There is more than one way of contributing, see full list at https://grass.osgeo.org/get-involved/. In the rest of this document, we will focus on contributions centered around the GRASS GIS source code.
To report an issue or to suggest features or a change, open an issue on GitHub.
This guide covers contributing to the main version of GRASS GIS source code which is the master branch. It assumes that you have some very basic knowledge of Git and GitHub, but if you don't just go through some tutorial online or ask on the GRASS GIS developer mailing list.
- Create an account on GitHub.
- Install Git on your computer.
- Set up Git with your name and email.
- Fork the repository.
- Clone your fork (use SSH or HTTPS URL):
git clone [email protected]:your_GH_account/grass.git
- Enter the directory
cd grass/
- Add main GRASS GIS repository as "upstream" (use HTTPS URL):
git remote add upstream https://github.com/OSGeo/grass
- Your remotes now should be "origin" which is your fork and "upstream" which is this main GRASS GIS repository. You can confirm that using:
git remote -v
- You should see something like:
origin [email protected]:your_GH_account/grass.git (fetch)
origin [email protected]:your_GH_account/grass.git (push)
upstream https://github.com/OSGeo/grass.git (fetch)
upstream https://github.com/OSGeo/grass.git (push)
It is important that "origin" points to your fork.
- Make sure your are using master branch:
git checkout master
- Download updates from all branches from all remotes:
git fetch upstream
- Update your local master branch to match master in the main repository:
git rebase upstream/master
If rebase
fails with "error: cannot rebase: You have unstaged changes...",
then move your uncommitted local changes to "stash" using:
git stash
- Now you can rebase:
git rebase upstream/master
- Apply your local changes on top:
git stash apply
- Remove the stash record (optional):
git stash pop
Now you have updated your local master branch, you can create a feature branch based on it.
- Create a new feature branch and switch to it:
git checkout -b new-feature
You can use your favorite tools to change source code or other files in the local copy of the code. When make changes, please follow Submitting Guidelines at http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/Submitting.
- Add files to the commit (changed ones or new ones):
git add file1
git add file2
- Commit the change (first word is the module name):
git commit -m "module: added a new feature"
- Push your local feature branch to your fork:
git push origin new-feature
When you push, GitHub will respond back in the command line to tell
you what URL to use to create a pull request. You can follow that URL
or you can go any time later to your fork on GitHub, display the
branch new-feature
, and GitHub will show you button to create
a pull request.
GRASS GIS maintainers will now review your pull request. If needed, the maintainers will work with you to improve your changes.
Once the changes in the pull request are ready to be accepted, the maintainers will decide if it is more appropriate to:
- merge your feature branch,
- squash all commit into one commit, or
- rebase (i.e., replay) all commits on top of the master branch.
GRASS GIS maintainers use additional workflows besides the one described above. These are detailed at https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/HowToGit