Contributing to LNP/BP Libraries
================================
The LNP/BP project operates an open contributor model where anyone is welcome to
contribute towards development in the form of peer review, documentation,
testing and patches.
Anyone is invited to contribute without regard to technical experience,
"expertise", OSS experience, age, or other concern. However, the development of
standards & reference implementations demands a high-level of rigor, adversarial
thinking, thorough testing and risk-minimization. Any bug may cost users real
money. That being said, we deeply welcome people contributing for the first time
to an open source project or pick up Rust while contributing. Don't be shy,
you'll learn.
Communications Channels
-----------------------
Communication about LNP/BP standards & implementations happens primarily
on #lnp-pb IRC chat on Freenode with the logs available at
<http://gnusha.org/lnp-bp/>
Discussion about code base improvements happens in GitHub issues and on pull
requests.
Major projects are tracked [here](https://github.com/orgs/LNP-BP/projects).
Project roadmap is tracked in each repository GitHub milestones.
Contribution Workflow
---------------------
The codebase is maintained using the "contributor workflow" where everyone
without exception contributes patch proposals using "pull requests". This
facilitates social contribution, easy testing and peer review.
To contribute a patch, the workflow is a as follows:
1. Fork Repository
2. Create topic branch
3. Commit patches
In general commits should be atomic and diffs should be easy to read. For this
reason do not mix any formatting fixes or code moves with actual code changes.
Further, each commit, individually, should compile and pass tests, in order to
ensure git bisect and other automated tools function properly.
When adding a new feature thought must be given to the long term technical debt.
Every new features should be covered by unit tests.
When refactoring, structure your PR to make it easy to review and don't hesitate
to split it into multiple small, focused PRs.
The Minimal Supported Rust Version is nightly for the period of active
development; it is enforced by our Travis. Later we plan to fix to some specific
Rust version after the initial library release.
Commits should cover both the issue fixed and the solution's rationale.
These [guidelines](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/) should be kept in
mind.
To facilitate communication with other contributors, the project is making use
of GitHub's "assignee" field. First check that no one is assigned and then
comment suggesting that you're working on it. If someone is already assigned,
don't hesitate to ask if the assigned party or previous commenters are still
working on it if it has been awhile.
Branches information
--------------------
The main library development happens in the `master` branch. This branch must
always compile without errors (using Travis CI). All external contributions are
made within PRs into this branch.
Each commitment within a PR to the `master` must
* compile without errors;
* contain all necessary tests for the introduced functional;
* contain all docs.
Additionally to the `master` branch the repository has `develop` branch for any
experimental developments. This branch may not compile and should not be used by
any projects depending on the library.
Peer review
-----------
Anyone may participate in peer review which is expressed by comments in the pull
request. Typically reviewers will review the code for obvious errors, as well as
test out the patch set and opine on the technical merits of the patch. PR should
be reviewed first on the conceptual level before focusing on code style or
grammar fixes.
Coding Conventions
------------------
Our CI enforces [clippy's](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy)
[default linting](https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/rust-1.52.0/index.html)
and [rustfmt](https://github.com/rust-lang/rustfmt) formatting defined by rules
in [.rustfmt.toml](./.rustfmt.toml). Both linter and formatter are based on
1.52.0 version
If you use rustup, feel free to lint locally, otherwise you can just push to CI
for automated linting.
```shell script
rustup component add clippy
rustup component add fmt
cargo clippy
cargo fmt
```
Security
--------
Security is the primary focus of LNP/BP libraries; disclosure of security
vulnerabilities helps prevent user loss of funds. If you believe a vulnerability
may affect other implementations, please inform them.
Note that LNP/BP libraries are currently considered "pre-production" during this
time, there is no special handling of security issues. Please simply open an
issue on GitHub.
Testing
-------
Related to the security aspect, LNP/BP developers take testing very seriously.
Due to the modular nature of the project, writing new functional tests is easy
and good test coverage of the codebase is an important goal.
Fuzzing is heavily encouraged: feel free to add related material under `fuzz/`
Mutation testing is planned; any contribution there would be warmly welcomed.
Going further
-------------
You may be interested in Jon Atack guide on [How to review Bitcoin Core PRs](https://github.com/jonatack/bitcoin-development/blob/master/how-to-review-bitcoin-core-prs.md)
and [How to make Bitcoin Core PRs](https://github.com/jonatack/bitcoin-development/blob/master/how-to-make-bitcoin-core-prs.md).
While there are differences between the projects in terms of context and maturity, many
of the suggestions offered apply to this project.
Overall, have fun :)