== Guidelines
-Here are some guidelines for people who want to contribute their code
-to this software.
+Here are some guidelines for people who want to contribute their code to this
+software. There is also a link:MyFirstContribution.html[step-by-step tutorial]
+available which covers many of these same guidelines.
[[base-branch]]
=== Decide what to base your work on.
base your work on the tip of the topic.
* A new feature should be based on `master` in general. If the new
- feature depends on a topic that is in `pu`, but not in `master`,
+ feature depends on a topic that is in `seen`, but not in `master`,
base your work on the tip of that topic.
* Corrections and enhancements to a topic not yet in `master` should
into the series.
* In the exceptional case that a new feature depends on several topics
- not in `master`, start working on `next` or `pu` privately and send
+ not in `master`, start working on `next` or `seen` privately and send
out patches for discussion. Before the final merge, you may have to
wait until some of the dependent topics graduate to `master`, and
rebase your work.
these parts should be based on their trees.
To find the tip of a topic branch, run `git log --first-parent
-master..pu` and look for the merge commit. The second parent of this
+master..seen` and look for the merge commit. The second parent of this
commit is the tip of the topic branch.
[[separate-commits]]
and cooked further and eventually graduates to `master`.
In any time between the (2)-(3) cycle, the maintainer may pick it up
-from the list and queue it to `pu`, in order to make it easier for
+from the list and queue it to `seen`, in order to make it easier for
people play with it without having to pick up and apply the patch to
their trees themselves.
master. `git pull --rebase` will automatically skip already-applied
patches, and will let you know. This works only if you rebase on top
of the branch in which your patch has been merged (i.e. it will not
- tell you if your patch is merged in pu if you rebase on top of
+ tell you if your patch is merged in `seen` if you rebase on top of
master).
* Read the Git mailing list, the maintainer regularly posts messages