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diff --git a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md index 9a05b2b0f1..0148003d2a 100644 --- a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -1,212 +1,3 @@ -## Contributing - -### Start a Project Using Zig - -One of the best ways you can contribute to Zig is to start using it for a -personal project. Here are some great examples: - - * [TM35-Metronome](https://github.com/TM35-Metronome) - tools for modifying and randomizing Pokémon games - * [River](https://github.com/ifreund/river/) - a dynamic tiling wayland compositor - -More examples can be found on the -[Community Projects Wiki](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/Community-Projects). - -Without fail, these projects lead to discovering bugs and helping flesh out use -cases, which lead to further design iterations of Zig. Importantly, each issue -found this way comes with real world motivations, so it is easy to explain -your reasoning behind proposals and feature requests. - -Ideally, such a project will help you to learn new skills and add something -to your personal portfolio at the same time. - -### Spread the Word - -Another way to contribute is to write about Zig, or speak about Zig at a -conference, or do either of those things for your project which uses Zig. -Here are some examples: - - * [Iterative Replacement of C with Zig](http://tiehuis.github.io/blog/zig1.html) - * [The Right Tool for the Right Job: Redis Modules & Zig](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCHM8-_poZY) - * [Writing a small ray tracer in Rust and Zig](https://nelari.us/post/raytracer_with_rust_and_zig/) - -Zig is a brand new language, with no advertising budget. Word of mouth is the -only way people find out about the project, and the more people hear about it, -the more people will use it, and the better chance we have to take over the -world. - -### Finding Contributor Friendly Issues - -Please note that issues labeled -[Proposal](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aproposal) -but do not also have the -[Accepted](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aaccepted) -label are still under consideration, and efforts to implement such a proposal -have a high risk of being wasted. If you are interested in a proposal which is -still under consideration, please express your interest in the issue tracker, -providing extra insights and considerations that others have not yet expressed. -The most highly regarded argument in such a discussion is a real world use case. - -The issue label -[Contributor Friendly](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22contributor+friendly%22) -exists to help you find issues that are **limited in scope and/or -knowledge of Zig internals.** - -### Editing Source Code - -First, build the Stage 1 compiler as described in -[Building Zig From Source](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/Building-Zig-From-Source). - -Zig locates lib files relative to executable path by searching up the -filesystem tree for a sub-path of `lib/zig/std/std.zig` or `lib/std/std.zig`. -Typically the former is an install and the latter a git working tree which -contains the build directory. - -During development it is not necessary to perform installs when modifying -stage1 or userland sources and in fact it is faster and simpler to run, -test and debug from a git working tree. - -- `make` is typically sufficient to build zig during development iterations. -- `make install` performs a build __and__ install. -- `msbuild -p:Configuration=Release INSTALL.vcxproj` on Windows performs a -build and install. To avoid install, pass cmake option `-DZIG_NO_LIB=ON`. - -To test changes, do the following from the build directory: - -1. Run `make` (on POSIX) or - `msbuild -p:Configuration=Release INSTALL.vcxproj` (on Windows). -2. `$BUILD_DIR/zig build test` (on POSIX) or - `$BUILD_DIR/Release\zig.exe build test` (on Windows). - -That runs the whole test suite, which does a lot of extra testing that you -likely won't always need, and can take upwards of 1 hour. This is what the -CI server runs when you make a pull request. (Note: actually it runs a few -more tests; keep reading.) - -To save time, you can add the `--help` option to the `zig build` command and -see what options are available. One of the most helpful ones is -`-Dskip-release`. Adding this option to the command in step 2 above will take -the time down from around 2 hours to about 6 minutes, and this is a good -enough amount of testing before making a pull request. - -Another example is choosing a different set of things to test. For example, -`test-std` instead of `test` will only run the standard library tests, and -not the other ones. Combining this suggestion with the previous one, you could -do this: - -`$BUILD_DIR/bin/zig build test-std -Dskip-release` (on POSIX) or -`$BUILD_DIR/Release\zig.exe build test-std -Dskip-release` (on Windows). - -This will run only the standard library tests, in debug mode only, for all -targets (it will cross-compile the tests for non-native targets but not run -them). - -When making changes to the compiler source code, the most helpful test step to -run is `test-behavior`. When editing documentation it is `docs`. You can find -this information and more in the `--help` menu. - -#### Testing Changes to std lib - -To quickly test a change to a file in the standard library, you can run zig test and specify a custom lib directory with the follow command-line argument. - -```bash -./build/zig test lib/std/fmt.zig --zig-lib-dir lib --main-pkg-path lib/std -``` - -#### Testing Non-Native Architectures with QEMU - -The Linux CI server additionally has qemu installed and sets `-fqemu`. -This provides test coverage for, e.g. aarch64 even on x86_64 machines. It's -recommended for Linux users to install qemu and enable this testing option -when editing the standard library or anything related to a non-native -architecture. - -##### glibc - -Testing foreign architectures with dynamically linked glibc is one step trickier. -This requires enabling `--glibc-runtimes /path/to/glibc/multi/install/glibcs`. -This path is obtained by building glibc for multiple architectures. This -process for me took an entire day to complete and takes up 65 GiB on my hard -drive. The CI server does not provide this test coverage. Instructions for -producing this path can be found -[on the wiki](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/Updating-libc#glibc). -Just the part with `build-many-glibcs.py`. - -It's understood that most contributors will not have these tests enabled. - -#### Testing Windows from a Linux Machine with Wine - -When developing on Linux, another option is available to you: `-fwine`. -This will enable running behavior tests and std lib tests with Wine. It's -recommended for Linux users to install Wine and enable this testing option -when editing the standard library or anything Windows-related. - -#### Testing WebAssembly using wasmtime - -If you have [wasmtime](https://wasmtime.dev/) installed, take advantage of the -`-fwasmtime` flag which will enable running WASI behavior tests and std -lib tests. It's recommended for all users to install wasmtime and enable this -testing option when editing the standard library and especially anything -WebAssembly-related. - -#### Improving Translate-C - -Please read the [Editing Source Code](#editing-source-code) section as a -prerequisite to this one. - -`translate-c` is a feature provided by Zig that converts C source code into -Zig source code. It powers the `zig translate-c` command as well as -[@cImport](https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#cImport), allowing Zig -code to not only take advantage of function prototypes defined in .h files, -but also `static inline` functions written in C, and even some macros. - -This feature works by using libclang API to parse and semantically analyze -C/C++ files, and then based on the provided AST and type information, -generating Zig AST, and finally using the mechanisms of `zig fmt` to render -the Zig AST to a file. - -The relevant tests for this feature are: - - * `test/run_translated_c.zig` - each test case is C code with a `main` function. The C code - is translated into Zig code, compiled, and run, and tests that the expected output is the - same, and that the program exits cleanly. This kind of test coverage is preferred, when - possible, because it makes sure that the resulting Zig code is actually viable. - - * `test/stage1/behavior/translate_c_macros.zig` - each test case consists of a Zig test - which checks that the relevant macros in `test/stage1/behavior/translate_c_macros.h`. - have the correct values. Macros have to be tested separately since they are expanded by - Clang in `run_translated_c` tests. - - * `test/translate_c.zig` - each test case is C code, with a list of expected strings which - must be found in the resulting Zig code. This kind of test is more precise in what it - measures, but does not provide test coverage of whether the resulting Zig code is valid. - -This feature is self-hosted, even though Zig is not fully self-hosted yet. In the Zig source -repo, we maintain a C API on top of Clang's C++ API: - - * `src/zig_clang.h` - the C API that we maintain on top of Clang's C++ API. This - file does not include any Clang's C++ headers. Instead, C types and C enums are defined - here. - - * `src/zig_clang.cpp` - a lightweight wrapper that fulfills the C API on top of the - C++ API. It takes advantage of `static_assert` to make sure we get compile errors when - Clang's C++ API changes. This one file necessarily does include Clang's C++ headers, which - makes it the slowest-to-compile source file in all of Zig's codebase. - - * `src/clang.zig` - the Zig equivalent of `src/zig_clang.h`. This is a manually - maintained list of types and functions that are ABI-compatible with the Clang C API we - maintain. In theory this could be generated by running translate-c on `src/zig_clang.h`, - but that would introduce a dependency cycle, since we are using this file to implement - translate-c. - -Finally, the actual source code for the translate-c feature is -`src/translate_c.zig`. This code uses the Clang C API exposed by -`src/clang.zig`, and produces Zig AST. - -The steps for contributing to translate-c look like this: - - 1. Identify a test case you want to improve. Add it as a run-translated-c test - case (usually preferable), or as a translate-c test case. - - 2. Edit `src/translate_c.zig` to improve the behavior. - - 3. Run the relevant tests: `./zig build test-run-translated-c test-translate-c` +Please see the +[Contributing](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/wiki/Contributing) +page on the wiki. |