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1Contribution Guidelines
2=======================
3
4Contributions to cJSON are welcome. If you find a bug or want to improve cJSON in another way, pull requests are appreciated.
5
6For bigger changes, in order to avoid wasted effort, please open an issue to discuss the technical details before creating a pull request.
7
8The further sections explain the process in more detail and provides some guidelines on how contributions should look like.
9
10Branches
11--------
12There are two branches to be aware of, the `master` and the `develop` branch. The `master` branch is reserved for the latest release, so only make pull requests to the `master` branch for small bug- or security fixes (these are usually just a few lines). In all other cases, please make a pull request to the `develop` branch.
13
14Coding Style
15------------
16The coding style has been discussed in [#24](https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON/issues/24). The basics are:
17
18* Use 4 spaces for indentation
19* No oneliners (conditions, loops, variable declarations ...)
20* Always use parenthesis for control structures
21* Don't implicitly rely on operator precedence, use round brackets in expressions. e.g. `(a > b) && (c < d)` instead of `a>b && c<d`
22* opening curly braces start in the next line
23* use spaces around operators
24* lines should not have trailing whitespace
25* use spaces between function parameters
26* use pronouncable variable names, not just a combination of letters
27
28Example:
29
30```c
31/* calculate the new length of the string in a printbuffer and update the offset */
32static void update_offset(printbuffer * const buffer)
33{
34    const unsigned char *buffer_pointer = NULL;
35    if ((buffer == NULL) || (buffer->buffer == NULL))
36    {
37        return;
38    }
39    buffer_pointer = buffer->buffer + buffer->offset;
40
41    buffer->offset += strlen((const char*)buffer_pointer);
42}
43```
44
45Unit Tests
46----------
47cJSON uses the [Unity](https://github.com/ThrowTheSwitch/Unity) library for unit tests. The tests are located in the `tests` directory. In order to add a new test, either add it to one of the existing files (if it fits) or add a new C file for the test. That new file has to be added to the list of tests in `tests/CMakeLists.txt`.
48
49All new features have to be covered by unit tests.
50
51Other Notes
52-----------
53* Internal functions are to be declared static.
54* Wrap the return type of external function in the `CJSON_PUBLIC` macro.
55