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 # Contribution guidelines
 
 Contributions to the Acts project are very welcome and feedback on the
 documentation is greatly appreciated.
 
 ## 🗣️ Communication channels
 
 - [✉️ acts-developers@cern.ch](https://e-groups.cern.ch/e-groups/Egroup.do?egroupName=acts-developers):
   For discussions about
 
   - Announcement of about developer meetings and workshops
   - Occasionally news about the project
 
 - [💬 Mattermost channel](https://mattermost.web.cern.ch/acts/)
   - Informal discussion on ACTS
   - The *General* general is the best place to ask questions!
 
 ## 🐛 Bug reports and feature requests
 
 To report an issue and before starting work, please create an issue in the
 [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/acts-project/acts/issues). A
 comprehensive explanation will help the development team to respond in a timely
 manner. Verbalising the issue before starting work allows the other contributors
 to chime in and avoids disagreements how to progress.
 
 - The title should summarise the issue
 - Describe the issue in as much detail as possible in the comment
 
 GitHub does not allow editing labels, assignees or setting milestone to
 non-members of a project with at least "Triage" permission. These will have to
 be set by members with Triage permission after an issue/PR is created.
 Guidelines regarding labels, assignees and milestone therefore only concern
 members of acts-project with the necessary rights and can be ignored by others.
 
 - Assign to yourself or leave empty
 - Choose labels as appropriate
 
   - Type of issue
   - Which component is affected
   - Urgency
   - Fix versions
 
 - Bug reports
 
   - Mention affected version(s)
   - Issue type: `Bug`
   - A detailed description of the bug including a recipe on how to
     reproduce it and any hints which may help diagnosing the problem
 
 - Feature requests
 
   - Issue type: `Improvement` or `Feature`
   - A detailed description of the feature request including possible
     use cases and benefits for other users
 
 ## 🛠️ Make a contribution
 
 Anyone is welcome to contribute to Acts. Below is a short description how to
 contribute. If you have any questions, feel free to ask [acts-developers@cern.ch](mailto:acts-developers@cern.ch) for help or guidance.
 
 Please always fork the Acts repository you want to work on and create branches
 only in your own fork. Once you want to share your work, create a Pull Request
 (PR) (for gitlab users: equivalent to merge request) to the main branch of the
 upstream acts-project repository. If it is not yet ready to be merged in, please
 create a draft pull request (by clicking on the small arrow on the green "create
 pull request" button) to mark it work in progress. Once you want your branch to
 be merged in, request a review from the [reviewers team](https://github.com/orgs/acts-project/teams/reviewers). Once a draft merge
 request is reviewed, it can be merged in.
 
 To get started with git, please refer to the [short introduction](https://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial) as well as the [full git documentation](https://git-scm.com/doc). Tutorials as well as explanations of concepts and
 workflows with git can also be found on [Atlassian](https://www.atlassian.com/git/).
 
 ### ✔️ Checklist for pull requests
 
 - Your branch has been rebased on the target branch and can be
   integrated through a fast-forward merge.
 - A detailed description of the pull request is provided.
 - The issue the PR closes is linked.
 - All CI jobs pass.
 - All newly introduced functions and classes have been documented
   properly with doxygen.
 - Unit tests are provided for new functionalities.
 - For bugfixes: a test case has been added to avoid the re-appearance
   of this bug in the future.
 
 ### 🔁 Workflow recommendations
 
 In the following a few recommendations are outlined which should help you to get
 familiar with development process in the Acts project.
 
 1. **Each development in its own branch of your private fork!**
 
    Write access for developers has been disabled for developers on
    acts-project. Therefore, always start by creating your own fork and
    creating branches there. You should start a new branch for every
    development and all work which is logically/conceptually linked
    should happen in one branch. Try to keep your branches short. This
    helps immensely to understand the git history if you need to look at
    it in the future and helps reviewers of your code. If projects are
    complex (e.g. large code refactoring or complex new features), you
    may want to use *sub*-branches from the main development branch.
 
 2. **Never, ever directly work on any "official" branch!**
 
    Though not strictly necessary and in the end it is up to you, it is strongly
    recommended that you never commit directly on a branch which tracks
    an "official" branch. As all branches are equal in git, the
    definition of "official" branch is quite subjective. In the Acts
    project you should not work directly on branches which are
    **protected** in the repository. Usually, these are the *main* and
    *release/X.Y.Z* branches. The benefit of this strategy is that you
    will never have problems to update your fork. Any git merge in your
    local repository on such an "official" branch will always be a
    fast-forward merge.
 
 3. **Use atomic commits!**
 
    Similarly to the concept of branches, each
    commit should reflect a self-contained change. Try to avoid overly
    large commits (bad examples are for instance mixing logical change
    with code cleanup and typo fixes).
 
 4. **Write good commit messages!**
 
    Well-written commit messages are key
    to understand your changes. There are many guidelines available on
    how to write proper commit logs (e.g.
    [here](https://alistapart.com/article/the-art-of-the-commit),
    [here](https://cbea.ms/git-commit/), or
    [here](https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/GitCommitMessages#Information_in_commit_messages)).
    As a short summary:
 
    - Structure your commit messages into short title (max 50
      characters) and longer description (max width 72 characters)! This
      is best achieved by avoiding the `commit -m` option. Instead
      write the commit message in an editor/git tool/IDE...
    - Describe why you did the change (git diff already tells you what
      has changed)!
    - Mention any side effects/implications/consequences!
 
 5. **Prefer git pull --rebase!**
 
    If you work with a colleague on a new
    development, you may want to include their latest changes. This is
    usually done by calling `git pull` which will synchronise your
    local working copy with the remote repository (which may have been
    updated by your colleague). By default, this action creates a merge
    commit if you have local commits which were not yet published to the
    remote repository. These merge commits are considered to contribute
    little information to the development process of the feature and they
    clutter the history (read more e.g.
    [here](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/it-teams/stop-foxtrots-now)
    or
    [here](https://fangpenlin.com/posts/2013/09/30/keep-a-readable-git-history/)).
    This problem can be avoided by using `git pull --rebase` which
    replays your local (un-pushed) commits on the tip of the remote
    branch. You can make this the default behaviour by running
    `git config pull.rebase true`. More about merging vs rebasing can
    be found
    [here](https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/merging-vs-rebasing/).
 
 6. **Update the documentation!**
 
    Make sure that the documentation is
    still valid after your changes. Perform updates where needed and
    ensure integrity between the code and its documentation.
 
 #### ℹ️ Example: Make a bugfix while working on a feature
 
 During the development of a new feature you discover a bug which needs
 to be fixed. In order to not mix bugfix and feature development, the
 bugfix should happen in a different branch. The recommended procedure
 for handling this situation is the following:
 
 1. Get into a clean state of your working directory on your feature
    branch (either by committing open changes or by stashing them).
 2. Checkout the branch the bugfix should be merged into (either *main*
    or *release/X.Y.Z*) and get the most recent version.
 3. Create a new branch for the bugfix.
 4. Fix the bug, write a test, update documentation etc.
 5. Open a pull request for the bug fix.
 6. Switch back to your feature branch.
 7. Merge your local bugfix branch into the feature branch. Continue your
    feature development.
 8. Eventually, the bugfix will be merged into *main*. Then, you can
    rebase your feature branch on main which will remove all duplicate
    commits related to the bugfix.
 
 #### ℹ️ Example: Backporting a feature or bugfix
 
 Suppose you have a bugfix or feature branch that is eventually going to
 be merged in `main`. You might want to have the feature/bugfix
 available in a patch (say `0.25.1`) tag. To to that, find the
 corresponding release branch, for this example that would be
 `release/v0.25.X`. You must create a dedicated branch that **only**
 contains the commits that relate to your feature/bugfix, otherwise the
 PR will contain all other commits that were merged into main since the
 release was branched off. With that branch, open a PR to that branch,
 and make it clear that it is a backport, also linking to a potential
 equivalent PR that targets `main`.
 
 ### 💄 Coding style and guidelines
 
 The Acts project uses
 [clang-format](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormat.html) for
 formatting its source code. A `.clang-format` configuration file comes
 with the project and should be used to automatically format the code.
 Developers can use the provided Docker image to format their project or
 install clang-format locally. Developers should be aware that
 clang-format will behave differently for different versions, so
 installing the same clang version as used in the
 CI is recommended. There are several instructions available on how to
 integrate clang-format with your favourite IDE (e.g. [Xcode](https://github.com/travisjeffery/ClangFormat-Xcode),
 [emacs](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormat.html#emacs-integration)).
 The Acts CI system will automatically check code formatting using the
 provided clang-format configuration and will notify incompatible formatting.
 
 In addition, some conventions are used in Acts code, details can be
 found [here](https://acts.readthedocs.io/en/latest/codeguide.html).
 For Doxygen documentation, please follow these recommendations:
 
 - Put all documentation in the header files.
 - Use `///` as block comment (instead of `/* ... */`).
 - Doxygen documentation goes in front of the documented entity (class,
   function, (member) variable).
 - Use the `@<cmd>` notation.
 - Document all (template) parameters using @(t)param and explain the
   return value for non-void functions. Mention important conditions
   which may affect the return value.
 - Use `@remark` to specify pre-conditions.
 - Use `@note` to provide additional information.
 - Link other related entities (e.g. functions) using `@sa`.
 
 ### 💡 Tips for users migrating from GitLab
 
 - The most obvious difference first: What is called Merge Request
   in GitLab is called Pull Request (PR) in GitHub.
 - Once your PR is ready to be merged, request a review by the users in
   the [reviewers team](https://github.com/orgs/acts-project/teams/reviewers)
 - As Acts started enforcing using your own fork with the switch to
   GitHub, developers no longer have write access to the upstream
   repository.
 - The CI will fail if a PR does not yet have the required approvals.
 
 ## 🛋️ Review other contributions
 
 Acts requires that every pull request receives at least one review by a member
 of the reviewers team before being merged but anyone is welcome to contribute
 by commenting on code changes. You can help reviewing proposed contributions by
 going to the
 ["pull requests" section](https://github.com/acts-project/acts/pulls)
 of the Acts (core) GitHub repository.
 
 As some of the guidelines recommended here require rights granted to the
 reviewers team, this guide specifically addresses the people in this
 team. The present contribution guide should serve as a good indication
 of what we expect from code submissions.
 
 ### Approving a pull request
 
 - Does its title and description reflect its contents?
 - Do the automated continuous integration tests pass without problems?
 - Have all the comments raised by previous reviewers been addressed?
 
 If you are confident that a pull request is ready for integration,
 please make it known by clicking the "Approve pull request" button of
 the GitHub interface. This notifies other members of the Acts team of
 your decision, and marks the pull request as ready to be merged.
 
 ### Merging a pull request
 
 If you have been granted write access on the Acts repository, you can
 merge a pull request into the Acts main branch after it has been
 approved.
 
 GitHub may warn you that a "Fast-forward merge is not possible". This
 warning means that the pull request has fallen behind the current Acts
 main branch, and should be updated through a rebase. Please notify the
 pull request author in order to make sure that the latest main changes
 do not affect the pull request, and to have it updated as appropriate.
 
 For a PR that is behind main, a button "Update branch" may appear.
 This should NOT be used as it merges instead of rebasing, which is not
 our workflow.

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