# Contributing to F-Droid

Thanks so much for contributing to [F-Droid](https://f-droid.org)! Please take your time to read carefully through this document:

## Issue Tracker

The issue tracker is used both for app submissions and problem reports.

For the latter one please provide detailed system (e.g. Android version, used ROM, hardware specifications) and error information (e.g. What happened? When did it happen?) and provide the [logcat](https://developer.android.com/tools/help/logcat.html) -- either by file upload or by inclduing it with the appropriated [markdown](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/markdown/markdown.md).

For submissions or update/change requests, please make sure they meet our [inclusion policy](https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Inclusion_Policy) and are not already handled by our [submission queue](https://f-droid.org/forums/forum/submission-queue/) (or are [held](https://f-droid.org/forums/forum/submission-held/) for some reason). Keep discussions to a minimum or use the forum instead.

However, the easiest way to get an app included, updated or an error fixed is to provide the required metadata yourself by opening a merge request.

## Merge Requests
Please read through the [inclusion howto](https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Inclusion_How-To), the [inclusion policy](https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Inclusion_Policy) and our [fdroid manual](https://f-droid.org/manual/fdroid.html).

This section includes some information on the fdroidserver repository as the tools contained in there can be used standalone to check and build local metadata files.

### Setting up fdroidserver and build tools
* Follow the instructions in [the manual](https://f-droid.org/manual)

### Setting up fdroiddata and submitting apps
* [Register on GitLab](http://gitlab.com)
* Visit and fork the [fdroiddata repository](https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/).
* Clone your fdroiddata fork.
* Copy fdroiddata/metadata/template or fdroiddata/metadata/template-minimal to fdroiddata/metadata/app.id.txt .
* Update metadata/app.id.txt according to the [manual](https://f-droid.org/manual/html_node/Metadata.html).
* If you have fdroidserver installed:
 * Copy and adjust fdroidserver/examples/config.py to fdroiddata/config.py .
 * Instead of copying a template you can run `fdroid import -u github-url` if the app is hosted on GitHub. 
 * Run `fdroid checkupdates app.id`, `fdroid rewritemeta app.id` and `fdroid build -v -t -l app.id` before opening a merge request!
* Use `git add`, `git commit` and `git push` to update your fork on GitLab. Please squash multiple commits into a single one per app. It's a good style to use a separate branch for each app and prefix commit messages with "Appname:". For this you might also want to look at the `fd-commit` command in the server repo.
* Open a merge request via GitLab.