CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to BetterCrypto: Applied Crypto Hardening

First off: thanks for helping out! Every reviewer, committer and person interested in discussing our document and changes is a valuable addition to the project. Everybody is invited to work on this document and share their experience and expertise with us or ask questions if something isn't clear to them.

Here's a few things we'd like you to consider when contributing to this project as some issues and discussions seem to creep up on us every now and again or have already been discussed at length in the past. This does not only make it easier for us to incorporate your changes, feedback or critique - but might also save you some valuable time.

General Information

• GitHub is used for Pull Requests, Code Review and PR related discussion.
• The main (publicly read-only) repository is hosted at https://git.bettercrypto.org/ach-master.git
• The Applied Crypto Hardening mailing-list is the appropriate place for discussion and source of information regarding larger changes throughout the document, it's style, policy & in-depth discourse on minor and major details of the guide we're working on. It's also a good place for general cryptography-, software-, appliance- or administrative related questions that may arise when reading or reviewing this document.

Before you open a Pull Request (PR) on GitHub

1. Search open and closed pull requests for duplicates or previous discussions related to the changes you propose.
2. Please take some time to read up on the mailing list archives - over the years we've discussed quite a few topics in depth and you might just find the answer you were looking for or the reason we chose a certain configuration setting.
3. Please write a meaningful PR title and describe your proposed changes in the text-field. This can be done quickly in a few sentences or bullet points. Remember: other people need to review your changes and it'll make it easier for them if you make clear what you're trying to achieve. Lastly,..
4. If in doubt, just ask on the mailing list. For example, also; when opening large pull requests, refactoring whole sections of the document or if you're changing security critical settings in configuration files we recommend.

Attribution

Feel free to add your name or handle to src/acknowledgements.tex (alphabetical order).

Get started

Fork/clone, branch and commit or start a discussion on our mailing-list!

• If you're not yet familiar with using git we recommend giving https://try.github.io a shot. You'll know enough about git to work on this document in 15 minutes or less.
• Although our LaTeX source is mostly self-explanatory, if you're uncertain how to edit our guide correctly you might want to take a look at:
  • Introduction to using TeX
  • The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX
  • ..or ask on our mailing-list for help.

Thank you kindly! We hope you'll enjoy working with us on this document.