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Contribution Guide

We want to make it as easy as possible for LAVA Software users to become LAVA Software Community Project contributors, so we have created this guide to help you get started.

The LAVA Software Community Project has published this Contribution Guide, and all contributors will be expected to adhere to these guidelines when submitting issues or merge requests. They are designed to clarify the requirements for contributions, to make contributing more efficient for all involved.

Following the guidelines is a great way to prevent your contributions from being rejected or delayed. Most maintainers won't intend to discredit your work or be tough on contributors. However, many are busy and some may be working on LAVA in their free time. Well-formed contributions are much easier to review and work with.

See also

Conflicting priorities

Sometimes a request will be turned down because of conflicting priorities. It is important to talk about the reasons on the mailing list. Whether you're requesting a new feature, or providing a fix, remember that the maintainer has to weigh up your contribution. They are the people who may have to support the new code in the future, and resources are often scarce. Try not to be discouraged if your feature request or merge request is turned down. Be open-minded and, if necessary, propose an alternative idea on the mailing list after hearing their concerns.

Pre-requisites to start

  • LAVA is written in Python, so you will need to know (or be willing to learn) the language.
  • The web interface is a Django application so you will need to use and debug Django if you need to modify the web interface.
  • LAVA uses YAML heavily internally, so you'll likely need to understand the syntax.
  • LAVA also uses Jinja2.
  • All LAVA software is maintained in git.
  • Some familiarity with Debian is going to be useful; helper scripts are available when preparing updated .deb packages based on your modifications.

LAVA is complex and designed to solve complex problems. This has implications for how LAVA is developed, tested, deployed and used.

Other elements involved

  • The Django backend used with LAVA is PostgreSQL.
  • The LAVA UI includes JavaScript and CSS.
  • LAVA also uses ZMQ and XML-RPC.

In addition, test jobs and device support can involve use of U-Boot, GuestFS, fastboot, ADB, QEMU, Grub, SSH, Docker, and a wide variety of other systems and tools.

Updating documentation

We welcome contributions to improve our documentation. If you are considering adding new features to LAVA or changing current behavior, also please ensure that the changes include matching updates for the documentation.

Wherever possible, all new sections of documentation should come with worked examples.

  • If the change relates to or includes particular test definitions to demonstrate the new support, add a test definition YAML file as an example.
  • Use comments in the examples and link to existing terms and sections.