Do not open issues for general support questions as we want to keep GitHub issues for bug reports and feature requests. You've got much better chances of getting your question answered on [Stack Exchange](https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/search?tab=newest&q=embark) where the questions should be tagged with tag `embark`.
Before you submit an issue, please search the issue tracker, maybe an issue for your problem already exists and the discussion might inform you of workarounds readily available.
We want to fix all the issues as soon as possible, but before fixing a bug we need to reproduce and confirm it. In order to reproduce bugs, we will systematically ask you to provide steps to reproduce your issue.
You can file new issues by filling out our [new issue form](https://github.com/embark-framework/embark/issues/new/choose).
### <a name="submit-pr"></a> Submitting a Pull Request (PR)
Before you submit your Pull Request (PR) consider the following guidelines:
1. Search [GitHub](https://github.com/embark-framework/embark/pulls) for an open or closed PR
that relates to your submission. You don't want to duplicate effort.
1. Fork the embark-framework/embark repo.
1. Make your changes in a new git branch:
```shell
git checkout -b my-fix-branch develop
```
1. Create your patch, **including appropriate test cases**.
1. Run the test suite, by running `$ npm run fulltest` and ensure that all tests pass.
1. Commit your changes using a descriptive commit message that follows our
[commit message conventions](#commit). Adherence to these conventions
is necessary because release notes are automatically generated from these messages.
```shell
git commit -a
```
Note: the optional commit `-a` command line option will automatically "add" and "rm" edited files.
1. Push your branch to GitHub:
```shell
git push origin my-fix-branch
```
1. In GitHub, send a pull request to `embark:develop`.
* If we suggest changes then:
* Make the required updates.
* Re-run the test suites to ensure tests are still passing.
* Rebase your branch and force push to your GitHub repository (this will update your Pull Request):
```shell
git rebase develop -i
git push -f
```
That's it! Thank you for your contribution!
#### After your pull request is merged
After your pull request is merged, you can safely delete your branch and pull the changes
from the main (upstream) repository:
* Delete the remote branch on GitHub either through the GitHub web UI or your local shell as follows:
```shell
git push origin --delete my-fix-branch
```
* Check out the develop branch:
```shell
git checkout develop -f
```
* Delete the local branch:
```shell
git branch -D my-fix-branch
```
* Update your develop with the latest upstream version:
```shell
git pull --ff upstream develop
```
## <a name="rules"></a> Coding Rules
To ensure consistency throughout the source code, keep these rules in mind as you are working:
We have very precise rules over how our git commit messages can be formatted. This leads to **more
readable messages** that are easy to follow when looking through the **project history**. But also,
we use the git commit messages to **generate the Embark change log**.
### Commit Message Format
Each commit message consists of a **header**, a **body** and a **footer**. The header has a special
format that includes a **type**, a **scope** and a **subject**:
```
<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANKLINE>
<body>
<BLANKLINE>
<footer>
```
The **header** is mandatory and the **scope** of the header is optional.
Any line of the commit message cannot be longer 100 characters! This allows the message to be easier
to read on GitHub as well as in various git tools.
The footer should contain a [closing reference to an issue](https://help.github.com/articles/closing-issues-via-commit-messages/) if any.
Samples:
```
docs(changelog): update changelog to beta.5
```
```
fix(release): need to depend on latest rxjs and zone.js
The version in our package.json gets copied to the one we publish, and users need the latest of these.
```
### Revert
If the commit reverts a previous commit, it should begin with `revert: `, followed by the header of the reverted commit. In the body it should say: `This reverts commit <hash>.`, where the hash is the SHA of the commit being reverted.
### Type
Must be one of the following:
* **build**: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies (example scopes: gulp, broccoli, npm)
* **ci**: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (example scopes: Travis, Circle, BrowserStack, SauceLabs)
* **docs**: Documentation only changes
* **feat**: A new feature
* **fix**: A bug fix
* **perf**: A code change that improves performance
* **refactor**: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
* **style**: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
* **test**: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
* **packaging**: used for changes that change the npm package layout in all of our packages, e.g. public path changes, package.json changes done to all packages, d.ts file/format changes, changes to bundles, etc.
* **changelog**: used for updating the release notes in CHANGELOG.md
* none/empty string: useful for `style`, `test` and `refactor` changes that are done across all packages (e.g. `style: add missing semicolons`)
