Add contribution guidelines

This will help GitHub link potential developers to how to contribute to
ConnectBot and lead to a smoother contribution process.

1 files changed, 60 insertions, 0 deletions

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+# How to contribute
+
+ConnectBot is maintained by a small number of people and we don't have access to the device models that everyone may have. We want your help in solving issues that make ConnectBot a better client. Here are a few guidelines that we ask contributors to follow.
+
+## Getting started
+
+* Make sure you have a [GitHub account](https://github.com/signup/free)
+* [Open an issue](https://github.com/connectbot/connectbot/issues) if one doesn't already exist
+* Fork the repository on GitHub and then clone:
+  * `git clone git@github.com:your-username/connectbot.git`
+* Try to build for the first time:
+  * `./gradlew assemble`
+* Run the tests:
+  * `./gradlew test`
+
+## Making changes
+
+* Create a topic branch from where you want to base your work.
+  * This should be based off the master branch.
+  * To create a topic branch based on master:
+    * `git checkout -b my_fix master`
+  * Make commits of logical units
+  * Make sure your commit messages are in the proper format (from [Pro Git chapter 5.2](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Distributed-Git-Contributing-to-a-Project)).
+````
+    Short (50 chars or less) summary of changes
+
+    More detailed explanatory text, if necessary.  Wrap it to
+    about 72 characters or so.  In some contexts, the first
+    line is treated as the subject of an email and the rest of
+    the text as the body.  The blank line separating the
+    summary from the body is critical (unless you omit the body
+    entirely); tools like rebase can get confused if you run
+    the two together.
+
+    Further paragraphs come after blank lines.
+
+        - Bullet points are okay, too
+
+        - Typically a hyphen or asterisk is used for the bullet,
+          preceded by a single space, with blank lines in
+          between, but conventions vary here
+````
+  * Make sure you have added necessary tests to your changes.
+  * Check for unnecessary whitespace:
+    * `git diff --check`
+  * Make sure no new Android lint issues pop up:
+    * `./gradlew lint`
+    * Read the output to see if any of your newly-added or changed lines have lint errors.
+  * Make sure all the checks and tests pass:
+    * `./gradlew check test`
+
+## Submitting changes
+
+* Push your changes to a topic branch in your fork of the repository.
+* Start a [pull request](https://github.com/connectbot/connectbot/compare/) for ConnectBot.
+  
+## Additional resources
+
+* [#connectbot IRC channel](http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23connectbot&uio=OT10cnVlJjExPTIwNQa5) on [Freenode](https://freenode.net/).
+