Include CONTRIBUTING and README to legal documents
Submitted by Wayne Beaton @wbeaton
Link to original bug (#527361)
Description
This is not legal documentation per se, but the legal documentation section is probably the best fit.
Rough thoughts:
-- The documentation described here includes files that describe licenses and notices, as well as general information about a project and instructions for those who might choose to contribute to the project. Strictly speaking, only the files containing licenses and notices files are legal documentation; the others files are included here for completeness.
A LICENSE, NOTICE, README, and CONTRIBUTING file, as described below, must be included in the root of every source code repository.
git.eclipse.org/project.git ├── CONTRIBUTING ├── LICENSE ├── NOTICE ├── README └── ...
[[h.ozpt2xwxudvl]] == Contributing File
Having concise and clear information how to get involved in a project is very important for building the community around a project. Therefore, to simplify adoption and encourage contributions all project repositories must contain a contribution guide.
The contribution guide must make it very clear what are the steps a contributor needs to follow so that their contribution reaches the project and may be accepted.
- Describe the legal part of the process for accepting contributions, including a direct link to the Eclipse Contributor Agreement (ECA) and Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO);
- Provide pointers to the source code, issue trackers, communication channels, etc.
- If the project accept contributions via Gerrit, describe the mechanics of using Gerrit for the contribution;
- If the project repository is hosted on GitHub, indicate whether or not the project will accept pull requests and describe the necessary steps to have the project honor those requests; and
- Describe any further project specific rules, which the contributors should know, including preferences on code quality, code formatting, and processes for code review
Keep the guide as concise as possible - it should contain a few words and a link to the website/wiki for details and more information.
Like a license file, the contribution guide must be expressed in a human readable (plaintext) form; human readable markup languages may be used. The file is conventionally named CONTRIBUTING and may include a suffix (e.g. CONTRIBUTING.md).
[[h.2ps8v8v7gcjl]] == “Read me” File
Adopters of the project code (e.g. those individuals and organizations who are either using the software or are incorporating it into their own products) are the target audience for a readme file.
- Landing page of the project
- Description of the project
- Pointers to the other documents (LICENSE, CONTRIBUTING, NOTICE)
- License information
- Trademark (Eclipse Foundation and project-specific trademark statements)