Contribute to Aether

Users are invited to submit patches and other contributions to the Aether Project. There are just a few guidelines you need to follow.

Contributor License Agreement

Contributors sign a Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) on each commit, stating that you agree to the terms published at https://developercertificate.org/. Aether no longer requires a CLA.

Guides, Rules and Best Practices

Aether follows Google's Engineering Practices, Golang Formatting Guide. Use these documents as a guide when writing, submitting or reviewing code. Aether uses GitHub to submit, review, test and merge patches.

Submit Code

Some additional points for developers:

  • Submit your changes early and often. Input and corrections early in the process prevent huge changes later.

  • It is good practice to open a ticket in the Aether Jira describing the issue/feature. Select the Aether (AET) Project and the appropriate component (e.g., OnRamp, SD-Core, SD-RAN). During the patch please preface the commit message with [AET-<jira_number>] so it gets automatically linked to the Jira ticket. This keeps code review and design discussions clean.

  • Note that Aether now exclusively uses Github workflows; Gerrit is no longer used.

Steps to Successful PRs (Github)

  1. Fork the repository to your company or personal Github account.

  2. Checkout the code from your fork of the repo and prepare your patch.

  3. Before submitting the patch via a Pull Request, please execute any Aether specific tests: make test and make linters. These commands run unit test, linting and other elements to assure the quality of your patch.

  4. Using the Github user interface on your fork, open a pull request. Add a reviewer from the core contributor list whom you believe will be qualified to review your patch. Often it helps to be involved in informal conversation with a reviewer.

  5. Wait for the GitHub sanity checks to pass. If the tests fail please fix your patch and then repeat 3 through 5, as necessary.

  6. When comments are made to your patch, please make the appropriate fixes and then commit your changes as an additional separate commit. Git usually merges subsequent commits into your original PR.

  7. Await review. Everyone can comment on code changes, but only Collaborators and Core contributors can give final review approval.

Core Contributors

Anyone with a GitHub account can open new issues, comment on existing issues, or contribute code by opening a review. A core contributor is someone who can manage, approve and merge patches, and create new branches in the main repository.

Core contributors are responsible for maintaining the quality of contributions to the codebase. The goal of this program is to have a diverse group of individuals whose expertise in aggregate covers the entire project. The benefits of being a core contributor include:

  • Increased influence of the direction of the project,

  • The ability to create branches in the main repository and merge your own code,

  • Community recognition and visibility for their contributions and expertise.

Become a Core Contributor

Core contributor candidates need to have a demonstrated proficiency with the Aether codebase and a track record of code reviews. Members of the Technical Steering Team (TST) and existing core contributors will regularly invite people to become new core contributors. Nominations can also be made (including self-nominations) to the Aether TST (tst@lists.aetherproject.org) at any time.

A good nomination will include details about who the person is (including their email and Github username) and outline their experience with the Aether codebase and project at large. Nominations are intended to start a conversation that results in a decision to make the person a core contributor – anyone whose nomination is not initially approved is encouraged to gain more experience with code submission and code review in order to gain further mastery over the codebase. Partial approval is also possible (e.g. a person may be granted the ability to handles patches only on a certain repository), and full approval may be granted after the contributor has gained more experience.

New core contributors will be assigned a mentor that is either a TST member or existing core contributor. The mentor will serve as the primary point of contact to help onboard the new core contributors and answer any questions they have with their new responsibilities. The mentor is not the only point of contact, and core contributors should feel free to reach out to others if and when they have questions or concerns.

Tips for Core Contributors

For your own contributions, you now have the ability to approve and merge your own code. For larger or potentially controversial reviews, please give the community an opportunity (at least a few business days) to review your contribution. Please always ask for comments on the #aether-dev Slack channel. With great power comes great responsibility; please don't abuse this privilege.

Aether follows Google’s best practices for code review. You should apply these guidelines strictly and with confidence when reviewing submissions.

If you are unsure about something in an issue or a review, leave a comment that outlines your concerns. If a resolution is difficult to reach in the comments section, the TST meetings are a good place to raise your concerns and have a discussion.

Community Guidelines

This project follows the Linux Foundation's Code of Conduct.