How to sponsor

This page describes the sponsoring part of the sponsored contribution process for the JDK and JDK Update Projects. Other Projects may follow these conventions or may establish their own; please consult the Project's pages for details.

This process is intended for developers who have Committer rights to the JDK or JDK Updates Projects. It provides guidelines for Committers to help developers who don't yet have `push' rights (i.e. Contributors or Authors ) become familiar with the expectations, standards, and mechanics of the development process. A Sponsor's role is to offer constructive advice and eventually push the sponsored contribution into the corresponding Mercurial repository.

As this document focuses on the sponsoring part, in order to get the full picture, please take a look at the 'How to contribute' document.

0. Subscribe to OpenJDK mailing lists

It should go without saying that as a Committer for a Project, you should be subscribed to and actively participating in all appropriate mailing lists. This includes both Project mailing lists and any Group mailing lists where technical decisions may be made for the area.

As a Sponsor, Contributors will look up to you for guidance to get their contributions into the Project - your actions will determine whether Contributors will feel welcome and want to engage further with the Project beyond their initial attempt, or not. Let's not lose enthusiastic, engaged and technically competent Contributors due to a lack of communication. If there is a request in your area of expertise and you can't address it, at least acknowledge receipt of the request and provide an estimate for when you'll be able to give it your attention. A frank explanation of your time constraints or commitments will be appreciated and respected.

1. Volunteer to sponsor a contribution

Opportunities to sponsor contributions occur in the OpenJDK mail lists. Since Contributors are encouraged to discuss their intended changes before they submit a patch, the ideal time to declare your sponsorship is during that initial conversation. As a Sponsor you should offer advice and collaborate with the contributor as necessary to produce a high-quality patch. In addition to sponsoring changes to code you regularly maintain, there may be other areas where you can serve as a Sponsor.

After publicly committing to sponsoring a contribution, you need to "claim the sponsorship request" in the bug database. To do that you need to perform three steps:

If the contribution doesn't already have an associated OpenJDK bug then create one in the bug database.

2. Review the contribution

You're now ready to review the proposed changes. Some changes may be trivial, like spelling fixes. Others may require a more intensive review - including, for example, a review by the CSR.

As a Sponsor, you may need to work with the Contributor to make any necessary changes, until you and the Contributor are satisfied with the result, and you are satisfied that the proposed contribution will pass any relevant review processes and build-and-test processes. That may take more then one iteration in the worst case.

As part of your review, you must verify that the changes are covered by an Oracle Contributor Agreement (OCA) or equivalent corporate agreement. The OCA Signatories List is the complete set of individuals or entities who may contribute code to any OpenJDK Project.

Once the contribution passes the review and build-and-test processes, you're ready to move on to the next step.

3. Push the contribution into a forest

Push the change into your favorite team Mercurial forest. You should always make sure that changesets are credited appropriately. There are two alternatives:

Regardless of who created the changeset, make sure that the comment follows the standard format which includes a to reference the bug id.

Once you've done the push, the bug's status/resolution will automatically be set to "Resolved/Fixed" and the "Resolved in Build" field to "team".

4. Integration in a build

If all goes well, the sponsored contribution will gradually make its way from the initial forest into which it was pushed up to the master area of the Project, and appear in a build. When the contribution reaches the master area, the bug's "Resolve in Build" field will be automatically updated to "master".

5. Celebrate your contributions

Sponsoring new contributions is an important activity - it's how the engineering culture of a Project gets passed on from the core group to new Contributors, from one generation to the next. It should be fun, so please celebrate the contributions you've sponsored by mentioning them on your blog. Congratulate other Sponsors on their work. Take pride in the value you provide to Contributors. Their success reflects well on you.