Contributing Code

If you want to contribute code to ANGLE, there are a few things you can do to make the process flow smoothly. These are based on the Chromium Projects: Contributing Code guidelines.

Communicate

  • Whether you‘re writing a new feature or fixing an existing bug, it pays to get a second opinion before you get too far. If it’s a new feature idea, post to the discussion group (angleproject) and propose it or talk with the ANGLE team on IRC in the #ANGLEproject channel on FreeNode.
  • Not all bugs in our bug system are assigned, but if the one you‘re interested in fixing is, send a note to the person it’s assigned to and ask if they would like a patch.
  • Behavior changes and anything nontrivial (i.e. anything other than simple cleanups and style fixes) should generally be tracked in the bug system. Please file a bug and describe what you‘re doing if there isn’t one already.

Get your code ready

Code

  1. Must conform to the [CodingStandard ANGLE style] guidelines.
  2. Must be tested. (see the ‘Testing’ section below)
  3. Should be a reasonable size to review. Giant patches are unlikely to get reviewed quickly.

Build maintenance

  1. If you added or removed source files:
    • You must update the gyp build scripts lists with your changes. See src/libEGL.gypi, src/libGLESv2.gypi, and src/compiler.gypi.
  2. ANGLE also now maintains a BUILD.gn script for Chromium's gn build. If you changed the gyp files other than to add or remove new files, you will also need to update BUILD.gn. Ask a project member for help with testing if you don't have a Chromium checkout.
  3. If you modified glslang.y or glslang.l:
    • You must update the bison-generated compiler sources. Download and install the latest 64-bit Bison in [https://cygwin.com/install.html Cygwin]. From the Cygwin shell run generate_parser.sh in src/compiler/translator and update your CL. Do not edit the generated files by hand.
    • If you modified ExpressionParser.y or Tokenizer.l, follow the same process by running src/compiler/preprocessor/generate_parser.sh.

Testing

  • ANGLE uses trybots to test on a variety of platforms. Please run your changes against our trybots and check the results before requesting a review.
    • Upload your change (see Making changes).
    • Run git try. If you are not part of the angle-commiters group, you will need to either ask to be added or ask a member of the group to submit the tryjob for you.
    • Wait for the bots to report the result on the code review page, this can take up to two hours for some of the debug bots.
    • Sometimes the bots report failures that are not due to the patch being tested. If a failure is unexpected, ask an ANGLE project member for advice.
    • The -b flag can be used with git try to target individual bots. Ex: git try -b win_angle_rel_ng.
  • Tests can also be run locally, ANGLE's main testing methods are:
    • angle_unittests and angle_end2end_tests targets.
    • The Top-of-Tree WebGL Conformance tests.
      • If you are a Chromium developer, see Building ANGLE for Chromium Development for instructions on building ANGLE within Chromium.
      • If you aren't a browser developer, you should be able to drop your compiled DLLs into a Chrome installation, in place of those distributed with Chrome, to check WebGL conformance. Chrome Canary is well-suited for this.
      • Your failures must be a subset of the expected WebGL failures located in src/tests/WebGL-CTS-known-failures.txt. If you believe there are failing tests missing from the known failures file, please notify project members.
    • If your code isn‘t covered by an existing test, you are strongly encouraged to add new test coverage. This both ensures that your code is correct and that new contributors won’t break it in the future.
    • If you are submitting a performance fix, test your code with angle_perftests and add a new performance test if it is not covered by the existing benchmarks.
    • The Chromium GPU FYI bot waterfall provides continuous integration for ANGLE patches that have been committed. There may be hardware configurations that are not tested by the ANGLE trybots, if you notice breakage on this waterfall after landing a patch, please notify a project memeber.
    • ANGLE also includes the drawElements Quality Program (dEQP) for additional testing. If you're working on a new feature, there may be some extensive tests for it already written.

Legal

  1. You must complete the Individual Contributor License Agreement. You can do this online, and it only takes a minute. If you are contributing on behalf of a corporation, you must fill out the Corporate Contributor License Agreement and send it to Google as described on that page.
  2. Once you've submitted the CLA, please email the following information (as entered on the CLA) to shannonwoods at chromium dot org for record keeping purposes:
    • Full Name:
    • Email:
    • Company (If applicable):
  3. If you‘ve never submitted code before, you must add your (or your organization’s) name and contact info to the AUTHORS file.
  4. NOTE TO REVIEWERS: Follow the External Contributor Checklist.

Life of a Change List

We use the Gerrit open source code review tool. The process is similar, but not identical, to the one used by ChromiumOS, described here: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-guide/gerrit-guide.

Getting started with Gerrit for ANGLE

  1. Go to https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/new-password
  2. Log in with the email you use for your git commits.
  3. Follow the directions on the new-password page to set up authentication with your Google account.
  4. Make sure to set your real name.
  5. Check out the repository (see DevSetup).
  6. Install the Gerrit commit_msg hook
    • Gerrit requires a hook to append a change ID tag to each commit, so that it can associate your CL with a particular review, and track dependencies between commits.
    • Download the hook from https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/tools/hooks/commit-msg and copy this file to .git/hooks/commit-msg within your local repository. On non-Windows, platforms, ensure that permissions are set to allow execution.
    • BE AWARE: Some patch management tools, such as StGit, currently bypass git hooks. They should not currently be used with changes intended for review.

Making changes

  1. Commit your changes locally:
    • git add src/../FileName.cpp
    • git commit
    • A text editor will open. Add a description at the top of the file.
      • If your changes are associated with an issue in the issue tracker (e.g. a fix for a reported bug), please associate the CL with that issue by adding the following line to the commit message: BUG=angleproject:<issue number>.
    • Save.
    • Close the text editor.
    • Use git commit --amend to update your CL with new changes.
    • Use git cl format to amend the style of your CL. This saves both your time and the reviewers'!
  2. Upload the change list
    • git cl upload
    • The change list and modified files will be uploaded to Gerrit.
    • Follow the generated URL to the new issue.
    • Take a moment to perform a self-review of your code. Gerrit's viewer makes it easy to see whitespace errors, erroneous tabs, and other simple style problems.
    • Designate reviewers-- if you don‘t do this, reviewers may not realize you’re requesting a review!
      • If you don't know who to use, select either geofflang at chromium dot org or jmadill at chromium dot org.
    • Make changes, upload and repeat as necessary.
    • Project members and others will review your code as described in the CodeReviewProcess.
  3. If your change list needs revision:
    • If you have correctly installed the commit hook from the section above, Gerrit will be able to track your changes by Change-Id.
    • You should need only to update your commit with git commit --amend and re-upload with git cl upload.
  4. Once your code is reviewed:
    • If you are a committer, you may submit the change yourself via the Gerrit web interface.
    • If you are not a committer, ask your reviewer to submit the change list.