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+# Contributing to the curl project
+
+This document is intended to offer guidelines on how to best contribute to the
+curl project. This concerns new features as well as corrections to existing
+flaws or bugs.
+
+## Learning cURL
+
+### Join the Community
+
+Skip over to [https://curl.haxx.se/mail/](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/) and join
+the appropriate mailing list(s).  Read up on details before you post
+questions. Read this file before you start sending patches! We prefer
+questions sent to and discussions being held on the mailing list(s), not sent
+to individuals.
+
+Before posting to one of the curl mailing lists, please read up on the
+[mailing list etiquette](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/etiquette.html).
+
+We also hang out on IRC in #curl on irc.freenode.net
+
+If you're at all interested in the code side of things, consider clicking
+'watch' on the [curl repo on github](https://github.com/curl/curl) to get
+notified on pull requests and new issues posted there.
+
+### License and copyright
+
+When contributing with code, you agree to put your changes and new code under
+the same license curl and libcurl is already using unless stated and agreed
+otherwise.
+
+If you add a larger piece of code, you can opt to make that file or set of
+files to use a different license as long as they don't enforce any changes to
+the rest of the package and they make sense. Such "separate parts" can not be
+GPL licensed (as we don't want copyleft to affect users of libcurl) but they
+must use "GPL compatible" licenses (as we want to allow users to use libcurl
+properly in GPL licensed environments).
+
+When changing existing source code, you do not alter the copyright of the
+original file(s). The copyright will still be owned by the original creator(s)
+or those who have been assigned copyright by the original author(s).
+
+By submitting a patch to the curl project, you are assumed to have the right
+to the code and to be allowed by your employer or whatever to hand over that
+patch/code to us. We will credit you for your changes as far as possible, to
+give credit but also to keep a trace back to who made what changes. Please
+always provide us with your full real name when contributing!
+
+### What To Read
+
+Source code, the man pages, the [INTERNALS
+document](https://curl.haxx.se/dev/internals.html),
+[TODO](https://curl.haxx.se/docs/todo.html),
+[KNOWN_BUGS](https://curl.haxx.se/docs/knownbugs.html) and the [most recent
+changes](https://curl.haxx.se/dev/sourceactivity.html) in git. Just lurking on
+the [curl-library mailing
+list](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/list.cgi?list=curl-library) will give you a
+lot of insights on what's going on right now. Asking there is a good idea too.
+
+## Write a good patch
+
+### Follow code style
+
+When writing C code, follow the
+[CODE_STYLE](https://curl.haxx.se/dev/code-style.html) already established in
+the project. Consistent style makes code easier to read and mistakes less
+likely to happen. Run `make checksrc` before you submit anything, to make sure
+you follow the basic style. That script doesn't verify everything, but if it
+complains you know you have work to do.
+
+### Non-clobbering All Over
+
+When you write new functionality or fix bugs, it is important that you don't
+fiddle all over the source files and functions. Remember that it is likely
+that other people have done changes in the same source files as you have and
+possibly even in the same functions. If you bring completely new
+functionality, try writing it in a new source file. If you fix bugs, try to
+fix one bug at a time and send them as separate patches.
+
+### Write Separate Changes
+
+It is annoying when you get a huge patch from someone that is said to fix 511
+odd problems, but discussions and opinions don't agree with 510 of them - or
+509 of them were already fixed in a different way. Then the person merging
+this change needs to extract the single interesting patch from somewhere
+within the huge pile of source, and that gives a lot of extra work.
+
+Preferably, each fix that correct a problem should be in its own patch/commit
+with its own description/commit message stating exactly what they correct so
+that all changes can be selectively applied by the maintainer or other
+interested parties.
+
+Also, separate changes enable bisecting much better when we track problems
+and regression in the future.
+
+### Patch Against Recent Sources
+
+Please try to get the latest available sources to make your patches against.
+It makes the lives of the developers so much easier. The very best is if you
+get the most up-to-date sources from the git repository, but the latest
+release archive is quite OK as well!
+
+### Documentation
+
+Writing docs is dead boring and one of the big problems with many open source
+projects. Someone's gotta do it. It makes it a lot easier if you submit a
+small description of your fix or your new features with every contribution so
+that it can be swiftly added to the package documentation.
+
+The documentation is always made in man pages (nroff formatted) or plain
+ASCII files. All HTML files on the web site and in the release archives are
+generated from the nroff/ASCII versions.
+
+### Test Cases
+
+Since the introduction of the test suite, we can quickly verify that the main
+features are working as they're supposed to. To maintain this situation and
+improve it, all new features and functions that are added need to be tested
+in the test suite. Every feature that is added should get at least one valid
+test case that verifies that it works as documented. If every submitter also
+posts a few test cases, it won't end up as a heavy burden on a single person!
+
+If you don't have test cases or perhaps you have done something that is very
+hard to write tests for, do explain exactly how you have otherwise tested and
+verified your changes.
+
+## Sharing Your Changes
+
+### How to get your changes into the main sources
+
+Ideally you file a [pull request on
+github](https://github.com/curl/curl/pulls), but you can also send your plain
+patch to [the curl-library mailing
+list](https://curl.haxx.se/mail/list.cgi?list=curl-library).
+
+Either way, your change will be reviewed and discussed there and you will be
+expected to correct flaws pointed out and update accordingly, or the change
+risk stalling and eventually just get deleted without action. As a submitter
+of a change, you are the owner of that change until it has been merged.
+
+Respond on the list or on github about the change and answer questions and/or
+fix nits/flaws. This is very important. We will take lack of replies as a
+sign that you're not very anxious to get your patch accepted and we tend to
+simply drop such changes.
+
+### About pull requests
+
+With github it is easy to send a [pull
+request](https://github.com/curl/curl/pulls) to the curl project to have
+changes merged.
+
+We prefer pull requests to mailed patches, as it makes it a proper git commit
+that is easy to merge and they are easy to track and not that easy to loose
+in a flood of many emails, like they sometimes do on the mailing lists.
+
+When you ajust your pull requests after review, consider squashing the
+commits so that we can review the full updated version more easily.
+
+### Making quality patches
+
+Make the patch against as recent sources as possible.
+
+If you've followed the tips in this document and your patch still hasn't been
+incorporated or responded to after some weeks, consider resubmitting it to
+the list or better yet: change it to a pull request.
+
+### Write good commit messages
+
+A short guide to how to write commit messages in the curl project.
+
+    ---- start ----
+    [area]: [short line describing the main effect]
+           -- empty line --
+    [full description, no wider than 72 columns that describe as much as
+    possible as to why this change is made, and possibly what things
+    it fixes and everything else that is related]
+           -- empty line --
+    [Bug: URL to source of the report or more related discussion]
+    [Reported-by: John Doe - credit the reporter]
+    [whatever-else-by: credit all helpers, finders, doers]
+    ---- stop ----
+
+Don't forget to use commit --author="" if you commit someone else's work,
+and make sure that you have your own user and email setup correctly in git
+before you commit
+
+### Write Access to git Repository
+
+If you are a very frequent contributor, you may be given push access to the
+git repository and then you'll be able to push your changes straight into the
+git repo instead of sending changes as pull requests or by mail as patches.
+
+Just ask if this is what you'd want. You will be required to have posted
+several high quality patches first, before you can be granted push access.
+
+### How To Make a Patch with git
+
+You need to first checkout the repository:
+
+    git clone https://github.com/curl/curl.git
+
+You then proceed and edit all the files you like and you commit them to your
+local repository:
+
+    git commit [file]
+
+As usual, group your commits so that you commit all changes that at once that
+constitutes a logical change.
+
+Once you have done all your commits and you're happy with what you see, you
+can make patches out of your changes that are suitable for mailing:
+
+    git format-patch remotes/origin/master
+
+This creates files in your local directory named NNNN-[name].patch for each
+commit.
+
+Now send those patches off to the curl-library list. You can of course opt to
+do that with the 'git send-email' command.
+
+### How To Make a Patch without git
+
+Keep a copy of the unmodified curl sources. Make your changes in a separate
+source tree. When you think you have something that you want to offer the
+curl community, use GNU diff to generate patches.
+
+If you have modified a single file, try something like:
+
+    diff -u unmodified-file.c my-changed-one.c > my-fixes.diff
+
+If you have modified several files, possibly in different directories, you
+can use diff recursively:
+
+    diff -ur curl-original-dir curl-modified-sources-dir > my-fixes.diff
+
+The GNU diff and GNU patch tools exist for virtually all platforms, including
+all kinds of Unixes and Windows:
+
+For unix-like operating systems:
+
+ - [https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/](https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/)
+ - [https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/](https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/)
+
+For Windows:
+
+ - [http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/patch.htm](http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/patch.htm)
+ - [http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm](http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm)