-GLib is part of the GNOME git repository. At the current time, any
-person with write access to the GNOME repository, can make changes to
-GLib. This is a good thing, in that it encourages many people to work
-on GLib, and progress can be made quickly. However, GLib is a fairly
-large and complicated package that many other things depend on, so to
-avoid unnecessary breakage, and to take advantage of the knowledge
-about GLib that has been built up over the years, we'd like to ask
-people committing to GLib to follow a few rules:
-
-0) Ask first. If your changes are major, or could possibly break existing
- code, you should always ask. If your change is minor and you've
- been working on GLib for a while it probably isn't necessary
- to ask. But when in doubt, ask. Even if your change is correct,
- somebody may know a better way to do things.
-
- If you are making changes to GLib, you should be subscribed
- to gtk-devel-list@gnome.org. (Subscription address:
- gtk-devel-list-request@gnome.org.) This is a good place to ask
- about intended changes.
-
- #gtk+ on GIMPNet (irc.gimp.org, irc.us.gimp.org, irc.eu.gimp.org, ...)
- is also a good place to find GTK+ developers to discuss changes with,
- however, email to gtk-devel-list is the most certain and preferred
- method.
-
-1) Ask _first_.
-
-2) You are expected to produce a meaningful commit message.
- Changes without a sufficient commit message will be reverted. See below for
- the expected format of commit messages.
-
-Notes:
-
-* When developing larger features or complicated bug fixes, it is
- advisable to work in a branch in your own cloned GLib repository.
- You may even consider making your repository publically available
- so that others can easily test and review your changes.
-
-* The expected format for git commit messages is as follows:
-
-=== begin example commit ===
+# Contribution guidelines
+
+Thank you for considering contributing to the GLib project!
+
+These guidelines are meant for new contributors, regardless of their level
+of proficiency; following them allows the core developers of the GLib project to
+more effectively evaluate your contribution, and provide prompt feedback to
+you. Additionally, by following these guidelines you clearly communicate
+that you respect the time and effort that the people developing GLib put into
+managing the project.
+
+GLib is a complex free software utility library, and it would not exist without
+contributions from the free and open source software community. There are
+many things that we value:
+
+ - bug reporting and fixing
+ - documentation and examples
+ - tests
+ - testing and support for other platforms
+ - new features
+
+Please, do not use the issue tracker for support questions. If you have
+questions on how to use GLib effectively, you can use:
+
+ - the `#gtk` IRC channel on irc.gnome.org
+ - the [`glib` tag on GNOME's Discourse](https://discourse.gnome.org/tags/glib)
+
+You can also look at the [`glib` tag on Stack
+Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/glib).
+
+The issue tracker is meant to be used for actionable issues only.
+
+## How to report bugs
+
+### Security issues
+
+You should not open a new issue for security related questions.
+
+When in doubt, send an email to the [security](mailto:security@gnome.org)
+mailing list.
+
+### Bug reports
+
+If you’re reporting a bug make sure to list:
+
+ 0. which version of GLib are you using?
+ 0. which operating system are you using?
+ 0. the necessary steps to reproduce the issue
+ 0. the expected outcome
+ 0. a description of the behavior
+ 0. a small, self-contained example exhibiting the behavior
+
+If the issue includes a crash, you should also include:
+
+ 0. the eventual warnings printed on the terminal
+ 0. a backtrace, obtained with tools such as GDB or LLDB
+
+If the issue includes a memory leak, you should also include:
+
+ 0. a log of definite leaks from a tool such as [valgrind’s
+ memcheck](http://valgrind.org/docs/manual/mc-manual.html)
+
+For small issues, such as:
+
+ - spelling/grammar fixes in the documentation,
+ - typo correction,
+ - comment clean ups,
+ - changes to metadata files (CI, `.gitignore`),
+ - build system changes, or
+ - source tree clean ups and reorganizations;
+
+or for self-contained bug fixes where you have implemented and tested a solution
+already, you should directly open a merge request instead of filing a new issue.
+
+### Features and enhancements
+
+Feature discussion can be open ended and require high bandwidth channels; if
+you are proposing a new feature on the issue tracker, make sure to make
+an actionable proposal, and list:
+
+ 0. what you’re trying to achieve and the problem it solves
+ 0. three (or more) existing pieces of software which would benefit from the
+ new feature
+ 0. how the feature is implementable on platforms other than Linux
+
+New APIs, in particular, should follow the ‘rule of three’, where there should
+be three (or more) pieces of software which are ready to use the new APIs. This
+allows us to check that the new APIs are usable in real-life code, and fit well
+with related APIs. This reduces the chances of awkward or unusable APIs becoming
+stable in GLib and having to be supported forever.
+
+A common way to introduce new APIs or data types to GLib is to prototype them in
+another code base for a while, to gain real-life experience with them before
+they are imported into GLib and marked as stable.
+
+Each feature should also come fully documented, and with tests which approach
+full branch coverage of the new code. GLib’s CI system generates code coverage
+reports which are viewable for each merge request. See
+[the testing policy](./docs/testing.md) for more details.
+
+If proposing a large feature or change, it’s better to discuss it (on the
+`#gtk` IRC channel or on [Discourse](https://discourse.gnome.org) before
+putting time into writing an actionable issue — and certainly before putting
+time into writing a merge request.
+
+## Your first contribution
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+If you want to contribute to the GLib project, you will need to have the
+development tools appropriate for your operating system, including:
+
+ - Python 3.x
+ - Meson
+ - Ninja
+ - Gettext (19.7 or newer)
+ - a [C99 compatible compiler](https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GLib/CompilerRequirements)
+
+Up-to-date instructions about developing GNOME applications and libraries
+can be found on [the GNOME Developer Center](https://developer.gnome.org).
+
+The [GLib project uses GitLab](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/) for code
+hosting and for tracking issues. More information about using GitLab can be
+found [on the GNOME wiki](https://wiki.gnome.org/GitLab).
+
+### Getting started
+
+You should start by forking the GLib repository from the GitLab web UI, and
+cloning from your fork:
+
+```sh
+$ git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/yourusername/glib.git
+$ cd glib
+```
+
+**Note**: if you plan to push changes to back to the main repository and
+have a GNOME account, you can skip the fork, and use the following instead:
+
+```sh
+$ git clone git@gitlab.gnome.org:GNOME/glib.git
+$ cd glib
+```
+
+To compile the Git version of GLib on your system, you will need to
+configure your build using Meson:
+
+```sh
+$ meson _builddir .
+$ cd _builddir
+$ ninja
+```
+
+Typically, you should work on your own branch:
+
+```sh
+$ git checkout -b your-branch
+```
+
+Once you’ve finished working on the bug fix or feature, push the branch
+to the Git repository and open a new merge request, to let the GLib
+core developers review your contribution.
+
+### Code reviews
+
+Each contribution is reviewed by the core developers of the GLib project.
+
+The [CODEOWNERS](./docs/CODEOWNERS) document contains the list of core
+contributors to GLib and the areas for which they are responsible; you
+should ensure to receive their review and signoff on your changes.
+
+It is our intention that every commit to GLib is reviewed by at least one other
+person, including commits from core developers. We all make mistakes and can
+always learn from each other, and code review allows that. It also reduces
+[bus factor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor) by spreading knowledge
+of each commit between at least two people.
+
+With each code review, we intend to:
+
+ 0. Identify if this is a desirable change or new feature. Ideally for larger
+ features this will have been discussed (in an issue, on IRC, or on Discourse)
+ already, so that effort isn’t wasted on putting together merge requests
+ which will be rejected.
+ 0. Check the design of any new API.
+ 0. Provide realistic estimates of how long a review might take, if it can’t
+ happen immediately.
+ 0. Ensure that all significant contributions of new code, or bug fixes, are
+ adequately tested, either through requiring tests to be submitted at the
+ same time, or as a follow-up.
+ 0. Ensure that all new APIs are documented and have [introspection
+ annotations](https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GObjectIntrospection/Annotations).
+ 0. Check that the contribution is split into logically separate commits, each
+ with a good commit message.
+ 0. Encourage further high quality contributions.
+ 0. Ensure code style and quality is upheld.
+
+If a code review is stalled (due to not receiving comments for two or more
+weeks; or due to a technical disagreement), please ping another GLib core
+developer on the merge request, or on IRC, to ask for a second opinion.
+
+### Commit messages
+
+The expected format for git commit messages is as follows:
+
+```plain
Short explanation of the commit
-Longer explanation explaining exactly what's changed, whether any
+Longer explanation explaining exactly what’s changed, whether any
external or private interfaces changed, what bugs were fixed (with bug
-tracker reference if applicable) and so forth. Be concise but not too brief.
-=== end example commit ===
+tracker reference if applicable) and so forth. Be concise but not too
+brief.
+
+Closes #1234
+```
+
+ - Always add a brief description of the commit to the _first_ line of
+ the commit and terminate by two newlines (it will work without the
+ second newline, but that is not nice for the interfaces).
+
+ - First line (the brief description) must only be one sentence and
+ should start with a capital letter unless it starts with a lowercase
+ symbol or identifier. Don’t use a trailing period either. Don’t exceed
+ 72 characters.
+
+ - The main description (the body) is normal prose and should use normal
+ punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. Consider the commit
+ message as an email sent to the developers (or yourself, six months
+ down the line) detailing **why** you changed something. There’s no need
+ to specify the **how**: the changes can be inlined.
+
+ - When committing code on behalf of others use the `--author` option, e.g.
+ `git commit -a --author "Joe Coder <joe@coder.org>"` and `--signoff`.
+
+ - If your commit is addressing an issue, use the
+ [GitLab syntax](https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/user/project/issues/automatic_issue_closing.html)
+ to automatically close the issue when merging the commit with the upstream
+ repository:
+
+```plain
+Closes #1234
+Fixes #1234
+Closes: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/issues/1234
+```
- - Always add a brief description of the commit to the _first_ line of
- the commit and terminate by two newlines (it will work without the
- second newline, but that is not nice for the interfaces).
+ - If you have a merge request with multiple commits and none of them
+ completely fixes an issue, you should add a reference to the issue in
+ the commit message, e.g. `Bug: #1234`, and use the automatic issue
+ closing syntax in the description of the merge request.
- - First line (the brief description) must only be one sentence and
- should start with a capital letter unless it starts with a lowercase
- symbol or identifier. Don't use a trailing period either. Don't exceed
- 72 characters.
+### Merge access to the GLib repository
- - The main description (the body) is normal prose and should use normal
- punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. Normally, for patches
- sent to a mailing list it's copied from there.
+GLib is part of the GNOME infrastructure. At the current time, any
+person with write access to the GNOME repository can merge merge requests to
+GLib. This is a good thing, in that it allows maintainership to be delegated
+and shared as needed. However, GLib is a fairly large and complicated package
+that many other things depend on, and which has platform specific behavior — so
+to avoid unnecessary breakage, and to take advantage of the knowledge about GLib
+that has been built up over the years, we’d like to ask people contributing to
+GLib to follow a few rules:
- - When committing code on behalf of others use the --author option, e.g.
- git commit -a --author "Joe Coder <joe@coder.org>" and --signoff.
+0. Never push to the `main` branch, or any stable branches, directly; you
+ should always go through a merge request, to ensure that the code is
+ tested on the CI infrastructure at the very least. A merge request is
+ also the proper place to get a comprehensive code review from the core
+ developers of GLib.
+0. Always get a code review, even for seemingly trivial changes.
-Owen Taylor
-13 Aug 1998
-17 Apr 2001
+0. Pay attention to the CI results. Merge requests cannot be merged until the
+ CI passes. If they consistently fail, either something is wrong with the
+ change, or the CI tests need fixing — in either case, please bring this to
+ the attention of a core developer rather than overriding the CI.
-Matthias Clasen
-31 Mar 2009
+If you have been contributing to GLib for a while and you don’t have commit
+access to the repository, you may ask to obtain it following the [GNOME account
+process](https://wiki.gnome.org/AccountsTeam/NewAccounts).