Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
87 lines (58 loc) · 3.06 KB

CONTRIBUTING.md

File metadata and controls

87 lines (58 loc) · 3.06 KB
Raw

Contributing

First, thank you for contributing to Vector! Our goal is to make it as easy as possible to contribute while still protecting users of Vector.

  1. Your commits must include a DCO signature. This is simpler than it sounds; it just means that all of your commits must contain:

    Signed-off-by: Joe Smith <joe.smith@email.com>

    Git makes this easy by adding the -s or --signoff flags when you commit:

    git commit -sm 'My commit message'

  2. Open a pull request.

  3. At least one Vector team member must approve your work before merging.

FAQ

What is a DCO?

DCO stands for Developer Certificate of Origin and is maintained by the Linux Foundation. It is an attestation attached to every commit made by every developer. It ensures that all commited code adheres to the Vector license (Apache 2.0).

Why does Vector adopt the DCO?

To protect the users of Vector. It ensures that all Vector contributors, and committed code, agree to the Vector license.

Why a DCO instead of a CLA?

It's simpler, clearer, and still protects users of Vector. We believe the DCO more accurately embodies the principles of open-source. More info can be found here:

What about trivial changes?

Trivial changes, such as spelling fixes, do not need to be signed.

Granted rights and copyright assignment

It is important to note that the DCO is not a license. The license of the project – in our case the Apache License – is the license under which the contribution is made. However, the DCO in conjunction with the Apache License may be considered an alternate CLA.

The existence of section 5 of the Apache License is proof that the Apache License is intended to be usable without CLAs. Users need for the code to be open source, with all the legal rights that implies, but it is the open source license that provides this. The Apache License provides very generous copyright permissions from contributors, and contributors explicitly grant patent licenses as well. These rights are granted to everyone.

If I’m contributing while an employee, do I still need my employer to sign something?

Nope! The DCO confirms that you are entitled to submit the code, which assumes that you are authorized to do so. It treats you like an adult and relies on your accurate statement about your rights to submit a contribution.

What if I forgot to sign my commits?

No probs! We made this simple with the signoff Makefile target:

make signoff

If you prefer to do this manually:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13043357/git-sign-off-previous-commits

Credits

Many thanks to the Apache and Linux software foundatons for providing the framework and inspiration for these agreements.