[[chef-dev]] Contributing to Cookbooks (was [chef] chef & hoptoad)

[Joshua Timberman < >]

Ohai!

Begin forwarded message:

> On a related topic... I still don't quite grok how one can contribute back 
> to the cookbooks...
> there are multiple repos of cookbooks... and multiple repos of single 
> cookbooks... so its
> kinda hard to contribute.

Cookbooks are treated like any of Opscode's open source projects. There is a 
minor difference in terms of release.

Development happens in the github repository, 
http://github.com/opscode/cookbooks/. Tickets are tracked in the COOK project ;
in tickets.opscode.com. In order to contribute, since they're Apache 
licensed, you do need to have signed a CLA. The workflow for contributing is 
the same as the other projects (particularly Chef, but also Ohai or the 
Mixlibs). For the documentation on how to contribute, see the Chef wiki:

http://wiki.opscode.com/display/opscode/Contributing

Setting up a repository:

http://wiki.opscode.com/display/opscode/Working+with+Git

If you have any questions at all on the process, please send them to the 
list, ask on IRC or feel free to ask me directly.

Now, the minor difference, on the release of cookbooks. While Chef, Ohai and 
the other code is released as RubyGems, we release the Chef cookbooks to the 
Cookbook site, http://cookbooks.opscode.com. Now that knife has the ability ;
to work with the site directly, we recommend a workflow that utilizes the 
Opscode chef-repo as a Git repository, adding cookbooks as "vendor branches". 
For more information on this workflow, see:

http://help.opscode.com/faqs/start/working-with-cookbooks

(it uses an example cookbook, getting-started)

> So far I've found the existing cookbooks to be a very useful crib for 
> writing my own... often
> I copy one, hack away the stuff I'm not interested in (apache, etc) and 
> then add the few 
> small twiddles I need (e.g. nginx). 

Nothing wrong with this at all, they were intended to be provided as a 
'baseline' that you can then customize for your environment. Further, using 
the workflow described on the help site, you not only have your local 
modifications, but you can "track" the upstream changes and merge them in as 
well.

> Also, I tend to work on a recipe until it works for me.... and then stop 
> working on it... and
> I don't bother making it generic enough for anybody to use..... me being 
> lazy but I think
> the contributing back hurdle is too high. 


If the contribution hurdle is too high thats our bad and we should make it 
clearer! Hopefully the information above will help you, and we look forward 
to your contributions!

Thanks for using Chef and the feedback on how we can make it better.

-- 
Opscode, Inc
Joshua Timberman, Senior Solutions Engineer
C: 720.334.RUBY E: