How to Contribute

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

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
- clap officially supports the current stable version of Rust, minus two releases (i.e. if 1.13.0 is current, clap must support 1.11.0 and beyond)
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

Commit Messages

I use a conventional changelog format so I can update my changelog automatically using clog

Please format your commit subject line using the following format: TYPE(COMPONENT): MESSAGE where TYPE is one of the following:
- api - An addition to the API
- setting - A new AppSettings variant
- feat - A new feature of an existing API
- imp - An improvement to an existing feature/API
- 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
- examples - Changes to existing example, or a new example
The COMPONENT is optional, and may be a single file, directory, or logical component. Parenthesis can be omitted if you are opting not to use the COMPONENT.

Tests and Documentation

Create tests for your changes
Ensure the tests are passing. Run the tests (cargo test --features "yaml unstable"), alternatively just run-tests if you have just installed.
Optional Run the lints (cargo build --features lints) (requires a nightly compiler), alternatively just lint
Ensure your changes contain documentation if adding new APIs or features.

Preparing the PR

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

Other ways to contribute

Another really great way to help is if you find an interesting, or helpful way in which to use clap. You can either add it to the examples/ directory, or file an issue and tell me. I'm all about giving credit where credit is due :)

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