Types of contributions

Every contribution to Org is very welcome. Here is a list of areas where your contribution will be useful:

you can submit bug reports -- Before sending a bug report, make

you can submit feature requests -- Org is already mature, but new

you can submit patches -- You can submit patches to the mailing

If your patch is against a file that is part of Emacs, then your total contribution (all patches you submit) should change less than 15 lines (See the etc/CONTRIBUTE file in GNU Emacs.) If you contribute more, you have to assign the copyright of your contribution to the Free Software Foundation (see below).

you can submit Org add-ons -- there are many Org add-ons.
The best way is to submit your code to to discuss
If it is useful, you might consider contributing it to the
If you decide to sign the [[*Copyright issues when contributing to

you can submit material to the Worg website -- This website is

Copyright issues when contributing to Emacs Org mode

Org is made of many files. Most of them are also distributed as part of GNU Emacs. These files are called the Org core, and they are all copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, Inc. If you consider contributing to these files, your first need to grant the right to include your works in GNU Emacs to the FSF. For this you need to complete this form, and send it to assign@gnu.org. The FSF will send you the assignment contract that both you and the FSF will sign. Please let the Org-mode maintainer know when this process is complete. Some people consider this assignment process a hassle. I don't want to discuss this in detail here - there are some good reasons for getting the copyright registered, an example is discussed in this FLOSS weekly podcast. Furthermore, by playing according to the Emacs rules, we gain the fantastic advantage that every version of Emacs ships with Org-mode already fully built in. So please consider doing this - it makes our work as maintainers so much easier, because we can then take your patches without any additional work.

If you want to learn more about why copyright assignments are collected, read this: Why the FSF gets copyright assignments from contributors?

By submitting patches to emacs-orgmode@gnu.org, or by pushing changes to the Org-mode repository, you are placing these changes under the same licensing terms as those under which GNU Emacs is published.

;; GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify ;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by ;; the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or ;; (at your option) any later version.

If at the time you submit or push these changes you do have active copyright assignment papers with the FSF, for future changes to either Org-mode or to Emacs, this means that copyright to these changes is automatically transferred to the FSF. The Org-mode repository is seen as upstream repository for Emacs, anything contained in it can potentially end up in Emacs. If you do not have signed papers with the FSF, only changes to files in the contrib/ part of the repository will be accepted, as well as very minor changes (so-called /tiny changes/) to core files. We will ask you to sign FSF papers at the moment we attempt to move a contrib/ file into the Org core, or into Emacs.

For Org developers

:PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: devs :END:

Send your public key to Bastien

Wait for confirmation that your public key has been added to the

Clone org-mode.git repository like this:

~$ git clone orgmode@orgmode.org:org-mode.git

Commit your changes.

Run make test

If the tests pass, push your changes.

If you are undertaking big changes, please create a dedicated branch for them.

For Org contributors: preferred way of submitting patches

Coding conventions

Org is part of Emacs, so any contribution should follow the GNU Emacs Lisp coding conventions described in Emacs manual.

Sending patch with git

Org-mode is developed using git as the version control system. Git provides an amazing framework to collaborate on a project. Git can be used to make patches and send them via email -- this is perfectly fine for major and minor changes.

When sending a patch (either using git diff or git format-patch) please always add a properly formatted Emacs ChangeLog entry. See this section for details on how to create such a ChangeLog.

Sending commits

For every patch you send, we suggest to use git format-patch.

This is easy for small patches and more consequent ones. Sometimes, you might even want to work in several steps and send each commit separately. Here is the suggested workflow:

  ~$ git pull                 # make sure your repo is up to date
  ~$ git branch my-changes    # create a new branch from master
  ~$ git checkout my-changes  # switch to this new branch

... make some changes (1) ...

  ~$ git commit -a -m "This is change (1)"  # Commit your change

... make another change (2) ...

  ~$ git commit -a -m "This is change (2)"  # Commit your change
  ~$ git format-patch master                # Creates two patches

... Then two patches for your two commits are ready to be sent to the list.

Write useful commit messages: please provide 1) a reason for it in your email and 2) a ChangeLog entry in the commit message (see this section on how to format a ChangeLog entry.)

Sending quick fixes for testing purpose

If you want to send a quick fix that needs to be further tested by other people (before you submit a real patch), here is how you can do:

This command will make a patch between the staging area (in your computer), and the file you modified:

git diff -p org-whatever.el > org-whatever.el.diff

If you already committed your changes to your index (staging area), then you should compare against a particular branch (in this example, origin/master):

git diff -p origin/master org-whatever.el > org-whatever.el.diff

You email the output to the mailing list, adding [PATCH] to the subject, and description of what you fixed or changed.

Note that small patches sent like this still need to have a ChangeLog entry to be applied. If your patch looks good to you, it's always better to send a patch through git format-patch.

For more significant contributions, the best way to submit patches is through public branches of your repository clone.

Clone our git repository at http://orgmode.org/w/org-mode.git.

git clone git://orgmode.org/org-mode.git

git clone http://orgmode.org/org-mode.git

The url using the git protocol is preferred. If you are behind a firewall that blocks git://, you can use the http url.

Create a repository that can be publicly accessed, for example on

Push your topic branches (and optionally the master branch) to your

Define a remote for your public repository you push topics to.

git remote add REMOTE URL-GOES-HERE

Push branches to the remote

git push REMOTE BRANCH1 [BRANCH2 BRANCH3 ...]

e.g.

git remote add github ssh://.../     # Done once to define the remote 'github'
git push github my-topic

Do your work on topic-specific branches, using a branch name that

Often do

git remote update

to pull commits from all defined remote repositories, in particular the org-mode master at repo.or.cz.

When you have something workable, publish the git path and branch

After your topic has been merged to the project master branch you

git branch -d NEWTOPIC

git push REMOTE :NEWTOPIC

The instructions above are generally useful to let people test new features before sending the patch series to the mailing list, but the patches remain the preferred way of receiving contributions.

Commit messages and ChangeLog entries

:PROPERTIES: :ID: c526dfd7-2b0c-4b66-9deb-6e442e4870 :END:

We have decided to no longer keep a ChangeLog file to record changes to individual functions.

A commit message should be constructed in the following way:

Line 1 of the commit message should always be a short description of

Line 2 is an empty line.

In line 3, the ChangeLog entry should start. A ChangeLog entry

* org-timer.el (org-timer-cancel-timer, org-timer-stop): Enhance

message. (org-timer-set-timer): Use the number of minutes in the Effort property as the default timer value. Three prefix arguments will ignore the Effort value property.

After the changelog, another empty line should come before any

If the change is a minor change made by a committer without

Variables and functions names are quoted like `this' (backquote and

Sentences should be separated by two spaces.

Sentences should start with an uppercase letter.

Avoid the passive form: i.e., use "change" instead of "changed".

Here is an example for such a message:

org-capture.el: Fix the case of using a template file

,* lisp/org-capture.el (org-capture-set-plist): Make sure txt is a string before calling `string-match'. (org-capture-templates): Fix customization type.

,* doc/org.texi (Capture): Document using a file for a template.

The problem here was that a wrong keyword was given in the customization type. This let to a string-match against a list value.

Modified from a patch proposal by Johan Friis.

TINYCHANGE

If you are using magit.el in Emacs, the ChangeLog for such entries are easily produced by pressing C in the diff listing.

Another option to produce the entries is to use `C-x 4 a' in the changed function or in the diff listing. This will create entries in the ChangeLog file, and you can then cut and paste these to the commit message and remove the indentation.

Copyrighted contributors to Org mode

Here is the list of people who have contributed actual code to the Org-mode core. Note that the manual contains a more extensive list with acknowledgments, including contributed ideas! The lists below are mostly for house keeping, to help the maintainers keep track of copyright issues.

Current contributors

:PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: contributors_with_fsf_papers :END:

Here is the list of people who signed the papers with the Free Software Foundation and can now freely submit code to Org files that are included within GNU Emacs:

Aaron Ecay
Abdó Roig-Maranges
Achim Gratz
Adam Elliott
Adam Spiers
Alan Schmitt
Alexey Lebedeff
Andreas Burtzlaff
Andreas Leha
Andrew Hyatt
Andrzej Lichnerowicz
Andy Steward
Anthony John Day
Anthony Lander
Arni Magnusson
Baoqiu Cui
Barry Leonard Gidden
Bastien Guerry
Benjamin Andresen
Bernd Grobauer
Bernt Hansen
Brian James Gough
Brice Waegenire
Carsten Dominik
Charles Berry
Charles Sebold
Christian Egli
Christian Moe
Christopher League
Christopher Miles Gray
Christopher Schmidt
Christopher Suckling
Dan Davison
Daniel M German
Daniel M. Hackney
David Arroyo Menéndez
David Maus
David O'Toole
Dieter Schoen
Dima Kogan
Dmitry Antipov
Eric Abrahamsen
Eric S. Fraga
Eric Schulte
Erik Hetzner
Erik Iverson
Ethan Ligon
Feng Shu
Francesco Pizzolante
Gary Oberbrunner
Georg Lehner
George Kettleborough
Giovanni Ridolfi
Grégoire Jadi (aka Daimrod)
Gustav Wikström
Henning Dietmar Weiss
Ian Barton
Ian Kelling
Ilya Shlyakhter
Ippei Furuhashi
James TD Smith
Jan Böcker
Jan Malakhovski
Jarmo Hurri
Jason Riedy
Jay Kerns
Jeffrey Ryan Horn
Joe Corneli
Joel Boehland
John Kitchin
John Wiegley
Jon Snader
Jonas Bernoulli
Jonathan Leech-Pepin
Juan Pechiar
Julian Gehring
Julien Barnier
Julien Danjou
Justin Gordon
Justus Piater
Karl Fogel
Kodi Arfer
Konstantin Antipin
Kyle Meyer
Lawrence Mitchell
Le Wang
Lennart Borgman
Leonard Avery Randall
Luis Anaya
Lukasz Stelmach
Madan Ramakrishnan
Magnus Henoch
Manuel Giraud
Marco Wahl
Martin Pohlack
Martyn Jago
Matt Lundin
Max Mikhanosha
Michael Albinus
Michael Brand
Michael Gauland
Michael Sperber
Miguel A. Figueroa-Villanueva
Mikael Fornius
Moritz Ulrich
Nathan Neff
Nicholas Dokos
Nicolas Berthier
Nicolas Goaziou
Nicolas Richard
Niels Giessen
Nikolai Weibull
Noorul Islam K M
Oleh Krehel
Paul Sexton
Pedro Alexandre Marcelino Costa da Silva
Peter Jones
Phil Jackson
Philip Rooke
Pieter Praet
Piotr Zielinski
Puneeth Chaganti
Rainer M Krug
Rasmus Pank Roulund
Richard Klinda
Richard Riley
Rick Frankel
Russel Adams
Ryo Takaishi
Rüdiger Sonderfeld
Sacha Chua
Samuel Loury
Sebastian Rose
Sebastien Vauban
Sergey Litvinov
Seweryn Kokot
Stephen Eglen
Steven Rémot
Suvayu Ali
T.F. Torrey
Tassilo Horn
Thierry Banel
Thomas Baumann
Thomas Holst
Thomas S. Dye
Thorsten Jolitz
Tim Burt
Titus von der Malsburg
Toby Cubitt
Tokuya Kameshima
Tom Breton
Tomas Hlavaty
Tony Day
Trevor Murphy
Ulf Stegemann
Vitalie Spinu
Yann Hodique
Yasushi Shoji
Yoshinari Nomura
Yuri D. Lensky
Zhang Weize
Zhuo Qingliang (Killy Draw)

Processing

These people have been asked to sign the papers, and they are currently considering it or a request is being processed by the FSF.

Bill Wishon
Mats Kindahl (as of 2013-04-06) for this patch
Georg Lehner (as of 2013-06-27)
Kodi Arfer (as of 2013-06-29)

Tiny Changes

These people have submitted tiny change patches that made it into Org without FSF papers. When they submit more, we need to get papers eventually. The limit is a cumulative change of 20 non-repetitive change lines. Details are given in this document.

Aman Yang
Andrew Burgess
Andy Lutomirski
Anthony Cowley
Arun Persaud
Aurélien Aptel
Austin Walker
Craig Tanis
Derek Feichtinger
Federico Beffa
Feng Zhou
Fernando Varesi
Florian Beck
Greg Tucker-Kellogg
Gregor Zattler
Hiroshi Saito
Ivan Vilata i Balaguer
Jacob Gerlach
Jacob Matthews
Jan Seeger
Joe Hirn
John Foerch
Jon Miller
Jonas Hörsch
Joost Diepenmaat
Kodi Arfer
Leslie Harlley Watter
Luke Amdor
Mario Frasca
Matthew Gidden
Matthew MacLean
Michael O'Connor
Michael Weylandt
Mike McLean
Miro Bezjak
Moritz Kiefer
Muchenxuan Tong
Myles English
Myq Larson
Nathaniel Flath
Nick Gunn
Peter Feigl
Peter Moresi
Philip (Pip Cet)
Rafael Laboissiere
Richard Hansen
Richard Lawrence
Richard Y. Kim (Kim)
Robert P. Goldman
Roberto Huelga
Ruben Maher
Sami Airaksinen
Saulius Menkevičius
Sergey Gordienko
Stefan-W. Hahn
Sylvain Chouleur
Teika Kazura
Thierry Pellé
Thomas Alexander Gerds
Tom Hinton
Vicente Vera Parra
Viktor Rosenfeld
Vladimir Lomov
York Zhao
Zane D. Purvis

(This list may be incomplete - please help completing it.)

No FSF assignment

These people cannot or prefer to not sign the FSF copyright papers, and we can only accept patches that do not change the core files (the ones that are also in Emacs).

Luckily, this list is still empty.

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