Contributing to LCOV
====================

Please read this document if you would like to help improving the LTP GCOV
extension (LCOV). In general, all types of contributions are welcome, for
example:

 * Fixes for code or documentation
 * Performance and compatibility improvements
 * Functional enhancements

There are some rules that these contributions must follow to be acceptable for
inclusion:

 1. The contribution must align with the project goals of LCOV.
 2. The contribution must follow a particular format.
 3. The contribution must be signed.

Once you have made sure that your contribution follows these rules, send it via
e-mail to the LTP coverage mailing list [1].


Signing your work
=================

All contributions to LCOV must be signed by putting the following line at the
end of the explanation of a patch:

  Signed-off-by: Your Name <your.email@example.org>

By signing a patch, you certify the following:

  By making a contribution to the LTP GCOV extension (LCOV) on
  http://ltp.sourceforge.net, I certify that:

  a) The contribution was created by me and I have the right to submit it
     under the terms and conditions of the open source license
     "GNU General Public License, version 2 or later".
     (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html).

  b) The contribution is made free of any other party's intellectual property
     claims or rights.

  c) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are public
     and that a record of the contribution (including all personal information
     I submit with it, including my sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and
     may be redistributed consistent with this project or the open source
     license(s) involved.


Project goals
=============

The goal of LCOV is to provide a set of command line tools that can be used to
collect, process and visualize code coverage data as produced by the gcov tool
that is part of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) [2].

If you have an idea for a contribution but are unsure if it aligns with the
project goals, feel free to discuss the idea on the LTP coverage mailing
list [1].


Contribution format
===================

To contribute a change, please create a patch using 'git format-patch'.
Alternatively you can use the diff utility with the following command line
options:

  diff -Naurp

Please base your changes on the most current version of LCOV. You can use the
following command line to obtain this version from the lcov Git repository:

 git clone https://github.com/linux-test-project/lcov.git

Add a meaningful description of the contribution to the top of the patch. The
description should follow this format:

  component: short description

  detailed description

  Signed-off-by: Your Name <your.email@example.org>

With your Signed-off-by, you certify the rules stated in section
"Signing your work".


-- 

[1] ltp-coverage@lists.sourceforge.net
[2] http://gcc.gnu.org
