Commit af006a0470 for openssl.org
commit af006a0470f6f3961ee581e034f582d8d783f5e2
Author: slontis <shane.lontis@oracle.com>
Date: Tue Mar 10 16:27:57 2026 +1100
Doc: Add additional information to the contributing page.
Updates for new users related to PR's.
Although some of this info is in other places, a new user should
not need to look at 'commiter' related docs.
Reviewed-by: Frederik Wedel-Heinen <fwh.openssl@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Eugene Syromiatnikov <esyr@openssl.org>
Reviewed-by: Paul Dale <paul.dale@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: Tim Hudson <tjh@openssl.org>
MergeDate: Fri Mar 13 08:28:19 2026
(Merged from https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/30336)
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 20bf3910a1..3813c1e23d 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -39,6 +39,16 @@ with clear explanations of what is changing and why. Long descriptions
are encouraged if they aid understanding. Commit message titles (their
first line) should be kept to 50-70 characters if possible.
+Pull Requests (PR's) go through multiple phases before they are merged. In the
+first phase the label 'approval: review pending' is added. Once you receive 2 or
+more approvals from [Committers] the label is changed to 'approval: done' and
+24 hours after this the label changes to 'approval: ready to merge'. At some time
+after this your PR will be merged and the PR is closed. Reviewers may ask you to
+make changes at any phase before the Pull Request is merged, and any changes
+(that are not just a rebase) will require re-approval.
+
+[Committers]: https://openssl-library.org/about/committers/index.html
+
To make it easier to review and accept your pull request, please follow these
guidelines:
@@ -127,3 +137,35 @@ guidelines:
8. Guidelines on how to integrate error output of new crypto library modules
can be found in [crypto/err/README.md](crypto/err/README.md).
+
+ 9. Once your Pull Request gets to the stage of being reviewed fixup commits
+ should be used where possible. Fixup commits are squashed when the PR is
+ finally merged. Fixup commits are done in the following way:
+
+ ```
+
+ # Add one or more updated files that needed changes
+ git add <filename>
+
+ # Do a fixup commit
+ # <commit-id> is the id of a previous commit that you want to fix up.
+ git commit --fixup <commit-id>
+
+ # Do a non forced push
+ git push
+ ```
+
+ To view commit-id's use:
+
+ ```
+ git log
+ ```
+
+10. If a Pull Request addresses an [issue](https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues/)
+ the commit should include the line:
+
+ ```
+ Fixes #XXXXX
+ ```
+
+ where XXXXX is the issue number.