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08 Contribute to an open-source project on GitHub.md

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08 Contribute to an open-source project on GitHub.md

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https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/contribute-open-source/

Basic steps to find an open source repo, with a more constructive and spam-avoiding set of instructions than "Hacktoberfest".

Auditing suitability

A list of things to look at when considering contributing to a project:

  • Does it have a license?
  • Are issues and pull request discussions used actively by maintainers and contributors?
  • Does the project use labels like help wanted or good first issue for newcomers?
  • Does the project have a code of conduct?
  • Does the project have clear Contributing Guidelines?

Commit message guidance

  • Should complete the sentence "If applied, this commit will x"
  • Use imperative present tense, e.g. "add" not "added" or "adds".
  • Limit to 50 chars.
  • Start with capital letter and don't end with a ".".

Interesting that the tense differs from what I naturally use, which is apparently "third person singular present tense", e.g. "Adds new file".

I hadn't noticed that GitHub uses this for all their commits (e.g. "Update x", "Create x", "Merge x"), might as well train myself to copy their style... starting with the commit of this file!

Exercise

There's a very funny repository seemingly used solely to teach people how to fork / clone / edit / commit / push / raise PR: https://github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions

The repo automerges any PR that only adds one line to Contributors.md, and has almost 90k currently merged PRs(!). Some of the merged PRs mention university, so it seems like this is homework for some, very cool to see!