# Contributing to `electron-installer-debian`

`electron-installer-debian` is a community-driven project. As such, we welcome and encourage all
sorts of contributions. They include, but are not limited to:

- Constructive feedback
- [Questions about usage](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-debian/blob/master/SUPPORT.md)
- [Bug reports / technical issues](#before-opening-bug-reportstechnical-issues)
- Documentation changes
- Feature requests
- [Pull requests](#filing-pull-requests)

We strongly suggest that before filing an issue, you search through the existing issues (both open
and closed) to see if it has already been filed by someone else.

This project is a part of the Electron ecosystem. As such, all contributions to this project follow
[Electron's code of conduct](https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
where appropriate.

## Before opening bug reports/technical issues

### Debugging

Troubleshooting suggestions can be found in the [support
documentation](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-debian/blob/master/SUPPORT.md#troubleshooting).

## Contribution suggestions

We use the label [`help wanted`](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-debian/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22) in the issue tracker to denote fairly-well-scoped-out bugs or feature requests that the community can pick up and work on. If any of those labeled issues do not have enough information, please feel free to ask constructive questions. (This applies to any open issue.)

## Filing Pull Requests

Here are some things to keep in mind as you file pull requests to fix bugs, add new features, etc.:

* Travis CI is used to make sure that the project builds packages as expected on the supported
  platforms, using supported Node.js versions.
* Unless it's impractical, please write tests for your changes. This will help us so that we can
  spot regressions much easier.
* If your PR changes the behavior of an existing feature, or adds a new feature, please add/edit
  the package's documentation. Files that will likely need to be updated include `README.md`.
* This project uses the [JavaScript Standard Style](https://standardjs.com/) as a coding convention.
  CI will fail if the PR does not conform to this standard.
* One of the philosophies of the project is to keep the code base as small as possible. If you are
  adding a new feature, think about whether it is appropriate to go into a separate Node module,
  and then be integrated into this project.
* If you are contributing a nontrivial change, please add an entry to `NEWS.md`. The format is
  similar to the one described at [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/).
* Please **do not** bump the version number in your pull requests, the maintainers will do that.
  Feel free to indicate whether the changes require a major, minor, or patch version bump, as
  prescribed by the [semantic versioning specification](http://semver.org/).
* Once your pull request is approved, please make sure your commits are rebased onto the latest
  commit in the master branch, and that you limit/squash the number of commits created to a
  "feature"-level. For instance:

bad:

```
commit 1: add foo option
commit 2: standardize code
commit 3: add test
commit 4: add docs
commit 5: add bar option
commit 6: add test + docs
```

good:

```
commit 1: add foo option
commit 2: add bar option
```

Squashing commits during discussion of the pull request is almost always unnecessary, and makes it
more difficult for both the submitters and reviewers to understand what changed in between comments.
However, rebasing is encouraged when practical, particularly when there's a merge conflict.

If you are continuing the work of another person's PR and need to rebase/squash, please retain the
attribution of the original author(s) and continue the work in subsequent commits.

## Running tests

A few of the tests require `lintian` to be installed.

## For collaborators

Make sure to get an approval from another collaborator before merging a PR.

### Release process

- if you aren't sure if a release should happen, open an issue
- create a release branch
- make sure that `NEWS.md` is up to date
- make sure the tests pass
- increment the version number appropriately, but not via `npm version` (we'll need to create the
  tag ourselves)
- push the release branch and create a PR
- once the PR's merged, `git checkout master && git pull && git tag $VERSION && git push --tags`
- create a new GitHub release from the pushed tag with the contents of `NEWS.md` for that version
- close the milestone associated with the version if one is open
- `npm publish`