3 Thank you for your interest in contributing to Rust! There are many ways to
4 contribute, and we appreciate all of them. This document is a bit long, so here's
5 links to the major sections:
7 * [Feature Requests](#feature-requests)
8 * [Bug Reports](#bug-reports)
9 * [Pull Requests](#pull-requests)
10 * [Writing Documentation](#writing-documentation)
11 * [Issue Triage](#issue-triage)
12 * [Out-of-tree Contributions](#out-of-tree-contributions)
13 * [Helpful Links and Information](#helpful-links-and-information)
15 If you have questions, please make a post on [internals.rust-lang.org][internals] or
16 hop on [#rust-internals][pound-rust-internals].
18 As a reminder, all contributors are expected to follow our [Code of Conduct][coc].
20 [pound-rust-internals]: http://chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org&channel=%23rust-internals
21 [internals]: https://internals.rust-lang.org
22 [coc]: https://www.rust-lang.org/conduct.html
26 To request a change to the way that the Rust language works, please open an
27 issue in the [RFCs repository](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/issues/new)
28 rather than this one. New features and other significant language changes
29 must go through the RFC process.
33 While bugs are unfortunate, they're a reality in software. We can't fix what we
34 don't know about, so please report liberally. If you're not sure if something
35 is a bug or not, feel free to file a bug anyway.
37 If you have the chance, before reporting a bug, please [search existing
38 issues](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/search?q=&type=Issues&utf8=%E2%9C%93),
39 as it's possible that someone else has already reported your error. This doesn't
40 always work, and sometimes it's hard to know what to search for, so consider this
41 extra credit. We won't mind if you accidentally file a duplicate report.
43 Opening an issue is as easy as following [this
44 link](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/new) and filling out the fields.
45 Here's a template that you can use to file a bug, though it's not necessary to
48 <short summary of the bug>
52 <code sample that causes the bug>
54 I expected to see this happen: <explanation>
56 Instead, this happened: <explanation>
60 `rustc --version --verbose`:
64 All three components are important: what you did, what you expected, what
65 happened instead. Please include the output of `rustc --version --verbose`,
66 which includes important information about what platform you're on, what
67 version of Rust you're using, etc.
69 Sometimes, a backtrace is helpful, and so including that is nice. To get
70 a backtrace, set the `RUST_BACKTRACE` environment variable. The easiest way
71 to do this is to invoke `rustc` like this:
74 $ RUST_BACKTRACE=1 rustc ...
79 Pull requests are the primary mechanism we use to change Rust. GitHub itself
80 has some [great documentation][pull-requests] on using the Pull Request
81 feature. We use the 'fork and pull' model described there.
83 [pull-requests]: https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/
85 Please make pull requests against the `master` branch.
87 Compiling all of `make check` can take a while. When testing your pull request,
88 consider using one of the more specialized `make` targets to cut down on the
89 amount of time you have to wait. You need to have built the compiler at least
90 once before running these will work, but that’s only one full build rather than
93 $ make -j8 rustc-stage1 && make check-stage1
95 is one such example, which builds just `rustc`, and then runs the tests. If
96 you’re adding something to the standard library, try
98 $ make -j8 check-stage1-std NO_REBUILD=1
100 This will not rebuild the compiler, but will run the tests.
102 All pull requests are reviewed by another person. We have a bot,
103 @rust-highfive, that will automatically assign a random person to review your
106 If you want to request that a specific person reviews your pull request,
107 you can add an `r?` to the message. For example, Steve usually reviews
108 documentation changes. So if you were to make a documentation change, add
112 to the end of the message, and @rust-highfive will assign @steveklabnik instead
113 of a random person. This is entirely optional.
115 After someone has reviewed your pull request, they will leave an annotation
116 on the pull request with an `r+`. It will look something like this:
120 This tells @bors, our lovable integration bot, that your pull request has
121 been approved. The PR then enters the [merge queue][merge-queue], where @bors
122 will run all the tests on every platform we support. If it all works out,
123 @bors will merge your code into `master` and close the pull request.
125 [merge-queue]: http://buildbot.rust-lang.org/homu/queue/rust
127 Speaking of tests, Rust has a comprehensive test suite. More information about
129 [here](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-wiki-backup/blob/master/Note-testsuite.md).
131 ## Writing Documentation
133 Documentation improvements are very welcome. The source of `doc.rust-lang.org`
134 is located in `src/doc` in the tree, and standard API documentation is generated
135 from the source code itself.
137 Documentation pull requests function in the same way as other pull requests,
138 though you may see a slightly different form of `r+`:
140 @bors: r+ 38fe8d2 rollup
142 That additional `rollup` tells @bors that this change is eligible for a 'rollup'.
143 To save @bors some work, and to get small changes through more quickly, when
144 @bors attempts to merge a commit that's rollup-eligible, it will also merge
145 the other rollup-eligible patches too, and they'll get tested and merged at
148 To find documentation-related issues, sort by the [A-docs label][adocs].
150 [adocs]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3AA-docs
152 In many cases, you don't need a full `make doc`. You can use `rustdoc` directly
153 to check small fixes. For example, `rustdoc src/doc/reference.md` will render
154 reference to `doc/reference.html`. The CSS might be messed up, but you can
155 verify that HTML is right.
159 Sometimes, an issue will stay open, even though the bug has been fixed. And
160 sometimes, the original bug may go stale because something has changed in the
163 It can be helpful to go through older bug reports and make sure that they are
164 still valid. Load up an older issue, double check that it's still true, and
165 leave a comment letting us know if it is or is not. The [least recently
166 updated sort][lru] is good for finding issues like this.
168 Contributors with sufficient permissions on the Rust repo can help by adding
169 labels to triage issues:
171 * Yellow, **A**-prefixed labels state which **area** of the project an issue
174 * Magenta, **B**-prefixed labels identify bugs which **belong** elsewhere.
176 * Green, **E**-prefixed labels explain the level of **experience** necessary
179 * Red, **I**-prefixed labels indicate the **importance** of the issue. The
180 [I-nominated][inom] label indicates that an issue has been nominated for
181 prioritizing at the next triage meeting.
183 * Orange, **P**-prefixed labels indicate a bug's **priority**. These labels
184 are only assigned during triage meetings, and replace the [I-nominated][inom]
187 * Blue, **T**-prefixed bugs denote which **team** the issue belongs to.
189 * Dark blue, **beta-** labels track changes which need to be backported into
192 * The purple **metabug** label marks lists of bugs collected by other
195 If you're looking for somewhere to start, check out the [E-easy][eeasy] tag.
197 [inom]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3AI-nominated
198 [eeasy]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3AE-easy
199 [lru]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-asc
201 ## Out-of-tree Contributions
203 There are a number of other ways to contribute to Rust that don't deal with
206 Answer questions in [#rust][pound-rust], or on [users.rust-lang.org][users],
207 or on [StackOverflow][so].
209 Participate in the [RFC process](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs).
211 Find a [requested community library][community-library], build it, and publish
212 it to [Crates.io](http://crates.io). Easier said than done, but very, very
215 [pound-rust]: http://chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org&channel=%23rust
216 [users]: https://users.rust-lang.org/
217 [so]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/rust
218 [community-library]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/labels/A-community-library
220 ## Helpful Links and Information
222 For people new to Rust, and just starting to contribute, or even for
223 more seasoned developers, some useful places to look for information
226 * The [Rust Internals forum][rif], a place to ask questions and
227 discuss Rust's internals
228 * The [generated documentation for rust's compiler][gdfrustc]
229 * The [rust reference][rr], even though it doesn't specifically talk about Rust's internals, it's a great resource nonetheless
230 * Although out of date, [Tom Lee's great blog article][tlgba] is very helpful
231 * [rustaceans.org][ro] is helpful, but mostly dedicated to IRC
232 * The [Rust Compiler Testing Docs][rctd]
233 * For @bors, [this cheat sheet][cheatsheet] is helpful (Remember to replace `@homu` with `@bors` in the commands that you use.)
234 * **Google!** ([search only in Rust Documentation][gsearchdocs] to find types, traits, etc. quickly)
235 * Don't be afraid to ask! The Rust community is friendly and helpful.
237 [gdfrustc]: http://manishearth.github.io/rust-internals-docs/rustc/
238 [gsearchdocs]: https://www.google.de/search?q=site:doc.rust-lang.org+your+query+here
239 [rif]: http://internals.rust-lang.org
240 [rr]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/README.html
241 [tlgba]: http://tomlee.co/2014/04/03/a-more-detailed-tour-of-the-rust-compiler/
242 [ro]: http://www.rustaceans.org/
243 [rctd]: ./COMPILER_TESTS.md
244 [cheatsheet]: http://buildbot.rust-lang.org/homu/