Auto merge of #28366 - christopherdumas:beginners_manuel, r=steveklabnik

This is something that I wish I had when I started contributing to Rust (not that long ago :). I plan on writing a manual for bors and the rust testing setup too, if there isn't one already.

COMPILER_TESTS.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# Compiler Test Documentation
+
+In the Rust project, we use a special set of comands imbedded in
+comments to test the Rust compiler. There are two groups of commands:
+
+1. Header commands
+2. Error info commands
+
+Both types of commands are inside comments, but header commands should
+be in a comment before any code.
+
+## Summary of Error Info Commands
+
+Error commands specify something about certain lines of the
+program. They tell the test what kind of error and what message you
+are expecting.
+
+* `~`: Associates the following error level and message with the
+  current line
+* `~|`: Associates the following error level and message with the same
+  line as the previous comment
+* `~^`: Associates the following error level and message with the
+  previous line. Each caret (`^`) that you add adds a line to this, so
+  `~^^^^^^^` is seven lines up.
+
+The error levels that you can have are:
+1. `ERROR`
+2. `WARNING`
+3. `NOTE`
+4. `HELP` and `SUGGESTION`*
+
+\* **Note**: `SUGGESTION` must follow emediatly after `HELP`.
+
+## Summary of Header Commands
+
+Header commands specify something about the entire test file, as a
+whole, instead of just a few lines inside the test.
+
+* `ignore-X` where `X` is an architecture, OS or stage will ignore the test accordingly
+* `ignore-pretty` will not compile the pretty-printed test (this is done to test the pretty-printer, but might not always work)
+* `ignore-test` always ignores the test
+* `ignore-lldb` and `ignore-gdb` will skip the debuginfo tests
+* `min-{gdb,lldb}-version`

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ links to the major sections:
 * [Writing Documentation](#writing-documentation)
 * [Issue Triage](#issue-triage)
 * [Out-of-tree Contributions](#out-of-tree-contributions)
+* [Helpful Links and Information](#helpful-links-and-information)
 
 If you have questions, please make a post on [internals.rust-lang.org][internals] or
 hop on [#rust-internals][pound-rust-internals].
@@ -210,3 +211,26 @@ valuable!
 [users]: https://users.rust-lang.org/
 [so]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/rust
 [community-library]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/labels/A-community-library
+
+## Helpful Links and Information
+
+For people new to Rust, and just starting to contribute, or even for
+more seasoned developers, some useful places to look for information
+are:
+
+* The [Rust Internals forum][rif], a place to ask questions and
+  discuss Rust's internals
+* The [generated documentation for rust's compiler][gdfrustc]
+* The [rust referance][rr], even though it doesn't specifically talk about Rust's internals, its a great reasource nontheless
+* Although out of date, [Tom Lee's great blog article][tlgba] is very helpful
+* [rustaceans.org][ro] is helpful, but mostly dedicated to IRC
+* The [Rust Compiler Testing Docs][rctd]
+* **Google**!
+* Don't be afraid to ask! The Rust community is friendly and helpful.
+
+[gdfrustc]: http://manishearth.github.io/rust-internals-docs/rustc/
+[rif]: http://internals.rust-lang.org
+[rr]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/README.html
+[tlgba]: http://tomlee.co/2014/04/03/a-more-detailed-tour-of-the-rust-compiler/
+[ro]: http://www.rustaceans.org/
+[rctd]: ./COMPILER_TESTS.md