Work on a bug

How to claim and work on bugs

So you'd like to start contributing, but you don't know where to start? This is a fairly large project, which means it's useful to begin with a small fix so you can get used to the codebase. We have an issue tracker at github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues. Note that here and elsewhere we often use the terms "issue" and "bug" interchangably.

This page covers how to be assigned a bug, and what to do as you work on it.

1. Make an account on Github.

• Make sure you've been added to list of people who can modify bugs on the tracker. This is called the 'Assignee' list.
  • Someone on IRC should be able to help you out. See how we use IRC for access information.
• Claim an issue
  1. If you created a bug that you want to work on, assign it by commenting on the issue to let everyone know you're working on it.
  • Finding a bug to work on
    • You can peruse the list of all issues
    • On the left hand side of the Issues page, there are some handy labels that might help narrow down the list. Try looking at the QuickFix label for some smaller issues.
• Before you start working on the bug, read about how we use git.
• Updating the bug's progress
  1. To change any fields mentioned: Scroll to the bottom of the issue page and click 'Update'. From there you can edit the issue.
  • If someone has duplicated the issue, mark the issue status 'Confirmed'
  • Ideally, there should be a spec written for this bug. If you've done this, mark the issue 'Isolated'
  • If a pull request has been made for the issue, senior members will set the status 'Awaiting Acceptance'
  • As you make progress, particularly if the fix is more than a day, please set the '% Done' to something meaningful