideally, the author of the branch should provide this content when they
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submit the branch for review. But if they don't it is the responsibility of
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the developer doing the merge to add this information.
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* When merges are done, the practice of putting a summary commit message in
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the merge is *extremely* useful. It is probably easiest if you simply use
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the same list of changes that were added to the :ref:`What's new
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<whatsnew_index>` section of the documentation.
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* It's important that we remember to always credit who gave us something if
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it's not the committer. In general, we have been fairly good on this front,
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this is just a reminder to keep things up. As a note, if you are ever
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committing something that is completely (or almost so) a third-party
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contribution, do the commit as::
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$ git commit --author="Someone Else"
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This way it will show that name separately in the log, which makes it even
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easier to spot. Obviously we often rework third party contributions
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extensively ,but this is still good to keep in mind for cases when we don't
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touch the code too much.
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.. [Git] The Git version control system.
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.. [Github.com] Github.com. http://github.com
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