How to contribute to Scilab
For minor modifications or documentation update or debug, there is no need to sign the Scilab Contribution Agreement. The patch can be submitted to the developers mailing list or posted as a comment added to the related bug report in the Scilab Bug Tracker. If relevant, Scilab R&D team will apply the patch in the current Scilab development version.
For more important modifications or to modify directly Scilab source code, Scilab Contribution Agreement signing is mandatory. Signing this agreement gives to the contributor a write access to Scilab source code using GIT with the following capabilities:
- Add/remove functionalities (After submitting and acknowledgement of a proposal for development, SEP)
- Modify/improve Scilab help pages
To become a Scilab Contributor Please contact us at contribute@scilab-enterprises.com and explain what you want to do in Scilab, etc. We will send you necessary steps to follow and the legal documents to become an official Scilab Contributor.
First Step: Legal aspects
Second step: Technical aspects
Guidelines
- You need to work either from the Scilab master or from the current Scilab branch (for instance, in 2017-2018, the 6.0 branch).
- Update from the master branch often since it is moving fast.
Want to fix a bug yourself?
It is pretty easy and detailed on this page: How to close a bug in Scilab
I want to help but I don't how where to start ?
There are some easy tasks:
Fix some potential C/C++ errors (many are easy to fix): https://scan.coverity.com/projects/scilab
Help with the Localization on https://translations.launchpad.net/scilab/
Fix some easy bugs: http://bugzilla.scilab.org/
Provide examples for the help pages and send them to dev@lists.scilab.org
Provide demos for Scilab and send them to dev@lists.scilab.org
Write non-regression tests for open bugs for test_run
Not a Scilab Contributor? Send us your modifications
If you are not a Scilab Contributor, you have to send us a patch that we will apply against the master or a specific branch.
First, you need to commit locally your modification. You have to use git add to select the modified/created files:
# git rm <files> # git add <modified files> <new files> <deleted files>
Second, commit them locally (git commit will work on list of files selected previously):
# git commit
Once all your changes are recorded in your local repository (using git commit), run the command:
# git format-patch origin
This command will generate a <commit comment>.patch file per commit. Then just send us these files (or attached them to the bug report) and we will apply these changes against the master.
If it is a feature listed on the page Ideas of development for Scilab, send an email to ou mailing list dev@lists.scilab.org or directly to us at contribute@scilab-enterprises.com with a brief explanation of your work.
Scilab Contributor? Commit your modifications
If your code does not break Scilab (for example a new module which can be disabled), you can commit as you like.
If there is a risk that it will break Scilab for a while, please restrain to commit as long as it is not working.
Don't forget that Scilab is supported under three different operating system (Apple Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows). While Mac & Linux are very similar, Windows is very different. Don't hesitate to send an email on the developer mailing list if you need help.
Development
We have a few rules in the code. See the dedicated URLs:
See you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.