#summary Useful hints for contributing code to Hedgewars


*Table of Contents*
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= Introduction =

You want to contribute code to Hedgewars? That's great! Here are some hints how to help us with importing your code.

= Recommended workflows =

== Using a mercurial clone ==

TODO

=== Using (named) branches ===
Branches are alternative commit histories. Changes done in one branch can be merged into other branches as needed.

_Most main development happens on the main repository branch "default"._


We prefer *not* to use separate branches for little patches, as branches are permanent and will clutter the list of {{{hg branches}}}.

*So for small code contributions, use "unnamed branches" instead (see below).*

_However, if you are going to write code that is more a project than a patch and that will take dozens of commits, feel free to do that work on a new branch._

To create a new branch use {{{hg branch}}} followed by the name of the new branch, before committing the first code.



=== Using unnamed branches ===

_Unnamed branches_ a.k.a. _topological branches_ happen when the history of commits within a branch (e.g. "default") splits up into  alternative commits chains.
These alternative chains will have more than one {{{head}}} (at the the end of each chain) within the same branch, until they will be merged back together into a single chain.

*In order for us to be able which bugfixes/features of you we merge into the official repository, you should put each in a separate _unnamed branch_ as described above.*

Make sure that the first commit of each bugfix/feature commit set is based on a commit from the official repository, that way your bugfixes/features will not depend on the commits of each other and can be merged into official individually, as needed.

That means: *Before you start writing code towards a new bugfix/feature, make sure to {{{hg update}}} to a revision from the official repository.*


In newer versions of Mercurial you can give those unnamed branches a "local" and removable name using {{{hg bookmark}}}.

*You can see example of how unnamed branches and bookmarks are used best [http://hg.hedgewars.org/hw-example-clone/graph HERE]*