1
2# Contributing to pyfakefs
3
4We welcome any contributions that help to improve pyfakefs for the community.
5Contributions may include bug reports, bug fixes, new features, infrastructure enhancements, or
6documentation updates.
7
8## How to contribute
9
10### Reporting Bugs
11
12If you think you found a bug in pyfakefs, you can [create an issue](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-issue/).
13Before filing the bug, please check, if it still exists in the [main branch](https://github.com/pytest-dev/pyfakefs).
14If you can reproduce the problem, please provide enough information so that it can be reproduced by other developers.
15This includes:
16  * The Operating System
17  * The Python version
18  * A minimal example to reproduce the problem (preferably in the form of a failing test)
19  * The stack trace in case of an unexpected exception.
20For better readability, you may use [markdown code formatting](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-and-highlighting-code-blocks/) for any included code.
21
22### Proposing Enhancements
23
24If you need a specific feature that is not implemented, or have an idea for the next
25exciting gimmick in pyfakefs, you can also create a respective issue.
26Of course - implementing it yourself is the best chance to get it done!
27The next item has some information on doing this.
28
29### Contributing Code
30
31The preferred workflow for contributing code is to
32[fork](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/) the [repository](https://github.com/pytest-dev/pyfakefs) on GitHub, clone it,
33develop on a feature branch, and [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request-from-a-fork) when done.
34There are a few things to consider for contributing code:
35  * We ensure the [PEP-8 coding style](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/)
36    by using [black](https://pypi.org/project/black/) auto-format in a
37    pre-commit hook; you can locally install
38    [pre-commit](https://pypi.org/project/pre-commit/) to run the linter
39    tests on check-in or on demand (`pre-commit run --all-files`)
40  * Use the [Google documentation style](https://google.github.io/styleguide/pyguide.html) to document new public classes or methods
41  * Provide unit tests for bug fixes or new functionality - check the existing tests for examples
42  * Provide meaningful commit messages - it is ok to amend the commits to improve the comments
43  * Check that the automatic GitHub Action CI tests all pass for your pull request
44  * Be ready to adapt your changes after a code review
45
46### Contributing Documentation
47
48If you want to improve the existing documentation, you can do this also using a pull request.
49You can contribute to:
50  * the source code documentation using [Google documentation style](https://google.github.io/styleguide/pyguide.html)
51  * the [README](https://github.com/pytest-dev/pyfakefs/blob/main/README.md) using [markdown syntax](https://help.github.com/articles/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax/)
52  * the documentation published on [Read the Docs](https://pytest-pyfakefs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/),
53    located in the `docs` directory (call `make html` from that directory).
54    For building the documentation, you will need [sphinx](http://sphinx.pocoo.org/).
55  * [this file](https://github.com/pytest-dev/pyfakefs/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
56  if you want to enhance the contributing guide itself
57
58Thanks for taking the time to contribute to pyfakefs!
59