How to Contribute

Contributions are always welcome! Please use the following guidelines when contributing to clap

Fork clap
Clone your fork (git clone https://github.com/$YOUR_USERNAME/clap-rs && cd clap-rs)
Create new branch (git checkout -b new-branch)
Make your changes, and commit (git commit -am "your message")

I use a conventional changelog format so I can update my changelog using clog
Format your commit subject line using the following format: TYPE(COMPONENT): MESSAGE where TYPE is one of the following:
- feat - A new feature
- imp - An improvement to an existing feature
- perf - A performance improvement
- docs - Changes to documentation only
- tests - Changes to the testing framework or tests only
- fix - A bug fix
- refactor - Code functionality doesn't change, but underlying structure may
- style - Stylistic changes only, no functionality changes
- wip - A work in progress commit (Should typically be git rebase'ed away)
- chore - Catch all or things that have to do with the build system, etc
The COMPONENT is optional, and may be a single file, directory, or logical component. Can be omitted if commit applies globally

Run the tests (cargo test && make -C clap-tests test)
git rebase into concise commits and remove --fixups (git rebase -i HEAD~NUM where NUM is number of commits back)
Push your changes back to your fork (git push origin $your-branch)
Create a pull request! (You can also create the pull request first, and we'll merge when ready. This a good way to discuss proposed changes.)

Goals

There are a few goals of clap that I'd like to maintain throughout contributions.

Remain backwards compatible when possible
- If backwards compatibility must be broken, use deprecation warnings if at all possible before removing legacy code
- This does not apply for security concerns
Parse arguments quickly
- Parsing of arguments shouldn't slow down usage of the main program
- This is also true of generating help and usage information (although slightly less stringent, as the program is about to exit)
Try to be cognizant of memory usage
- Once parsing is complete, the memory footprint of clap should be low since the main program is the star of the show
panic! on developer error, exit gracefully on end-user error