Guide for contributing to open source projects

PRE REQUISITE - GIT INSTALLED ON YOUR MACHINE

If you don't have git on your machine, install it.

Fork this repository

Fork this repository by clicking on the fork button on the top of this page. This will create a copy of this repository in your account.

Clone the repository

Now clone the forked repository to your machine. Go to your GitHub account, open the forked repository, click on the code button and then click the copy to clipboard icon.

Open a terminal and run the following git command:

git clone "url you just copied"

where "url you just copied" (without the quotation marks) is the url to this repository (your fork of this project). See the previous steps to obtain the url.

For example:

git clone https://github.com/shebom640/open-source-project.git

where this-is-you is your GitHub username. Here you're copying the contents of the first-contributions repository on GitHub to your computer.

Create a branch

Change to the repository directory on your computer (if you are not already there):

cd open-source-project

Now create a branch using the git switch command:

git switch -c your-new-branch-name

For example:

git switch -c add-server

Make necessary changes and commit those changes

Now open contributors.md file in a text editor, add your name to it. Don't add it at the beginning or end of the file. Put it anywhere in between. Now, save the file.

If you go to the project directory and execute the command git status, you'll see there are changes.

Add those changes to the branch you just created using the git add command:

git add contributors.md

To commit all changes at once:

git add *

Now commit those changes using the git commit command:

git commit -m "your-commit-message"

replacing your-commit-message with your own commit message.

Push changes to GitHub

Push your changes using the command git push:

git push -u origin your-branch-name

replacing your-branch-name with the name of the branch you created earlier.

Submit your changes for review

If you go to your repository on GitHub, you'll see a Compare & pull request button. Click on that button.

Now submit the pull request.

Where to go from here?

Congrats! You just completed the standard fork -> clone -> edit -> pull request workflow that you'll often encounter as a contributor!

Have fun contributing to projects <3