Contributing to RxSwift

Thank you for your interest in RxSwift! There are multiple ways you can contribute to this project. We welcome contributions in all areas, with special attention to:

Issue fixes
Performance improvements
Documentation improvements
New operators (read carefully!)

Please take the time to carefully read the following guide. These rules help make the best out of your time, the code reviewer's time and the general consistency of the project.

General rules

All contributions are handled via Pull Requests (PRs). Your PR must target the [main](https://github.com/ReactiveX/RxSwift/tree/main) branch. This is the place where we aggregate all upcoming changes for the next release of RxSwift. Moreover, your PR must pass all tests and provide a meaningful description of what it is about. We have bots looking at PRs and enforcing these rules.

Before submitting a pull request please make sure ./scripts/all-tests.sh is passing (exits with 0), otherwise we won't be able to pull your code.

To be able to run ./scripts/all-tests.sh, you'll need to install xcbeautify.

brew install xcbeautify

Once the tests pass, you can push your feature branch to your clone of the repository, then open a pull request. There are some best practices that will be followed during the development of this project for common good (Gitflow branching model).

Don't forget to update CHANGELOG.md before pushing your PR. While text may be re-worded before release, but it'll help tracking the changes.

Quick checklist summary before submitting a PR:

🔎 Make sure tests are added or updated to accommodate your changes. We do not accept any addition that come without tests. When possible, add tests to verify bug fixes and prevent future regressions.
📖 Check that you provided a CHANGELOG entry documenting your changes (except for documentation improvements)
👌 Verify that tests pass
👍 Push it!

Slack channel

Many of the RxSwift Community contributors interact on the RxSwift Slack. It is a good starting place to exchange ideas and talk about your planned contributions to RxSwift. A good first step would be to join the slack, in particular the #community channel.

Issue fixes

Fixing issues is a good way to start contributing and getting used to the large codebase in project! You may want to look at outstanding reported issues, or maybe you bumped into an issue that you found. In the latter case, please make sure you first open an issue in the issue tracker and indicate that you're working on a fix. This will give a chance to other contributors to chime in, and help tracking who's working on what in order to avoid duplicate work.

Once you believe the issue is fixed, make sure the tests pass (see above) then open a Pull Request.

Congratulations on contributing a fix! We love receiving new bug fixes and your help is very much welcomed.

Performance improvements

We take performance very much to heart. RxSwift is at the core of some large products, and is a moderately complex framework with a lot of code. Performance improvements are always welcome! If you identified a bottleneck, please make sure you follow the performance fix procedure:

Prepare a reproducible case that highlights the performance issue, if possible. At least, the case should provide a testable timing result.
Submit a PR with a fix that provides a measurable performance improvement
Think hard about all the use cases! Threading and concurrency are important to think about when it comes to performance, make sure your fix doesn't come with a performance regression in some use cases.

As previously highlighted, discussing the matter via an issue is a preferred starting point. This will allow other contributors to join and express their point of view, allowing for a smooth glide from problem description to resolution.

Thanks for caring about performance! RxSwift is a crucial component of many applications and performance issues can have a wide impact.

Documentation improvements

RxSwift is a complex project. Reactive programming in general is a lot about explaining the concepts, classes and operators. If you spotted a place where documentation could be improved (be in it-line documentation of project markdown pages), please feel free to submit a documentation improvement PR. We very much need a documentation that is as good, as as up-to-date as possible!

We understand the need for foreign language documentation. Unfortunately, due to the scope and breadth of the project it's a tough promise to keep up-to-date documentation in other languages than English. Moreover, all contributors only have English as a common language on the project. Therefore, and to keep the project as maintainable as possible, we only accept documentation changes and improvements provided in English. If you're looking at providing a translation of the in-line documentation, please make sure you have the resources and time to keep it updated as the framework changes. We care a lot about the quality of both the code and its documentation, over the long term. Maintaining a foreign language translation is a longtime commitment that should not be taken lightly.

Thank you for your interest in helping with documentation! Your contributions will make the life of other developers easier.

New operators

If you're thinking about adding new operators to RxSwift, please make sure you discuss them via an issue first. RxSwift is a large project, and we're trying to keep its core as compact as possible. We understand the desire to fulfill various kinds of needs, and want to make sure the core serves the majority of developers.

Any operator you need may also be needed by others! But not all operators belong to the RxSwift core. The RxSwift Community is home to many projects that may be a better recipient for the improvements you want to bring. In some cases, you may even find that your specific problem is addressed by one of the RxSwiftCommunity project!

Some operators, even though available in the core of other ReactiveX implementations, may be left out of the RxSwift code. Some of them can go into the RxSwiftExt project, others can be hosted in one of the many satellite community projects.

In any case, feel free to discuss your need in an issue ! The RxSwift Community is all about helping and interacting with fellow developers, and we very much welcome

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.

Wording of statement copied from elinux.org

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