@c -*- coding: us-ascii; mode: texinfo; -*-

@node Introduction to contributing
@chapter Introduction to contributing


@menu
* Overview of tasks::
* For unix developers::
* For other contributors::
@end menu


@node Overview of tasks
@section Overview of tasks


FIXME: The intro should contain the "help us" material from web/,
quite possibly as the very first thing.  This requires having a
macro for it, which depends on issue 939.


@node For unix developers
@section For unix developers


To download the LilyPond Git repository:

@example
git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/lilypond.git
@end example

Documentation is built using Texinfo.  Subscribe to the
developers' mailing list at
@uref{http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel} and
send well-formed Git patches to @uref{mailto::lilypond-devel@@gnu.org} for
discussion.


@node For other contributors
@section For other contributors


The LilyPond source code is maintained as a Git repository, which
contains:

@itemize
@item
all of the source files needed to build LilyPond, and

@item
a record of the entire history of every change made to every file
since the program was born.
@end itemize

The @q{official} LilyPond Git repository is hosted by the GNU
Savannah software forge at @uref{http://git.sv.gnu.org}.
Although, since Git uses a @q{distributed} model, technically
there is no central repository.  Instead, each contributor keeps a
complete copy of the entire repository (about 116M).

Changes made within one contributor's copy of the repository can
be shared with other contributors using @emph{patches}.  A patch
is a simple text file generated by the @code{git} program that
indicates what changes have been made (using a special format).
If a contributor's patch is approved for inclusion (usually
through the mailing list), someone on the current development team
will @emph{apply} (or @q{push}) the patch to the official
repository.

Compiling (@q{building}) LilyPond allows developers to see how
changes to the source code affect the program itself.  Compiling
is also needed to package the program for specific operating
systems or distributions.  LilyPond can be compiled from a local
Git repository (for developers), or from a downloaded tarball (for
packagers).  Compiling LilyPond is a rather involved process, and
most contributor tasks do not require it.