|
|
- The main goal is this post is to document a bugfix I made as a part of RIT's HFOSS class.
- However, I feel that documenting the process of making a bugfix will help other people looking to contribute towards open source projects.
-
- # Identify the Bug
-
- The first step in a bug fix quest is to find a bug.
- If you happen to find a bug, it is important that you check current issues to make sure that that bug has not already been reported.
- If you have no clue where to begin, I found it helpful to look for issues tagged as
- help wanted in a repository.
-
-
- The other day I was notified about an issue opened on the RITlug (RIT Linux Users Group) website.
- I got this notification via Github.
- If you are active on a project, it is useful to be subscribed to their mailing list or issue tracker so you are alerted when a issue that you can work on comes up.
- I really like Github because it gives you a lot of freedom in what issues/users/projects you are notified about.
-
- [https://github.com/RITlug/ritlug.github.io/issues/263](https://github.com/RITlug/ritlug.github.io/issues/263)
-
- Since I had familiarity with web development and was flagged as help wanted, I decided to fix this issue.
-
- # Communicate with Project
-
- After you find a bug it is best to communicate with the project that you wish to fix this bug.
- In my case I did this by leaving a comment on the issue and assigning the issue to myself.
- This is very helpful because on very active projects, if you don't assign yourself the issue, there is a chance that two or more people would try to fix the issue at the same time.
- Making yourself know for solving the issue is also enables you initiate a dialog with other people in the project interested in this issue.
- This is also a great time to solicit feedback about how exactly the issue should get resolved.
-
- # Fix the Bug
-
- Just do it!
- For the bug that I found I just had to modify some HTML and validate that it worked by running the
- [Jeckyll](https://jekyllrb.com/) project.
-
- # Submit Patch and Make Additional Changes
-
- The last thing you need to do is submit your code for a code review so you can get your changes merged into the project.
- To do this on Github you simply file a pull request.
- This is where I find that a lot of back and forth happens.
- Code reviews are places for you to fix mistakes, resolve, misunderstandings and improve
- your code in general.
- If you are reviewing code it is essential to give constructive feedback so people can effectively
- work on the project.
|
