How to contribute

The Standard C++ Library v3, follows an open development model. Active contributors are assigned maintainer-ship responsibility, and given write access to the CVS repository. First time contributors should follow this procedure:

ONE : read the documentation

• Get and read the relevant sections of the C++ language specification. Copies of the full ISO 14882 standard are available on line via the ISO mirror site for committee members. Non-members, or those who have not paid for the privilege of sitting on the committee and sustained their two meeting commitment for voting rights, may get a copy of the standard from their respective national standards organization. In the USA, this national standards organization is ANSI and their web-site is right here. (And if you've already registered with them, clicking this link will take you to directly to the place where you can buy the standard on-line.)
• The library working group bugs, and known defects, can be obtained here: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21
• The newsgroup dedicated to standardization issues is comp.std.c++: this FAQ for this group is quite useful and can be found here .
• Peruse the GNU Coding Standards, and chuckle when you hit the part about "Using Languages Other Than C."
• Be familiar with the extensions that preceded these general GNU rules. These style issues for libstdc++ can be found in the file C++STYLE, located in the root level of the distribution, or here.
• And last but certainly not least, read the library-specific information found here.

TWO : copyright assignment

Small changes can be accepted without a copyright assignment form on file. New code and additions to the library need completed copyright assignment form on file at the FSF. Note: your employer may be required to fill out appropriate disclaimer forms as well.

Historically, the libstdc++ assignment form added the following question:

While not strictly necessary, humoring the maintainers and answering this question would be appreciated.

For more information about getting a copyright assignment, please see Legal Issues

Please contact Benjamin Kosnik if you are confused about the assignment or have general licensing questions. When requesting an assignment form from assign@gnu.org, please cc the above libstdc++ maintainer so that progress can be monitored.

THREE : submitting patches

Every patch must have several pieces of information before it can be properly evaluated. Ideally (and to ensure the fastest possible response from the maintainers) it would have all of these pieces:

• A description of the bug and how your patch fixes this bug. For new features a description of the feature and your implementation.
• A ChangeLog entry as plain text; see the various ChangeLog files for format and content. If using you are using emacs as your editor, simply position the insertion point at the beginning of your change and hit CX-4a to bring up the appropriate ChangeLog entry. See--magic! Similar functionality also exists for vi.
• A testsuite submission or sample program that will easily and simply show the existing error or test new functionality.
• The patch itself. If you are accessing the CVS repository at Cygnus, use "cvs update; cvs diff -c3p NEW"; else, use "diff -c3p OLD NEW" ... If your version of diff does not support these options, then get the latest version of GNU diff.
• When you have all these pieces, bundle them up in a mail message and send it to libstdc++@gcc.gnu.org. All patches and related discussion should be sent to the libstdc++ mailing list.