nix/CONTRIBUTING.md
John Ericson 68c81c7375 Put functional tests in tests/functional
I think it is bad for these reasons when `tests/` contains a mix of
functional and integration tests

 - Concepts is harder to understand, the documentation makes a good
   unit vs functional vs integration distinction, but when the
   integration tests are just two subdirs within `tests/` this is not
   clear.

 - Source filtering in the `flake.nix` is more complex. We need to
   filter out some of the dirs from `tests/`, rather than simply pick
   the dirs we want and take all of them. This is a good sign the
   structure of what we are trying to do is not matching the structure
   of the files.

With this change we have a clean:
```shell-session
$ git show 'HEAD:tests'
tree HEAD:tests

functional/
installer/
nixos/
```
2023-10-06 09:05:56 -04:00

5.2 KiB
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Contributing to Nix

Welcome and thank you for your interest in contributing to Nix! We appreciate your support.

Reading and following these guidelines will help us make the contribution process easy and effective for everyone involved.

Report a bug

  1. Check on the GitHub issue tracker if your bug was already reported.

  2. If you were not able to find the bug or feature open a new issue

  3. The issue templates will guide you in specifying your issue. The more complete the information you provide, the more likely it can be found by others and the more useful it is in the future. Make sure reported bugs can be reproduced easily.

  4. Once submitted, do not expect issues to be picked up or solved right away. The only way to ensure this, is to work on the issue yourself.

Report a security vulnerability

Check out the security policy.

Making changes to Nix

  1. Search for related issues that cover what you're going to work on. It could help to mention there that you will work on the issue.

    Issues labeled good first issue should be relatively easy to fix and are likely to get merged quickly. Pull requests addressing issues labeled idea approved or RFC are especially welcomed by maintainers and will receive prioritised review.

    If there is no relevant issue yet and you're not sure whether your change is likely to be accepted, open an issue yourself.

  2. Check for pull requests that might already cover the contribution you are about to make. There are many open pull requests that might already do what you intend to work on. You can use labels to filter for relevant topics.

  3. Check the Nix reference manual for information on building Nix and running its tests.

    For contributions to the command line interface, please check the CLI guidelines.

  4. Make your change!

  5. Create a pull request for your changes.

    • Clearly explain the problem that you're solving.

      Link related issues to inform interested parties and future contributors about your change. If your pull request closes one or multiple issues, mention that in the description using Closes: #<number>, as it will then happen automatically when your change is merged.

    • Make sure to have a clean history of commits on your branch by using rebase.

    • Mark the pull request as draft if you're not done with the changes.

  6. Do not expect your pull request to be reviewed immediately. Nix maintainers follow a structured process for reviews and design decisions, which may or may not prioritise your work.

    Following this checklist will make the process smoother for everyone:

  7. If you need additional feedback or help to getting pull request into shape, ask other contributors using @mentions.

Making changes to the Nix manual

The Nix reference manual is hosted on https://nixos.org/manual/nix. The underlying source files are located in doc/manual/src. For small changes you can use GitHub to edit these files For larger changes see the Nix reference manual.

Getting help

Whenever you're stuck or do not know how to proceed, you can always ask for help. The appropriate channels to do so can be found on the NixOS Community page.