rsyslog/CONTRIBUTING.md

Rsyslog Contribution Guide

Rsyslog is a real open source project, welcoming contributions of all kinds—from code to documentation to community engagement. Whether you're an experienced developer or a first-time contributor, there are many ways to get involved.

Quick start for newcomers: pick a small task from our curated board: https://www.rsyslog.com/tool_good-first-issues

Community expectations: please read our Code of Conduct.

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Ways to Contribute

• Be an ambassador: Spread the word about rsyslog and how to best use it.
• Offer support:
  • On GitHub: rsyslog repository
  • On the mailing list: mailing list signup
• Improve documentation:
  • Contributions to documentation should be made to the doc/ directory of this repository.
  • Help maintain rsyslog.com/doc
• Maintain infrastructure: Help with project websites, CI, or packaging.
• Develop code: Implement new features, improve existing ones, or fix bugs.
• the rsyslog project welcomes AI generated patches, we have no friction with them. Qualitiy is ensured by CI and maitainer guidance and review.
• AI-assisted contributions should follow AGENTS.md for setup and workflow guidance.

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Pull Requests

Drafts and Experiments

• You may submit early PRs for CI testing. Mark them clearly as WiP:.
• For experiments, use draft pull requests. Close them after testing.

Target Branch

• All PRs must target the main branch.

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AI-Based Code Review (Experimental)

We are currently testing AI-based code review for pull requests. At this time, we use Google Gemini to automatically analyze code and provide comments on new PRs.

• These reviews are informational only.
• Every contribution is still manually reviewed by human experts.
• The goal is to evaluate how AI can support contributor feedback and code quality assurance.

Please report any issues, false positives, or suggestions about the AI review process.

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Commit Guidelines for AI Agents

If you use an AI agent (e.g. GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Codex), include a commit footer tag:

AI-Agent: Codex 2025-06

This helps us track and evaluate contributions and agent capabilities.

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Commit Messages & Commit Assistant

To speed up reviews and keep history consistent, please follow these rules for commit messages. You can use our assistant to generate compliant messages.

• Commit Assistant (web, for humans): https://www.rsyslog.com/tool_rsyslog-commit-assistant
• Base prompt (canonical, in-repo; for agents/offline): ai/rsyslog_commit_assistant/base_prompt.txt

Rules (must):

• ASCII only.
• Title ≤ 62 characters; body lines ≤ 72 characters.
• Title format: <component>: <concise action> Examples: omhttp: migrate to OMODTX, docs: clarify imfile wildcards.
• Lead with a brief non-technical “why” (modernization, maintainability, performance, security, Docker/CI readiness, user value).
• Include Impact: one line when tests or user-visible behavior change.
• Add a one-line Before/After behavior summary.
• Provide a technical overview (conceptual, not line-by-line) in 4–12 lines.
• Footer with full-URL reference(s):
  • Fixes: https://github.com/rsyslog/rsyslog/issues/<id> (only if conclusively fixed)
  • otherwise Refs: https://github.com/rsyslog/rsyslog/issues/<id>

Do not include secrets/tokens or paste sensitive data from diffs.

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Patch Requirements

All submissions must:

• Use RainerScript (no legacy $... config statements).
• Compile cleanly with no warnings on both gcc and clang.
• Pass clang static analysis with no findings.
• Pass all CI test jobs (see below).
• Include:
  • Tests (for new features or bugfixes)
  • Documentation updates (for new features)
  • Squashed commits (why it matters)

Testbench Tips

• Write small, focused tests.
• Use similar existing tests as templates.
• Test driver is make check, backed by tests/diag.sh.
• Test concurrency is limited due to resource load.

Compiler Warnings

False positives must be resolved, not ignored. Only in extreme cases use:

#pragma diagnostic push
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "..."
/* ... function ... */
#pragma diagnostic pop

Apply to single functions only.

See: Why static analysis matters

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Continuous Integration (CI)

All PRs are tested via:

• GitHub Actions workflows (including multi-platform docker-based tests)
• Additional off-GitHub runners (Solaris, exotic distros)

Build durations: 10–40 min per matrix job. Some known flaky tests exist; we re-run these manually if needed.

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GDPR and Privacy

By contributing, your name, email, commit hash, and timestamp become part of the git history. This is fundamental to git and public open source contribution. If you have privacy concerns, you may commit anonymously:

git commit --author "anonymous <gdpr@example.com>"

Avoid --gpg-sign in that case.

If you use your real identity, note:

• We cannot delete commits retroactively without damaging project history.
• Identity data is used only to maintain copyright tracking and audit trails.
• Public commits may be copied by third parties and redistributed without control.