SickGear/contributing.md

### Questions about SickGear?

To get your questions answered, please ask in the [SickGear Forum], on IRC \#SickGear pn freenode.net, or webchat.

# Contributing to SickGear

1. [Getting Involved](#getting-involved)
2. [How To Report Bugs](#how-to-report-bugs)
3. [Tips For Submitting Code](#tips-for-submitting-code)


## Getting Involved

There are a number of ways to get involved with the development of SickGear. Even if you've never contributed code to an Open Source project before, we're always looking for help identifying bugs, cleaning up code, writing documentation and testing.

The goal of this guide is to provide the best way to contribute to the official SickGear repository. Please read through the full guide detailing [How to Report Bugs](#how-to-report-bugs).

## Discussion

### Issues and IRC

If you think you've found a bug please [file it in the bug tracker](#how-to-report-bugs).

Additionally most of the SickGear development team can be found in the [#SickGear](http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=SickGear) IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.


## How to Report Bugs

### Make sure it is a SickGear bug

Many bugs reported are actually issues with the user mis-understanding of how something works (there are a bit of moving parts to an ideal setup) and most of the time can be fixed by just changing some settings to fit the users needs.

If you are new to SickGear, it is usually a much better idea to ask for help first in the [SickGear IRC channel](http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=SickGear). You will get much quicker support, and you will help avoid tying up the SickGear team with invalid bug reports.

### Try the latest version of SickGear

Bugs in old versions of SickGear may have already been fixed. In order to avoid reporting known issues, make sure you are always testing against the latest build/source. Also, we put new code in the `dev` branch first before pushing down to the `master` branch (which is what the binary builds are built off of).


## Tips For Submitting Code


### Code

**NEVER write your patches to the master branch** - it gets messy (I say this from experience!)

**ALWAYS USE A "TOPIC" BRANCH!** Personally I like the `branch-feature_name` format that way its easy to identify the branch and feature at a glance. Also please make note of any forum post / issue number in the pull commit so we know what you are solving (it helps with cleaning up the related items later).


Please follow these guidelines before reporting a bug:

1. **Update to the latest version** — Check if you can reproduce the issue with the latest version from the `dev` branch.

2. **Use the SickGear Forums search** — check if the issue has already been reported. If it has been, please comment on the existing issue.

3. **Provide a means to reproduce the problem** — Please provide as much details as possible, e.g. SickGear log files (obfuscate apikey/passwords), browser and operating system versions, how you started SickGear, and of course the steps to reproduce the problem. Bugs are always reported in the forums.


### Feature requests

Please follow the bug guidelines above for feature requests, i.e. update to the latest version and search for existing issues before posting a new request. You can submit Feature Requests in the [SickGear Forum] as well.

### Pull requests

[Pull requests](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests) are welcome and the preferred way of accepting code contributions.

Please follow these guidelines before sending a pull request:

1. Update your fork to the latest upstream version.

2. Use the `dev` branch to base your code off of. Create a topic-branch for your work. We will not merge your 'dev' branch, or your 'master' branch, only topic branches, coming from dev are merged.

3. Follow the coding conventions of the original repository. Do not change line endings of the existing file, as this will rewrite the file and loses history.

4. Keep your commits as autonomous as possible, i.e. create a new commit for every single bug fix or feature added.

5. Always add meaningful commit messages. We should not have to guess at what your code is supposed to do.

6. One pull request per feature. If you want multiple features, send multiple PR's

Please follow this process; it's the best way to get your work included in the project:

- [Fork](http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/) the project, clone your fork,
   and configure the remotes:

```bash
   # clone your fork of the repo into the current directory in terminal
   git clone git@github.com:<your username>/SickGear.git
   # navigate to the newly cloned directory
   cd SickGear
   # assign the original repo to a remote called "upstream"
   git remote add upstream https://github.com/SickGear/SickGear.git
   ```

- If you cloned a while ago, get the latest changes from upstream:

   ```bash
   # fetch upstream changes
   git fetch upstream
   # make sure you are on your 'master' branch
   git checkout master
   # merge upstream changes
   git merge upstream/master
   ```

- Create a new topic branch to contain your feature, change, or fix:

   ```bash
   git checkout -b <topic-branch-name> dev
   ```

- Commit your changes in logical chunks. or your pull request is unlikely
   be merged into the main project. Use git's
   [interactive rebase](https://help.github.com/articles/interactive-rebase)
   feature to tidy up your commits before making them public.

- Push your topic branch up to your fork:

   ```bash
   git push origin <topic-branch-name>
   ```

- [Open a Pull Request](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests) with a
    clear title and description.