# Contributing to Tarpaulin

Contributions to Tarpaulin are always welcome and encouraged. Check below to
information on the various methods of contributing.

## Feature Requests

Currently there's no mechanism for feature requests as such so just use the
Github issue tracker.

## Reporting bugs

If you find an issue in Tarpaulin, please report it using the Github issue
tracker. When you make the issue if you could provide the following information
we can recreate the issue and resolve it quicker.

* A description of the problem
* Tarpaulin output
* The rust project you ran Tarpaulin on
* Your linux distro and version (output of `uname -a` is sufficient)
* Version of rustc used

The verbose output of Tarpaulin is preferred but isn't always necessary. If you
want to include the verbose output and it's very long a pastebin link or similar
is ideal.

If there's a reason you can't share your project code publicly, a small example
project which recreates the issue would help a great deal. You can always
download one of the example projects used to test Tarpaulin from tests/data and
see if they work.

## Pull Requests

Pull requests are welcome, after you've implemented your feature test it on your
own system and submit a PR. Make sure to explain what the feature adds to 
Tarpaulin and any information you feel will make the review go easier. 

For a more detailed look at the internals of Tarpaulin consult the developer
section in [the wiki](https://github.com/xd009642/tarpaulin/wiki/Developers).
This section aims to break down the components of Tarpaulin to make it easier
for newcomers to contribute.

Tarpaulin uses the gitflow model so for new features branch off of the develop
branch and add your changes.

Any changes which break existing functionality won't be merged, but you'll
receive feedback and help to resolve those issues and close the PR.

If you want some good explanations on process tracing in Linux and some of the
formative literature that helped me write tarpaulin's initial implementation
then check out the following resources.

I wouldn't have been able to make progress as quickly in this project without
Joseph Kain's blog on writing a debugger in Rust and C. It's a great read, so I
recommend you check it out [here](http://system.joekain.com/debugger/). This
series seems to be abandoned, however it does introduce you to some of the
libraries I use and still has useful insights.

For a more complete (and still updated) guide Sy Brand has written the
definitive guide which you can find 
[here](https://blog.tartanllama.xyz/writing-a-linux-debugger-setup/).
This is written in C++ but should still be easily comprehendable for
people who don't know C++. 

Additionally, for any help or guidance to working with Tarpaulin there is
always yours personally. Open a PR and ask questions or contact me via discord
or email, xd009642 in any rust discords or danielmckenna93@gmail.com.