How to contribute to Pymem

Thank you for considering contributing to Pymem!

Support questions

Please, don’t use the issue tracker for this. The issue tracker is a tool to address bugs and feature requests in Pymem itself. Use one of the following resources for questions about using Pymem or issues with your own code:

  • The #general channel on our Discord chat: https://discord.gg/xaWNac8

  • Ask on Stack Overflow. Search with Google first using: site:stackoverflow.com python pymem {search term, exception message, etc.}

Reporting issues

Include the following information in your post:

  • Describe what you expected to happen.

  • If possible, include a minimal reproducible example to help us identify the issue. This also helps check that the issue is not with your own code.

  • Describe what actually happened. Include the full traceback if there was an exception.

  • List your Python, Pymem versions. If possible, check if this issue is already fixed in the latest releases or the latest code in the repository.

Submitting patches

If there is not an open issue for what you want to submit, prefer opening one for discussion before working on a PR. You can work on any issue that doesn’t have an open PR linked to it or a maintainer assigned to it. These show up in the sidebar. No need to ask if you can work on an issue that interests you.

Include the following in your patch:

  • Include tests if your patch adds or changes code. Make sure the test fails without your patch.

  • Update any relevant docs pages and docstrings.

First time setup

  • Download and install the latest version of git.

  • Configure git with your username and email.

    $ git config --global user.name 'your name'
    $ git config --global user.email 'your email'
    
  • Make sure you have a GitHub account.

  • Fork Pymem to your GitHub account by clicking the Fork button.

  • Clone the main repository locally.

    $ git clone https://github.com/srounet/pymem
    $ cd pymem
    
  • Add your fork as a remote to push your work to. Replace {username} with your username. This names the remote “fork”, the default Pymem remote is “origin”.

    git remote add fork https://github.com/{username}/pymem
    
  • Create a virtualenv.

    $ python3 -m venv env
    $ . env/bin/activate
    

    On Windows, activating is different.

    > env\Scripts\activate
    
  • Install Pymem in editable mode with development dependencies.

    $ pip install -e .
    

Start coding

  • Create a branch to identify the issue you would like to work on. If you’re submitting a bug or documentation fix, branch off of the latest “.x” branch.

    $ git fetch origin
    $ git checkout -b your-branch-name origin/1.1.x
    

    If you’re submitting a feature addition or change, branch off of the “master” branch.

    $ git fetch origin
    $ git checkout -b your-branch-name origin/master
    
  • Using your favorite editor, make your changes, committing as you go.

  • Include tests that cover any code changes you make. Make sure the test fails without your patch. Run the tests as described below.

  • Push your commits to your fork on GitHub and create a pull request. Link to the issue being addressed with fixes #123 in the pull request.

    $ git push --set-upstream fork your-branch-name
    

Running the tests

Run the basic test suite with pytest.

$ python -m pytest

This runs the tests for the current environment, which is usually sufficient. CI will run the full suite when you submit your pull request.

Running test coverage

Generating a report of lines that do not have test coverage can indicate where to start contributing. Run pytest using coverage and generate a report.

$ pip install -r requirements-test.txt
$ python -m pytest --cov=pymem

Building the docs

Build the docs in the docs directory using Sphinx.

$ cd docs/source
$ make clean
$ make html

Open _build/html/index.html in your browser to view the docs.

Read more about Sphinx.