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Part 5: Extending, forking ethically and contributing back

Part 5 of the book: build on other people's extensions fairly - extend without forking, fork when you must, keep credit and licenses right, and give your work back with pull requests, issues and reviews.

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Part 5: Extending, forking ethically and contributing back

This is the fifth part of Extension development: the book. Almost nobody writes an extension alone and from nothing. You build on the kernel, on other people's extensions and on libraries. This part is about doing that well: technically (how to change someone else's code without losing their updates) and fairly (how to keep their credit, respect their license and give your improvements back).

The chapters

GroupChapters
Changing someone else's codeExtending without forking, When to fork, and when not to, Forking on GitHub, step by step, Keeping a fork in sync with its source
FairnessRebranding ethically, Licenses and how they combine, Attribution and copyright notices
Giving backContributing back with pull requests, Pull request etiquette, Writing good issues, Commit messages the project can build a changelog from, Reviewing other people's work
Taking responsibilityAdopting an abandoned extension, The maintainer path, Growing the community through code
Case studiesPorting a package from another project with credit, A pull request to an upstream author

Three principles

  1. Change as little of other people's code as you can. The kernel and most extensions offer ways to change behavior from your own extension. A change you do not make to someone else's code is a change you never have to carry forward.
  2. Never take credit you did not earn. Keep every copyright line and author name. Add yours beside them.
  3. Give back what helps others. A fix you send back is a fix you no longer have to maintain alone, and the next person does not have to find the bug again.

Copyright assignment (CLA). The Exponential Foundation and 7x merge a code contribution to the core kernel (se7enxweb/exponential), sent in any form (pull request, patch, issue or mail), only after you have signed the Contributor Licensing Agreement. By signing and submitting, you assign the copyright in your contribution to the Exponential Foundation and 7x, which become its owners, and give up control over it: The Exponential Foundation and 7x may use, change, relicense and distribute it in any way, also under other licenses and in commercial products, without asking or paying you, and you cannot withdraw it or set conditions on it. Extending the kernel from your own extension, forking an extension, or publishing your own work is not affected. See Copyright assignment (CLA).

This part explains licenses the way developers need to understand them day to day. It is not legal advice. When money, a customer contract or a dispute is involved, ask someone qualified.

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This documentation is free documentation, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later.

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