How to Send a Pull Request

If you are a seasoned dev you can skip this. Believe it or not, it actually took a long time for me to figure out how to contribute to open-source projects. I wanted to use this as a primer and as a reference to send to people when they inevitably ask ‘What is a PR?’ or ‘How do I create a PR?’

A pull request is how a developer can add changes to a codebase using a version control framework. In open source communities, a pull request is like a welcome handshake, it will determine first and foremost if your code will be added to the repository and will leave an impression on the other contributors who will decide if they would like you to contribute to future work. These are some items I wish I knew before diving head first!

Open Source: Open source means anybody is free to use, study, modify, and distribute your project for any purpose. These permissions are enforced through an open source license.

Version Control: Version control is a system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later.

Repository: A Git repository is the .git/ folder inside a project. This repository tracks all changes made to files in your project, building history over time. Meaning, if you delete the .git/ folder, then you delete your project’s history.

Branch: a branch is a new/separate version of the main repository

Commit: Adding commits keep track of our progress and changes as we work. Git considers each commit change point or "save point". It is a point in the project you can go back to if you find a bug, or want to make a change

Git: Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

GitHub: GitHub is a code hosting platform for collaboration and version control. A GitHub repository can be used to store a development project. You can think of it like a UI for Git.

Fork: Forking is creating a clone of the current repository.

and of course ⬇️

When a group of people are contributing to a development project, to keep the main code that is operational clean and working, there is a standard set of rules that takes place. We will simplify this a lot for brevity and to help give context to our goal - Creating our first PR

When we would like to add a feature or fix a bug in the production code(main branch) these are the steps we follow:

• We create another branch

• Write our changes

• Test

• Merge back into the main branch

I learn by doing so I have set up this interactive tutorial to get you creating your first PR. You can find the Repo here and feel free to comment, ask questions and interact as much as you would like.

This tutorial assumes that you have a Github account, VSCode installed and know what the terminal is. If you feel setting up your environment would be a useful article drop me a message.

1. Fork the repo by going to this [link](https://git clone https://github.com/0xzoz/pull-requests-with-zoz.git) and clicking the fork button at the top right

2. Clone the pull-requests-with-zoz repogit clone https://github.com/<your-username>/pull-requests-with-zoz.git

3. Create a new branch to add your changes git checkout -b add-new-name

4. Navigate to the root(the top-level directory in a folder structure) and there will be a file named Letsgooooo.md. Open it and add your GitHub handle( eg @0xZOZ) and a sentence.

[//]: # (letsgooooo.md) Welcome to PR's with zoz. Hold your breath, you are about to create your first PR. @0xzoz - I made it!!!! @your-username - You made it!!! // this is new code that you will add

5. Add and Commit the code to the branch

git add . - This is adding all the changes that have been made within the repository

git commit -m ‘Add yourname to file’ - This stages all the changes to the current branch with a message about those changes.

6. Push the changes and branch to Github. git push

this will result in an error and will give you a command similar to the following because it is the first time you add the branch to the repo

git push --set-upstream origin add-zoz

7. Navigate back to your forked repo. You should now see a little banner at the top of the page like this

8. There is a template that will be similar to what you see when you are contributing to open-source projects. Take note of the branch you are merging into eg you want to merge the add-zoz branch into the main branch

Congratulations!!!! You just submitted your first PR. I hope this helped you get started, you are now ready to start diving into the pull-requests-with-zoz series

This series is for the curious potential web3 coders out there. I, like you, started with a vision that blockchain and web3 will change the world yet I didn’t have the skill set to actively help build that world we so long for.

pull-requests-with-zoz will help anyone of any skill set learn about a product, project or discipline in a new content form I felt would be beneficial for others. It consists of two complementary pieces:

1. A pull request that was contributed to an open source crypto project

2. An article explaining the what, why and how.....

The series will be in no specific order but as more PRs get completed, the collection will be bundled into focused groups as the content grows.

Each article will have the following structure:

• Motivation

• Tech/Product

• Pull Request Reference

• Scope

• Breakdown of commits

  • What is happening in each one

  • Why design decisions were made

  • Issues

• Conclusion

I started developing open source software with not much knowledge. It was a huge step to be able to send my first PR(one line of code lol). With each PR, I get a little bit better at understanding these new technologies. While it takes me more time than it should. If I can give back to help others understand concepts faster. It makes me feel like those extra hours were worth it.

These are for me as much as they are for you. I am by no means an expert and writing these down for others helps me grasp the concepts. There will be errors but there will also be valuable gems that will help breed the next cohort of everyday cypherpunks trying to change the world.

Learn how to send your first pull request and how the pull-requests-with-zoz series will guide you through some pull requests to open source Web3 projects

https://paragraph.xyz/@0xZOZ/pull-requests-with-zoz

Cover Photo

The image above(like my PP) is created with abraham.ai - an AI artwork generator SEED: zoz.eth sending a pull request

Twitter: @0xzoz

GitHub: @0xzoz

Mirror: @0xzoz

Discord: @zoz.eth#6952

ENS: zoz.eth