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Onboarding
This document is an outline of the things we tell new Collaborators at their onboarding session.
One week before the onboarding session
- Ask the new Collaborator if they are using two-factor authentication on their GitHub account. If they are not, suggest that they enable it as their account will have elevated privileges in many of the Node.js repositories.
Fifteen minutes before the onboarding session
- Prior to the onboarding session, add the new Collaborators to the Collaborators team.
Onboarding session
- thank you for doing this
- will cover:
Local setup
-
git:
- make sure you have whitespace=fix:
git config --global --add core.whitespace fix
- usually PR from your own github fork
- See "Updating Node.js from Upstream"
- make new branches for all commits you make!
- make sure you have whitespace=fix:
-
notifications:
- use https://github.com/notifications or set up email
- watching the main repo will flood your inbox, so be prepared
-
#node-dev
on webchat.freenode.net is the best place to interact with the CTC / other collaborators
Project goals & values
-
collaborators are effectively part owners
- the project has the goals of its contributors
-
but, there are some higher-level goals and values
- not everything belongs in core (if it can be done reasonably in userland, let it stay in userland)
- empathy towards users matters (this is in part why we onboard people)
- generally: try to be nice to people
Managing the issue tracker
-
you have (mostly) free rein – don't hesitate to close an issue if you are confident that it should be closed
- IMPORTANT: be nice about closing issues, let people know why, and that issues and PRs can be reopened if necessary
- Still need to follow the Code of Conduct
-
- There is a bot that applies subsystem labels (for example,
doc
,test
,assert
, orbuffer
) so that we know what parts of the code base the pull request modifies. It is not perfect, of course. Feel free to apply relevant labels and remove irrelevant labels from pull requests and issues. - Use the
ctc-review
label if a topic is controversial or isn't coming to a conclusion after an extended time. semver-{minor,major}
:- If a change has the remote chance of breaking something, use the
semver-major
label - When adding a semver label, add a comment explaining why you're adding it. Do it right away so you don't forget!
- If a change has the remote chance of breaking something, use the
- There is a bot that applies subsystem labels (for example,
-
- will also come more naturally over time
Reviewing PRs
-
The primary goal is for the codebase to improve.
-
Secondary (but not far off) is for the person submitting code to succeed. A pull request from a new contributor is an opportunity to grow the community.
-
Review a bit at a time. Do not overwhelm new contributors.
- It is tempting to micro-optimize and make everything about relative performance. Don't succumb to that temptation. We change V8 often. Techniques that provide improved performance today may be unnecessary in the future.
-
Be aware: Your opinion carries a lot of weight!
-
Nits (requests for small changes that are not essential) are fine, but try to avoid stalling the pull request.
- Note that they are nits when you comment:
Nit: change foo() to bar().
- If they are stalling the pull request, fix them yourself on merge.
- Note that they are nits when you comment:
-
Minimum wait for comments time
- There is a minimum waiting time which we try to respect for non-trivial changes, so that people who may have important input in such a distributed project are able to respond.
- For non-trivial changes, leave the pull request open for at least 48 hours (72 hours on a weekend).
- If a pull request is abandoned, check if they'd mind if you took it over (especially if it just has nits left).
-
Approving a change
- Collaborators indicate that they have reviewed and approve of the
the changes in a pull request by commenting with
LGTM
, which stands for "looks good to me". - You have the power to
LGTM
another collaborator's (including TSC/CTC members) work. - You may not
LGTM
your own pull requests. - You have the power to
LGTM
anyone else's pull requests.
- Collaborators indicate that they have reviewed and approve of the
the changes in a pull request by commenting with
-
What belongs in node:
- opinions vary, but I find the following helpful:
- if node itself needs it (due to historic reasons), then it belongs in node
- that is to say, url is there because of http, freelist is there because of http, et al
- also, things that cannot be done outside of core, or only with significant pain (example: async-wrap)
-
Continuous Integration (CI) Testing:
- https://ci.nodejs.org/
- It is not automatically run. You need to start it manually.
- Log in on CI is integrated with GitHub. Try to log in now!
- You will be using
node-test-pull-request
most of the time. Go there now!- Consider bookmarking it: https://ci.nodejs.org/job/node-test-pull-request/
- To get to the form to start a job, click on
Build with Parameters
. (If you don't see it, that probably means you are not logged in!) Click it now! - To start CI testing from this screen, you need to fill in two elements on the form:
- The
CERTIFY_SAFE
box should be checked. By checking it, you are indicating that you have reviewed the code you are about to test and you are confident that it does not contain any malicious code. (We don't want people hijacking our CI hosts to attack other hosts on the internet, for example!) - The
PR_ID
box should be filled in with the number identifying the pull request containing the code you wish to test. For example, if the URL for the pull request ishttps://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/7006
, then put7006
in thePR_ID
. - The remaining elements on the form are typically unchanged with the exception of
POST_STATUS_TO_PR
. Check that if you want a CI status indicator to be automatically inserted into the PR.
- The
- If you need help with something CI-related:
- Use #node-dev (IRC) to talk to other Collaborators.
- Use #node-build (IRC) to talk to the Build WG members who maintain the CI infrastructure.
- Use the Build WG repo to file issues for the Build WG members who maintain the CI infrastructure.
- https://ci.nodejs.org/
Landing PRs
Exercise: Make a PR adding yourself to the README
- Example: https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/7b09aade8468e1c930f36b9c81e6ac2ed5bc8732
- For raw commit message:
git log 7b09aade8468e1c930f36b9c81e6ac2ed5bc8732 -1
- For raw commit message:
- Collaborators are in alphabetical order by GitHub username.
- Label your pull request with the
doc
subsystem label. - Run CI on your PR.
- After a
LGTM
or two, land the PR.- Be sure to add the
PR-URL: <full-pr-url>
and appropriateReviewed-By:
metadata!
- Be sure to add the
Final notes
- don't worry about making mistakes: everybody makes them, there's a lot to internalize and that takes time (and we recognize that!)
- very few (no?) mistakes are unrecoverable
- the existing collaborators trust you and are grateful for your help!
- other repos: