Source Code Repository

Edit page on GitHub

The Mono source code is hosted on GitHub using the Git source code control system for all of its source code. Although only active contributors get write access to the modules on Git, third party developers can easily fork the code on GitHub or download full copies of the repositories to their own systems.

Browsing the Sources

If all you need is to browse the sources, you can go to Mono Organization page on GitHub.

Building Mono from source

Once you’ve obtained the source code for different modules of the Mono project, you’ll want to build Mono from source.

Contributing Patches

Now that Mono is hosted on GitHub, contributing patches has never been easier. If you aren’t yet familiar with GitHub, you may wish to read GitHub’s guide on getting started.

Once you’ve gotten a GitHub account and gotten set up, you should read GitHub’s guide to forking a repository. Once you feel that your patch is finished and you’ve tested that everything still builds and works as expected, you can then issue a pull request which alerts the active maintainers that they should examine and review your patch, merging it into the mainline source repository.

Policies

It is important that everyone follow these policies:

Coding Guidelines

We have our own coding guidelines.

Code License

If you are about to commit code to a module, the code that is being committed should be released under the MIT license.

If in doubt, check with the maintainers of the module.

Changing Code

Even if you have write access to the official Mono Project GitHub repositories, that doesn’t mean you can change code at will in any directory or module. Directories and Namespaces have a sort of unofficial ownership. Every change needs to happen via a pull request and be reviewed.

Owning Code

Now, how do you get to be the owner of a chunk of code? The answer is simple. You wrote the code, so you’re the unofficial owner. There is also another way. After sending a few patches for the code, the owner (or the core developers of Mono, if the owner somehow disappeared) trusts you and tells you you’re free to commit without getting his review first.

You can most likely find ownership by reading git history or by using git blame. The entries are with emails, so feel free to ask them.

Pull Request Rules

There are a few rules to follow before making a pull request on GitHub:

  • Always make sure to add meaningful commit descriptions

  • If you fix a bug, add a regression test for it in the test suite

  • Don’t commit unrelated changes together with a fix: do fine-grained commits

  • Always check what you’re committing: make sure you’re only committing what you need and make sure you don’t change line endings and whitespace. Do a git diff of the files you’re going to commit and check the changes.

  • Don’t do reformatting commits, unless you’re the original author of the code

  • When fixing bugs, don’t follow the documentation blindly, it may well be wrong. Test the behavior on the MS runtime or ask for discussion if unsure. Don’t be afraid of having your changes reviewed.

  • Never remove copyright notices from the code

  • Never remove licensing info from code

  • Never commit code you didn’t write yourself or code that doesn’t have a suitable license

  • For documentation fixes, never copy paste documentation from Visual Studio class view or MSDN.

  • Never use a decompiler or disassembler to look at proprietary code.

  • Follow the coding guidelines

  • Keep an eye on performance considerations, especially for code in core classes, ask on the list for guidance

  • Do a regression test run and a bootstrapping build if making changes to core functionality before committing. Do not commit code that would break the compile, because that wastes everybody’s time. Two things are important in this step: trying to build your sources and making sure that you add all the new files before you do a commit.

Also, remember to pat yourself on the back after the commit, smile and think we’re a step closer to a better free software world.

Getting Help With Git

GitHub maintains some great resources for developers here:

https://help.github.com/