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# Contributing to Protocol Buffers
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We welcome your contributions to protocol buffers. This doc describes the
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process to contribute patches to protobuf and the general guidelines we
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expect contributors to follow.
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## Before You Start
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We accept patches in the form of github pull requests. If you are new to
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github, please read [How to create github pull requests](https://help.github.com/articles/about-pull-requests/)
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first.
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### Contributor License Agreements
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Contributions to this project must be accompanied by a Contributor License
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Agreement. You (or your employer) retain the copyright to your contribution,
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this simply gives us permission to use and redistribute your contributions
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as part of the project.
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* If you are an individual writing original source code and you're sure you
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own the intellectual property, then you'll need to sign an [individual CLA](https://cla.developers.google.com/about/google-individual?csw=1).
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* If you work for a company that wants to allow you to contribute your work,
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then you'll need to sign a [corporate CLA](https://cla.developers.google.com/about/google-corporate?csw=1).
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### Coding Style
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This project follows [Google’s Coding Style Guides](https://github.com/google/styleguide).
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Before sending out your pull request, please familiarize yourself with the
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corresponding style guides and make sure the proposed code change is style
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conforming.
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## Contributing Process
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Most pull requests should go to the master branch and the change will be
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included in the next major/minor version release (e.g., 3.6.0 release). If you
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need to include a bug fix in a patch release (e.g., 3.5.2), make sure it’s
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already merged to master, and then create a pull request cherry-picking the
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commits from master branch to the release branch (e.g., branch 3.5.x).
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For each pull request, a protobuf team member will be assigned to review the
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pull request. For minor cleanups, the pull request may be merged right away
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after an initial review. For larger changes, you will likely receive multiple
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rounds of comments and it may take some time to complete. We will try to keep
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our response time within 7-days but if you don’t get any response in a few
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days, feel free to comment on the threads to get our attention. We also expect
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you to respond to our comments within a reasonable amount of time. If we don’t
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hear from you for 2 weeks or longer, we may close the pull request. You can
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still send the pull request again once you have time to work on it.
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Once a pull request is merged, we will take care of the rest and get it into
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the final release.
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## Pull Request Guidelines
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* If you are a Googler, it is preferable to first create an internal CL and
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have it reviewed and submitted. The code propagation process will deliver the
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change to GitHub.
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* Create small PRs that are narrowly focused on addressing a single concern.
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We often receive PRs that are trying to fix several things at a time, but if
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only one fix is considered acceptable, nothing gets merged and both author's
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& review's time is wasted. Create more PRs to address different concerns and
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everyone will be happy.
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* For speculative changes, consider opening an issue and discussing it first.
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If you are suggesting a behavioral or API change, make sure you get explicit
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support from a protobuf team member before sending us the pull request.
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* Provide a good PR description as a record of what change is being made and
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why it was made. Link to a GitHub issue if it exists.
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* Don't fix code style and formatting unless you are already changing that
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line to address an issue. PRs with irrelevant changes won't be merged. If
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you do want to fix formatting or style, do that in a separate PR.
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* Unless your PR is trivial, you should expect there will be reviewer comments
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that you'll need to address before merging. We expect you to be reasonably
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responsive to those comments, otherwise the PR will be closed after 2-3 weeks
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of inactivity.
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* Maintain clean commit history and use meaningful commit messages. PRs with
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messy commit history are difficult to review and won't be merged. Use rebase
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-i upstream/master to curate your commit history and/or to bring in latest
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changes from master (but avoid rebasing in the middle of a code review).
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* Keep your PR up to date with upstream/master (if there are merge conflicts,
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we can't really merge your change).
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* All tests need to be passing before your change can be merged. We recommend
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you run tests locally before creating your PR to catch breakages early on.
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Ultimately, the green signal will be provided by our testing infrastructure.
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The reviewer will help you if there are test failures that seem not related
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to the change you are making.
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## Reviewer Guidelines
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* Make sure that all tests are passing before approval.
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* Apply the "release notes: yes" label if the pull request's description should
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be included in the next release (e.g., any new feature / bug fix).
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Apply the "release notes: no" label if the pull request's description should
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not be included in the next release (e.g., refactoring changes that does not
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change behavior, integration from Google internal, updating tests, etc.).
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* Apply the appropriate language label (e.g., C++, Java, Python, etc.) to the
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pull request. This will make it easier to identify which languages the pull
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request affects, allowing us to better identify appropriate reviewer, create
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a better release note, and make it easier to identify issues in the future.
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