mirror of
https://github.com/balena-io/balena-cli.git
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66 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
# Contributing
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The balena CLI is an open source project and your contribution is welcome!
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After cloning this repository and running `npm install`, the CLI can be built with `npm run build`
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and executed with `./bin/balena`. In order to ease development:
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* `npm run build:fast` skips some of the build steps for interactive testing, or
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* `./bin/balena-dev` uses `ts-node/register` and `coffeescript/register` to transpile on the fly.
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Before opening a PR, please be sure to test your changes with `npm test`.
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## Semantic versioning and commit messages
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The CLI version numbering adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/). The following
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header/row is required in the body of a commit message, and will cause the CI build to fail if absent:
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```
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Change-type: patch|minor|major
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```
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Version numbers and commit messages are automatically added to the `CHANGELOG.md` file by the CI
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build flow, after a pull request is merged. It should not be manually edited.
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## Editing documentation files (CHANGELOG, README, website...)
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The `doc/cli.markdown` file is automatically generated by running `npm run build:doc` (which also
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runs as part of `npm run build`). That file is then pulled by scripts in the
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[balena-io/docs](https://github.com/balena-io/docs/) GitHub repo for publishing at the [CLI
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Documentation page](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/cli/).
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The content sources for the auto generation of `doc/cli.markdown` are:
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* Selected sections of the README file.
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* The CLI's command documentation in source code (both Capitano and oclif commands), for example:
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* `lib/actions/build.coffee`
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* `lib/actions-oclif/env/add.ts`
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The README file is manually edited, but subsections are automatically extracted for inclusion in
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`doc/cli.markdown` by the `getCapitanoDoc()` function in
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[`automation/capitanodoc/capitanodoc.ts`](https://github.com/balena-io/balena-cli/blob/master/automation/capitanodoc/capitanodoc.ts).
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The `INSTALL.md` and `TROUBLESHOOTING.md` files are also manually edited.
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## Windows
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Please note that `npm run build:installer` (which generates the `.exe` executable installer on
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Windows) requires [MSYS2](https://www.msys2.org/) to be installed. Other than that, the standard
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Command Prompt or PowerShell can be used.
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## TypeScript vs CoffeeScript, and Capitano vs oclif
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The CLI was originally written in [CoffeeScript](https://coffeescript.org), but we decided to
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migrate to [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) in order to take advantage of static
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typing and formal programming interfaces. The migration is taking place gradually, as part of
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maintenance work or the implementation of new features.
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Similarly, [Capitano](https://github.com/balena-io/capitano) was originally adopted as the CLI's
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framework, but we recently decided to take advantage of [oclif](https://oclif.io/)'s features such
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as native installers for Windows, macOS and Linux, and support for custom flag parsing (for
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example, we're still battling with Capitano's behavior of dropping leading zeros of arguments that
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look like integers such as some abbreviated UUIDs, and migrating to oclif is a solution). Again the
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migration is taking place gradually, with some CLI commands parsed by oclif and others by Capitano
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(a simple command line pre-parsing takes place in `app.ts` to decide whether to route full parsing
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to Capitano or oclif).
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