github.com/marksheahan/packer@v0.10.2-0.20160613200515-1acb2d6645a0/CONTRIBUTING.md (about) 1 # Contributing to Packer 2 3 **First:** if you're unsure or afraid of _anything_, just ask 4 or submit the issue or pull request anyways. You won't be yelled at for 5 giving your best effort. The worst that can happen is that you'll be 6 politely asked to change something. We appreciate any sort of contributions, 7 and don't want a wall of rules to get in the way of that. 8 9 However, for those individuals who want a bit more guidance on the 10 best way to contribute to the project, read on. This document will cover 11 what we're looking for. By addressing all the points we're looking for, 12 it raises the chances we can quickly merge or address your contributions. 13 14 ## Issues 15 16 ### Reporting an Issue 17 18 * Make sure you test against the latest released version. It is possible 19 we already fixed the bug you're experiencing. 20 21 * Run the command with debug ouput with the environment variable 22 `PACKER_LOG`. For example: `PACKER_LOG=1 packer build template.json`. Take 23 the *entire* output and create a [gist](https://gist.github.com) for linking 24 to in your issue. Packer should strip sensitive keys from the output, 25 but take a look through just in case. 26 27 * Provide a reproducible test case. If a contributor can't reproduce an 28 issue, then it dramatically lowers the chances it'll get fixed. And in 29 some cases, the issue will eventually be closed. 30 31 * Respond promptly to any questions made by the Packer team to your issue. 32 Stale issues will be closed. 33 34 ### Issue Lifecycle 35 36 1. The issue is reported. 37 38 2. The issue is verified and categorized by a Packer collaborator. 39 Categorization is done via tags. For example, bugs are marked as "bugs" 40 and easy fixes are marked as "easy". 41 42 3. Unless it is critical, the issue is left for a period of time (sometimes 43 many weeks), giving outside contributors a chance to address the issue. 44 45 4. The issue is addressed in a pull request or commit. The issue will be 46 referenced in the commit message so that the code that fixes it is clearly 47 linked. 48 49 5. The issue is closed. 50 51 ## Setting up Go to work on Packer 52 53 If you have never worked with Go before, you will have to complete the 54 following steps in order to be able to compile and test Packer. These instructions target POSIX-like environments (Mac OS X, Linux, Cygwin, etc.) so you may need to adjust them for Windows or other shells. 55 56 1. [Download](https://golang.org/dl) and install Go. The instructions below 57 are for go 1.6. Earlier versions of Go are no longer supported. 58 59 2. Set and export the `GOPATH` environment variable and update your `PATH`. For 60 example, you can add to your `.bash_profile`. 61 62 ``` 63 export GOPATH=$HOME/go 64 export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin 65 ``` 66 67 3. Download the Packer source (and its dependencies) by running `go get 68 github.com/mitchellh/packer`. This will download the Packer source to 69 `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer`. 70 71 4. When working on packer `cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer` so you 72 can run `make` and easily access other files. 73 74 5. Make your changes to the Packer source. You can run `make` in 75 `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer` to run tests and build the packer 76 binary. Any compilation errors will be shown when the binaries are 77 rebuilding. If you don't have `make` you can simply run `go build -o bin/packer .` from the project root. 78 79 6. After running building packer successfully, use 80 `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer/bin/packer` to build a machine and 81 verify your changes work. For instance: `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer/bin/packer build template.json`. 82 83 7. If everything works well and the tests pass, run `go fmt` on your code 84 before submitting a pull-request. 85 86 ### Tips for Working on Packer 87 88 #### Godeps 89 90 If you are submitting a change that requires new or updated dependencies, please include them in `Godeps/Godeps.json` and in the `vendor/` folder. This helps everything get tested properly in CI. 91 92 Note that you will need to use [Godep](https://github.com/tools/godep) to do this. This step is recommended but not required; if you don't use Godep please indicate in your PR which dependencies have changed and to what versions. 93 94 Please only apply the minimal vendor changes to get your PR to work. Packer does not attempt to track the latest version for each dependency. 95 96 #### Running Unit Tests 97 98 You can run tests for individual packages using commands like this: 99 100 $ make test TEST=./builder/amazon/... 101 102 #### Running Acceptance Tests 103 104 Packer has [acceptance tests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_testing) 105 for various builders. These typically require an API key (AWS, GCE), or 106 additional software to be installed on your computer (VirtualBox, VMware). 107 108 If you're working on a new builder or builder feature and want verify it is functioning (and also hasn't broken anything else), we recommend running the 109 acceptance tests. 110 111 **Warning:** The acceptance tests create/destroy/modify *real resources*, which 112 may incur costs for real money. In the presence of a bug, it is possible that resources may be left behind, which can cost money even though you were not using them. We recommend running tests in an account used only for that purpose so it is easy to see if there are any dangling resources, and so production resources are not accidentally destroyed or overwritten during testing. 113 114 To run the acceptance tests, invoke `make testacc`: 115 116 $ make testacc TEST=./builder/amazon/ebs 117 ... 118 119 The `TEST` variable lets you narrow the scope of the acceptance tests to a 120 specific package / folder. The `TESTARGS` variable is recommended to filter 121 down to a specific resource to test, since testing all of them at once can 122 sometimes take a very long time. 123 124 Acceptance tests typically require other environment variables to be set for 125 things such as access keys. The test itself should error early and tell you 126 what to set, so it is not documented here.