diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 70b9c699..be86b31b 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -15,16 +15,43 @@ via e-mail to one of the maintainers. General inquiries can be sent to Interaction within this project is covered by the [FSFE's Code of Conduct](https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct). +## Scope and design goals of REUSE + +REUSE has a finite scope. The goal is to make upstream licensing **easy, +comprehensive, unambiguous, and machine-readable**. Contributions which +contradict the goals are unlikely to be accepted. Comprehensiveness is +especially important; REUSE provides no real mechanism for excluding a file from +REUSE compliance testing, and it is unlikely that such a mechanism will be +added. + +Behaviour changes to linting are also unlikely to be accepted, even if they are +good changes. The linting behaviour should always match the +[REUSE Specification](https://reuse.software/spec/). If you think that the +linting behaviour should change, you should open an issue on the +[reuse-website](https://github.com/fsfe/reuse-website) repository. + +The linter does not accept any arguments or configurations which modify its +behaviour in determining compliance. This is intentional. + ## Pull requests Pull requests are generally welcome and encouraged, but please beware that they -may be closed as out-of-scope or otherwise not aligned with the design goals. To -be safe, open an issue and engage in dialogue before beginning to implement a +may be closed for various reasons, such as: + +- The change is out-of-scope for REUSE. +- The change does not align with the design goals of REUSE. +- The change is good, but the maintenance burden is too heavy. + +To be safe, open an issue and engage in dialogue before beginning to implement a feature that may not be accepted. When making a pull request, don't hesitate to add yourself to the AUTHORS.rst file and the copyright headers of the files you touch. +Every pull request should add an entry in `CHANGELOG.md`. Some exceptions apply, +such as changes which are too tiny to be significant, certain refactorings, or +fixes to pull requests which were already merged, but not yet released. + ## Translation Translations are welcome at diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index c3c014ff..21addd70 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -273,6 +273,11 @@ requests, and pull requests. Even and especially when in doubt, feel free to open an issue with a question. Contributions of all types are welcome, and the development team is happy to provide guidance and support for new contributors. +You should exercise some caution when opening a pull request to make changes +which were not (yet) acknowledged by the team as pertinent. Such pull requests +may be closed, leading to disappointment. To avoid this, please open an issue +first. + Additionally, the mailing list is available for discussion and support related to the project.