This document is intended to act as a guide to help you contribute to the project. It is not perfect, and there will always be exceptions to the rules described here, but by following the instructions below you should have a much easier time getting your work merged upstream.
"Be excellent to each other." - Bill S. Preston, Esq.
This project aims to be a welcoming place and we ask that anyone who interacts with the project, and the greater community, treat each other with dignity and respect. Individuals who do not behave in such a manner will be warned and asked to adjust their behavior; in extreme cases the individual may be blocked from the project.
Examples of inappropriate behavior includes: profane, abusive, or prejudicial language directed at another person, vandalism (e.g. GitHub issue/PR "litter"), or spam.
At the top of every patch and pull request you should include a description of the problem you are trying to solve, how you solved it, and why you chose the solution you implemented. If you are submitting a bug fix, it is also incredibly helpful if you can describe/include a reproducer for the problem in the description as well as instructions on how to test for the bug and verify that it has been fixed.
The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the patch description, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have the right to pass it on as an open-source patch. The "Developer's Certificate of Origin" pledge is taken from the Linux Kernel and the rules are pretty simple:
Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
have the right to submit it under the open source license
indicated in the file; or
(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
license and I have the right under that license to submit that
work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
in the file; or
(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
it.
(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
this project or the open source license(s) involved.
... then you just add a line to the bottom of your patch description, with your real name, saying:
Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <[email protected]>
You can add this to your commit description in git with git commit -s
See this guide if you've never submitted patches to a project via the GitHub pull request mechanism.