Contribute

How to contribute to Samba?

Like all OpenSource projects, Samba is reliant on volunteers. You don't need special skill to help this project. Everybody can help! :-)

There are several category groups you can work on, e.g.:

• Improve documentation
• Answer user questions and triage issues on the Samba users mailing list
• Update/provide Wiki articles
• Help testing, particularly of the upcoming release or master so we find bugs before our final release.
• Report bugs in Bugzilla
• Help to verify patches in Bugzilla and in merge requests
• Create patches (C and Python developers)
• Anything else you can imagine

Submitting Patches

The preferred method for submitting patches to samba is via the official mirror on GitLab. For more information see Samba CI on gitlab.

First Merge Request

The Using Git for Samba Development page has details on how to prepare patches using git. Take particular care to

Obtain a GitLab.com account

Samba development is done on GitLab.com so you will need to Register a new user account. You can sign in with you GitHub account if you have one

Fork the Samba repo (just until we get to know you)

First fork the samba GitLab.com official mirror.

Change the 1hr default CI timeout

By default projects on gitlab.com have a 1 hour timeout set on pipelines. This must be changed in the project settings. We suggest using a timeout of 3 hours, which is still permitted on the free runners.

Otherwise, once you push your changes back, you will see errors like this:

ERROR: Job failed: execution took longer than 1h0m0s seconds

The script exceeded the maximum execution time set for the job 

Prepare your patches and push back your first merge request

After preparing your patches and pushing back to your fork on gitlab.com you can submit a merge request. The patches will be reviewed by Samba Team members who will post comments on your merge request.

Subsequent Merge Requests

After your first merge request has been approved, you will be granted access to the samba devel gitlab repo. Subsequent merge requests should be made from this repository, because more tests are run than are possible on the free runners attached to your personal repo.

Shared development repo Code of conduct

Please prefix branches with your gitlab username, and be nice. Use only to develop Samba. Don't overwrite the work of others.

$USER/topic

eg

frednurk/kerberos-timeout-handling

In return you get a full CI run using Samba Team provided resources. That in turn makes it easier for Samba Team members doing Code Review as your patches will work first time, and they can see proof of that.

If you describe your work in the branch name, this will make generating a merge request easier, as the branch name becomes the template title and allows ongoing distinct merge requests.

Pipelines, Successful tests and Debugging CI failures

Pushing branches to samba devel gitlab repo will initiate a full CI build test.

• CI results for changes are here: Pipelines
• merge requests show a link to the Pipeline (CI) results for each patch series.
• How it works under the hood
• Debugging CI failures

Code Review

Once submitted, Samba Team members (in particular) will review your changes, and post comments to you either on your merge request. Broader discussions happen on the list, so please ensure you are subscribed to samba-technical also.

Patches from non-samba team members require a minimum of 2 reviews from samba team members prior to patches being merged.

Outside contributors are welcome to review patches also, this is a good way to learn more about Samba!

Mailing patches to samba-technical

While not ideal, submitting patches via the mailing list is possible and they may still be considered. To submit patches, use git format-patch and mail your patches to the samba-technical mailing list.

The preferred format for patch sets is a single-file bundle attached to the email you send to the list. Bundling can be automated by invoking git format-patch with the flag --stdout.

The disadvantages to this approach is that:

• your patches risk being missed by an interested samba team member.
• No instant feedback to you is possible regarding compilation errors and test failures
• CI testing is still required, so a Samba developer will need to submit the patch to GitLab for you

Submitting a merge request is therefore preferred, because the latest version of your patches remain persistent and will not be forgotten.

Policies

Regardless of how you send us your patches, please ensure you have added Signed-off-by tags to your commits, and follow the Samba copyright policy

Whenever participating in the Samba community, please follow and respect the guidelines in How to do Samba: Nicely