# Contributing To Kamailio #

*First, thank you for taking the time to contribute to Kamailio project!*

The following is a set of guidelines for contributing to Kamailio sources and
documentation. Kamailio source tree is hosted in the [Kamailio Organization](https://github.com/kamailio) on GitHub.

These are intended to be more like guidelines to keep everything consistent and
coherent, not very strict rules. Use your best judgment and feel free to propose
changes to this document in a pull request.

### Table Of Contents ###

  * [Overview](#overview)
  * [Contributing Code Or Content](#contributing-code-or-content)
    * [Basic Rules](#basic-rules)
    * [Commit Message Rules](#commit-message-rules)
      * [Commit Message Format](#commit-message-format)
      * [Commit Message Content](#commit-message-content)
      * [Commit Message Examples](#commit-message-examples)
      * [See Also](#see-also)
  * [Reporting Issues](#reporting-issues)
  * [Issue And PR Automatic Management](#issue-and-pr-automatic-management)
  * [License](#license)
    * [License Of New Code Contributions](#license-of-new-code-contributions)
  * [Further Assistance](#further-assistance)

## Overview ##

Kamailio is a community managed project, with developers world wide. Any
contribution to code or documentation is very welcome and appreciated.

In order to be easily able to track the changes and have a coherent ChangeLog
and commit history, there are several *rules* required for each contribution.

## Contributing Code Or Content ##

### Basic Rules ###

  * github pull request is the favorited mechanism to submit contributions
  (patches). See more about at:
    * [Github Docs On Proposing Changes With Pull Requests](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests)
    * the URL to Kamailio project pull requests portal:
    * https://github.com/kamailio/kamailio/pulls
  * make a pull request against **master branch**
    * commit can be later backported to stable branch(es)
  * make a pull request for each new feature
    * e.g., if you add a feature to usrloc module and an unrelated feature
    to auth module, then make two pull requests
  * it is ok (and sometime recommended) to have more than one commit per pull request
  * make a commit for each affected component. A component is considered to be:
    * the core
    * an internal library (code inside subfolder lib/)
    * a module (code inside subfolder modules/)
    * a tool (code inside subfolder utils/)
    * an example or main configs (files inside subfolders etc/ or misc/examples/)
  * commit message format **has to follow the rules** specified in the next section
  * commit message content **has to follow the rules** specified in the next section 
  * changes to the **README** file of a module **must not** be done directly in that
  file. Instead, edit the xml files located in **modules/modname/doc/** folder
    * to regenerate the README, run **make modules-readme modules=modules/modname**
    * docbook utils and xsl packages are needed for the above command to work
    * it is only necessary to modify and commit the xml doc file, the **README**
    will be regenerated by a automatic script that is executed every few hours
    * so if you modify an existing module **README** don't commit the changes
    of this file to the git repository
    * if you create a new module that includes also a **README** file, you
    need to commit the README to the git repository one time
  * code **should** be formatted with **clang-format** or to match the style of
  the component that the commit applies to. The `.clang-format` file is part of
  Kamailio source code tree, in the root folder.
  * new function exports to the configuration **must** be done both as native
  configuration export and KEMI function export.
  * new introduced module parameters, functions and RPC commands **must**
  be documented in the module documentation.
  * new introduced pseudo-variables and transformations **must** be
  documented in the wiki.

### Commit Message Rules ###

#### Commit Message Format ####

Please create the commit messages following the GIT convention:

  * start with one short line, preferably less than 50 chars summarizing the
  changes (this is referred later as "first line of the commit message")
  * then one empty line
  * then a more detailed description (the "commit message content")

#### First Line Of The Commit Message ####

Think of the first line as of an email "Subject" line. In fact it will be used
as "Subject" in the generated commit emails and it will also be used when
generating the Changelog (e.g. git log --pretty=oneline).


The first line (subject has to contain meaningful text about what that commit
does, do not put just a reference to bug tracker or pull request items

Please start always with the prefix of the component (subsystem) that is modified
by the commit, for example:
  * `core`: more fixup helper functions
    * `core`: tcp - support for haproxy protocol
    * `core`: mem - added faster malloc
  * `modname`: support for foo rfc extension
    * `usrloc`: support for gruu rfc extension
  * `lib`: srutils - critical bug fix for abc case
  * `etc`: kamailio.cfg - added core reply route block
  * `misc`: examples/kemi lua - added debug callback function
  * `kamctl`: added support for management of module xyz

It is acceptable to use slightly different formats, like `etc/kamailio.cfg: ...`
instead of `etc: kamailio.cfg - ...` or `modules/usrloc: ...` instead of
`usrloc: ...`, the important aspect is to indicate the component where the
changes were done.

At the end of the first line some CI flags can be added. Available at this
moment:

  * `[skip ci]` - skip continuous integration builds for source code, recommended
  to be added when updating documentation, example configs or other utilities.
  Example:
    * `msilo: docs - updated example for m_dump() function [skip ci]`

#### Commit Message Content ####

* commit message must describe the changes done by the patch
    * other details (e.g., how to reproduce, backtrace, sip packets, ...) belong
    to content (comments) of the pull request. Example of a full commit message:
```
core: added latency_limit_cfg global parameter

- print execution time for configuration script only if it exceeds this value
- default is 0 - print always (behaviour so far)
- it is printed to latency_cfg_log level
```
  * avoid emoticons and non-technical statements in commit messages
    * e.g., if it was a feature request by John Smith, don't mention that in
    commit message, especially don't write it owns you now a beer
  * credits can be given within commit message as a short statement, mentioning
  the name of the person or entity
    * for commits introducing a new module, credits must not be included in the
    commit message, being expected that the respective entity will own the
    copyright and it is reflected in the README or copyright header of each file
  * when the case, make references in the commit body (not in the subject/first line)
  to the items on bug tracker or pull requests, using GH #XYZ
  -- replace XYZ with issue number id. Example:

```
dialplan: basic safety for concurrent rpc reload

- reported by GH #1874
```
  * commits related to reports by static analyzers or other tools must describe
  what was fixed or changed. The tool, if a well known one, can be mentioned in
  the body of the commit message, after the technical details presenting the
  changes. For example, do not use commit messages like:
```
...: fix for whatever-tool reports
```
  * do not reference non-public resources (e.g., private links, id of non-public
  static analyzer reports,  ...). For example, do not use commit messages like:
```
...: fix for whatever-tool report #1234
```
```
...: fix for http://private-tracker.lab/1234
```
  * do not mention any developer name or yourself when fixing an issue introduced
  by an old commit done by that developer or you. That commit can be referenced
  by hash id.

#### Commit Message Examples ####

  * changes to usrloc module from modules

```
usrloc: fixed name conflict

- destroy_avps() renamed to reg_destroy_avps() to avoid conflicts
  with the usr_avp.h version
```

  * changes to core

```
core: loadpath can now use a list of directories

- loadpath can use a list of directories separated by ':',
  e.g.: loadpath "modules:modules_s:modules_k".
  First match wins (e.g. for loadmodule "textops" if
  modules/textops.so or modules/textops/textops.so exists, it will
  be loaded and the search will stop).
```

  * changes to `etc/kamailio.cfg` file

```
etc: kamailio.cfg - set load_backends to 1 for permissions module

- the config uses only address table

```

#### See Also ####

  * [Creating Good Commit Messages](http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html#creating-good-commit-messages)
  * http://www.tpope.net/node/106

The above content about commit message format is taken from Kamailio wiki page:
  * https://www.kamailio.org/wikidocs/devel/git-commit-guidelines
  * it is recommended you read that one as well.

### Developer Access ###

  * developer access (commit rights) to Kamailio GIT repository is granted to
  people that contribute relevant components (e.g., modules) or have consistent
  contributions over a long interval of time
  * each developer has to create an account on github.com portal. The
  `developerid` is the username on github.com portal
  * after getting developer access, it is still recommended to use pull request
  for commits done to other components of Kamailio, to allow the main developer
  of the component as well as the other developers to review the changes
  * commits to own components can be pushed directly, without a pull request.
  However, if the developer wants other people to review the changes, using a
  pull request is the way to do it
  * personal branches of developers done inside Kamailio GIT repository must be
  prefixed with `developerid/`, e.g., `alice/new-feature`. Do not use just
  `new-feature` or `alice-new-feature` or other variant without `developerid/`
  * the [Contributions Basic Rules](#basic-rules) from the sections above have
  to be followed as well after getting developer access

## Reporting Issues ##

Whenever reporting an issue, along with the description of the problems, try to
include following details:

  * kamailio version you are using
    * the output of: **kamailio -v**
  * the operating system being used
  * the CPU architecture

Always useful to have:

  * whenever there is a crash with a corefile, send the backtrace
    * the output of **bt full** in **gbd**
  * log messages printed by kamailio in syslog file
  * *pcap* or *ngrep* capture of SIP packets causing the issue
  * config file snippets which expose the issues

Note: replace any sensitive information in the content you add to the issue
(e.g., passwords in modparams can be replaced with xyz, each IP address can be
replaced with tokens like a.b.c.d, f.g.h.j).

## Issue And PR Automatic Management ##

This section presents details about the automatic management of potential bug
reports and requests for new features using github actions.

Kamailio is an open source collaborative project, in order to be fair for those
that volunteer to spend time and resources for development of Kamailio, the users
have to stay engaged, not just report and forget about.

To reduce the work load on volunteering contributors, GitHub Actions are used
for various tasks related to project development and management (e.g., automatic
builds on commits and pull requests to detect compile errors or code formatting
mistakes).

One task managed with GitHub Actions is related to the check of open
issues and pull requests to evaluate the interest of submitter, developers and
community users. If there is no activity on an issue (potential bug or feature
request) or a pull request, after 6 weeks it is marked with the label `stale`.
After two more weeks of no activity, the issue or the pull request is marked
with the label `expired` and closed.

A registered developer can remove labels and reopen a closed issue or pull
request. The other contributors have to make a comment that includes the token
`/notstale` to remove the label `stale` or includes the token `/notexpired` to
reopen a closed item.

## License ##

Kamailio Main License: *GPLv2*.

Each source code file refers to the license and copyright details in the top
of the file. Most of the code is licensed under GPLv2 (with the "any later
version" clause), some parts of the code are licensed under BSD.

### License Of New Code Contributions ###

New contributions to the core and several main modules (auth, corex, sl, tls,
tm) have to be done under the BSD license. New contributions under the GPL must
grant the GPL-OpenSSL linking exception. Contributions to existing components
released under BSD must be done under BSD as well.

## Further Assistance ###

For any question, do not hesitate to contact other developers via mailing list:

  * **[sr-dev [at] lists.kamailio.org](https://lists.kamailio.org/mailman3/postorius/lists/sr-dev.lists.kamailio.org/)**
