
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 sure
you have read this section of Org's manual: [[https://orgmode.org/org.html#Feedback][Feedback]] You can also
read this great text: "[[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html][How to Send Bug Reports Effectively]]"
- you can submit patches -- You can submit patches to the mailing
list. See the [[For Org contributors: preferred way of submitting patches][Preferred way of submitting patches]] section for
details. You can run =make test= to check that your patch does not
introduce new bugs.
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 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 material to the Worg website -- This website is made
of Org files that you can contribute to. Learn what Worg is [[file:worg-about.org][about]]
and how to contribute to it [[file:worg-git.org][through git]].
- You can submit feature requests -- Org is already mature, but new
ideas keep popping up. If you want to request a feature, it might
be a good idea to have a look at the current [[https://orgmode.org/worg/org-issues.html][Issue tracking file]]
which captures both bug reports and feature requests. Or dig into
the mailing list for possible previous discussions about your idea.
If you cannot find back your idea, formulate it as detailed as
possible, if possible with examples, and send it to the mailing
list.
- You can submit Org add-ons -- there are many Org add-ons.
- The best way is to submit your code to
to discuss
it with people.
- If it is useful, you might consider contributing it to the
=lisp/contrib/= directory in the git repository. It will be
reviewed, and if it passes, it will be included. Ask help from
[[file:org-people.org][Eric Schulte]] for this step. The =lisp/contrib/= directory is
somehow relaxed: it is not distributed with Emacs, and does not
require a formal copyright assignment.
- If you decide to sign the assignment contract with the FSF, we
might include your contribution in the distribution, and then in
GNU Emacs.
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:
Git branches
Please read README_maintainer file within Org's repository.
Pushing your first commit
- Create an account on https://code.orgmode.org
- Add your public key to the account
- Ask Bastien to be added as a collaborator on the repository
- Clone
org-mode.git=: =~$ git clone git@code.orgmode.org:bzg/org-mode.git
- Commit your changes against the code and the documentation.
- Run
make test
- If the tests pass, push your changes.
If you are undertaking big changes, please create a dedicated branch
and make sure you have a clean commit history before merging it into
the maint or master branch.
Taking care of the manual in both branches
- When you make a change in the master branch, update
doc/org-manual.org accordingly.
- When you make a change in the maint branch, update doc/org.texi in
maint and doc/org-manual.org when you merge maint into master.
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
.
Sharing changes from a public branch
For more significant contributions, the best way to submit patches is
through public branches of your repository clone.
- Clone our git repository at
https://code.orgmode.org/bzg/org-mode
.
You can clone using any of the commands below.
git clone git@code.orgmode.org:bzg/org-mode.git
git clone https://code.orgmode.org/bzg/org-mode.git
The url using the git protocol is preferred. If you are behind a
firewall that blocks git://
, you can use the https url.
- Create a repository that can be publicly accessed, for example on
/GitHub/ or on your own server.
- Push your topic branches (and optionally the master branch) to your
public repository.
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
relates to what you are working on.
- Often do
git remote update
to pull commits from all defined remote repositories.
- When you have something workable, publish the git path and branch
name on the mailing list, so that people can test it and review
your work.
- After your topic has been merged to the project master branch you
can delete the topic on your local and remote repositories.
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
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
the overall change. Line 1 does /not/ get a dot at the end and does
not start with a star. Generally, it starts with the filename that
has been changed, followed by a colon.
- In line 3, the ChangeLog entry should start. A ChangeLog entry
looks like [[https://orgmode.org/cgit.cgi/org-mode.git/commit/?id%3Dd49957ef021e256f19092c907d127390d39ec1ed][this]]:
* 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
additional information that the committer wishes to provide in order
to explain the patch.
- If the change is a minor change made by a committer without
copyright assignment to the FSF, the commit message should also
contain the cookie =TINYCHANGE= (anywhere in the message). When we
later produce the ChangeLog file for Emacs, the change will be
marked appropriately.
- Variables and functions names are quoted like `this' (backquote and
single quote).
- 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
- Aaron Jensen
- Abdó Roig-Maranges
- Achim Gratz
- Adam Elliott
- Adam Porter
- Adam Spiers
- Alan Schmitt
- Alex Branham
- Alexey Lebedeff
- Allen Li
- Andreas Burtzlaff
- Andreas Leha
- Andrew Hyatt
- Andrzej Lichnerowicz
- Andy Steward
- Anthony John Day
- Anthony Lander
- Arni Magnusson
- Arun Isaac
- Baoqiu Cui
- Barry Leonard Gidden
- Bastien Guerry
- Benjamin Andresen
- Bernd Grobauer
- Bernt Hansen
- Bjarte Johansen
- Brian James Gough
- Brice Waegenire
- Carlos Pita
- Carsten Dominik
- Charles Berry
- Charles Sebold
- Christian Egli
- Christian Garbs
- Christian Moe
- Christopher League
- Christopher Miles Gray
- Christopher Schmidt
- Christopher Suckling
- Clément Pit--Claudel
- Dan Davison
- Daniel M German
- Daniel M.\nbsp{}Hackney
- David Arroyo Menéndez
- David Maus
- David O'Toole
- Dieter Schoen
- Dima Kogan
- Dmitry Antipov
- Don March
- Emmanuel Charpentier
- Eric Abrahamsen
- Eric Schulte
- Eric S.\nbsp{}Fraga
- Erik Hetzner
- Erik Iverson
- Ethan Ligon
- Feng Shu
- Florian Lindner
- Francesco Pizzolante
- Frederick Giasson
- Gary Oberbrunner
- George Kettleborough
- Georg Lehner
- Giovanni Ridolfi
- Grégoire Jadi (aka Daimrod)
- Gustav Wikström
- Henning Dietmar Weiss
- Henry Blevins
- Ian Barton
- Ian Dunn
- Ian Kelling
- Ilya Shlyakhter
- Ingo Lohmar
- Ippei Furuhashi
- Jack Kamm
- Jake Romer
- James TD Smith
- Jan Böcker
- Jan Malakhovski
- Jarmo Hurri
- Jason Riedy
- Jay Kamat
- Jay Kerns
- Jeffrey Ryan Horn
- Jens Lechtenboerg
- Joe Corneli
- Joel Boehland
- John Kitchin
- John Wiegley
- Jonas Bernoulli
- Jonathan Leech-Pepin
- Jon Snader
- José L.\nbsp{}Doménech
- Juan Pechiar
- Julian Gehring
- Julien Barnier
- Julien Danjou
- Justin Gordon
- Justus Piater
- Karl Fogel
- Kaushal Modi
- Kevin Brubeck Unhammer
- Kodi Arfer
- Konstantin Antipin
- Kyle Meyer
- Lambda Coder
- Lawrence Mitchell
- Lele Gaifax
- Lennart Borgman
- Leonard Avery Randall
- Le Wang
- Luis Anaya
- Lukasz Stelmach
- Madan Ramakrishnan
- Magnus Henoch
- Manuel Giraud
- Marcin Borkowski
- Marco Wahl
- Mark A.\nbsp{}Hershberger
- Martin Pohlack
- Martyn Jago
- Matt Lundin
- Max Mikhanosha
- Michael Albinus
- Michael Brand
- Michael Gauland
- Michael Sperber
- Miguel A.\nbsp{}Figueroa-Villanueva
- Mikael Fornius
- Moritz Ulrich
- Nathaniel Flath
- Nathan Neff
- Neil Jerram
- Nicholas Dokos
- Nicolas Berthier
- Nicolas Dudebout
- 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 Hudson
- Philip Rooke
- Phil Jackson
- Pierre Téchoueyres
- Pieter Praet
- Piotr Zielinski
- Puneeth Chaganti
- Rafael Laboissière
- Rainer M Krug
- Rasmus Pank Roulund
- Richard Kim
- Richard Klinda
- Richard Riley
- Rick Frankel
- Robert Michael Irelan
- Rüdiger Sonderfeld
- Russel Adams
- Ryo Takaishi
- Sacha Chua
- Samuel Loury
- Sebastian Miele
- Sebastian Reuße
- Sebastian Rose
- Sebastien Vauban
- Sergey Litvinov
- Seweryn Kokot
- Simon Michael
- Siraphob Phipathananunth
- Stardiviner
- Stephen Eglen
- Steven Rémot
- Suvayu Ali
- Takaaki Ishikawa
- Tassilo Horn
- T.F.\nbsp{}Torrey
- Thibault Marin
- Thierry Banel
- Thomas Baumann
- Thomas Fitzsimmons
- Thomas Holst
- Thomas S.\nbsp{}Dye
- Thorsten Jolitz
- Tim Burt
- Tim Landscheidt
- Titus von der Malsburg
- Toby Cubitt
- Tokuya Kameshima
- Tomas Hlavaty
- Tom Breton
- Tom Gillespie
- Tony Day
- Toon Claes
- Trevor Murphy
- Ulf Stegemann
- Vitalie Spinu
- Vladimir Panteleev
- Yann Hodique
- Yasushi Shoji
- Yoshinari Nomura
- Yuri D.\nbsp{}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.
- Brian Carlson [2016-05-24 Tue]
- 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.
- Aaron L.\nbsp{}Zeng
- Abhishek Chandratre
- Adam Aviv
- Aliaksey Artamonau
- Aman Yang
- Anders Johansson
- Andrew Burgess
- Andrew Eggenberger
- Andrii Kolomoiets
- Andy Lutomirski
- Anthony Cowley
- Anton Latukha
- Arun Persaud
- Aurélien Aptel
- Austin Walker
- Axel Kielhorn
- Brad Knotwell
- Brian Carlson
- Cheong Yiu Fung
- Christian Schwarzgruber
- Chunyang Xu
- Craig Tanis
- Daniel Peres Gomez
- Derek Feichtinger
- Dima Gerasimov
- Dominik Schrempf
- Doro Rose
- Eduardo Bellani
- Eric Danan
- Federico Beffa
- Feng Zhou
- Fernando Varesi
- Florian Beck
- Francesco Montanari
- Galen Menzel
- Georgiy Tugai
- Gong Qijian
- Gregor Zattler
- Greg Tucker-Kellogg
- Hiroshi Saito
- Ivan Vilata i Balaguer
- Jack Henahan
- Jacob Gerlach
- Jacob Matthews
- Jakob Lombacher
- Jamie Forth
- Jan Seeger
- Jason Dunsmore
- Jason Furtney
- Jeff Larson
- Joaquín Aguirrezabalaga
- Joe Hirn
- John Foerch
- John Lee
- Jonas Hörsch
- Jon Miller
- Joost Diepenmaat
- Jose Robins
- Kévin Le Gouguec
- Kodi Arfer
- Konstantin Kliakhandler
- Kovacsics Robert
- Leslie Harlley Watter
- Leslie Watter
- Lixin Chin
- Luke Amdor
- Marc Ihm
- Mario Frasca
- Mario Martelli
- Marshall Flax
- Martin Šlouf
- Martin Vuk
- Matthew Gidden
- Matthew MacLean
- Matt Huszagh
- Matt Price
- Max Mouratov
- Michaël Cadilhac
- Michael O'Connor
- Michael Strey
- Michael Welle
- Michael Weylandt
- Mike Ivanov
- Mike McLean
- Miro Bezjak
- Moritz Kiefer
- Muchenxuan Tong
- Myles English
- Myq Larson
- Nathaniel Nicandro
- Nick Gunn
- Nicolò Balzarotti
- Peter Feigl
- Peter Moresi
- Philip (Pip Cet)
- Piet van Oostrum
- Renato Ferreira
- Renato Ferreira
- Richard Hansen
- Richard Lawrence
- Richard Y.\nbsp{}Kim (Kim)
- Roberto Huelga
- Robert P.\nbsp{}Goldman
- Roger Welsh
- Ruben Maher
- Sami Airaksinen
- Saulius Menkevičius
- Sebastien Le Maguer
- Sergey Gordienko
- Sigmund Tzeng
- Stefano Rodighiero
- Stefan-W.\nbsp{}Hahn
- Stig Brautaset
- Sylvain Chouleur
- Tadashi Hirata
- Teika Kazura
- Terje Larsen
- Thierry Pellé
- Thomas Alexander Gerds
- Thomas Plass
- Thomas Rikl
- Tobias Schlemmer
- Tom Hinton
- Vicente Vera Parra
- Viktor Rosenfeld
- Vladimir Lomov
- Wojciech Gac
- Xavier Martinez-Hidalgo
- Xi Shen
- York Zhao
- Yue Zhu
- Zane D.\nbsp{}Purvis
- Иван Трусков
(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.