FAQ for contributors

This section contains some frequently asked questions and tips for troubleshooting problems in your code contribution.

How do I set my signature

Set your user.name for the repository.

$ git config --local user.name "FirstName LastName"

Set your user.email for the repository.

$ git config --local user.email "[email protected]"

Set your local repo to track changes upstream, on the docker repository.

Add a remote called upstream that points to docker/docker

$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/docker/docker.git

Run gofmt -s -w filename.go on each changed file before committing your changes. Most editors have plug-ins that do the formatting automatically.

Sync and cleanly rebase on top of Docker’s master; do not mix multiple branches in the pull request.
Squash your commits into logical units of work using git rebase -i and git push -f.
If your code requires a change to tests or documentation, include code,test, and documentation changes in the same commit as your code; this ensures a revert would remove all traces of the feature or fix.
Reference each issue in your pull request description (#XXXX).

The Go blog wrote about code comments, it is a single page explanation. A summary follows:

Comments begin with two forward // slashes.
To document a type, variable, constant, function, or even a package, write a regular comment directly preceding the elements declaration, with no intervening blank line.
Comments on package declarations should provide general package documentation.
For packages that need large amounts of introductory documentation: the package comment is placed in its own file.
Subsequent lines of text are considered part of the same paragraph; you must leave a blank line to separate paragraphs.
Indent pre-formatted text relative to the surrounding comment text (see gob’s doc.go for an example).
URLs are converted to HTML links; no special markup is necessary.

Always rebase and squash your commits before making a pull request.

Fetch any of the last minute changes from docker/docker.
```
$ git fetch upstream master
```
Start an interactive rebase.
```
$ git rebase -i upstream/master
```
Rebase opens an editor with a list of commits.
```
    pick 1a79f55 Tweak some of images
    pick 3ce07bb Add a new line
```
If you run into trouble, git --rebase abort removes any changes and gets you back to where you started.
Squash the pick keyword with squash on all but the first commit.
```
pick 1a79f55 Tweak some of images
squash 3ce07bb Add a new line
```
After closing the file, git opens your editor again to edit the commit message.
Edit and save your commit message.
```
$ git commit -s
```
Make sure your message includes your signature.
Push any changes to your fork on GitHub, using the -f option to force the previous change to be overwritten.
```
$ git push -f origin my-keen-feature
```