Generating patches

Follow these steps to generate a patch that can be attached to a JIRA issue for review.

• Check out the Giraph source from the git repository.
• Make the changes necessary for your particular issue while following the code conventions found in CODE_CONVENTIONS. Try to avoid unnecessary changes, such as extra whitespace or formatting changes. Include a unit test, or be ready to justify in the JIRA why one isn't necessary.
• Verify the new and existing tests continue to pass via mvn clean verify. This maven lifecycle will do checkstyle, findbugs, license checks (Apache Rat), and unittests. Verify the change works as expected on a real cluster, if possible. If one's not available for testing, mention it on the JIRA so another contributor can verify.
• Generate a patch with git diff --no-prefix trunk > GIRAPH-{ISSUE_NUMBER}.patch (the --no-prefix option is necessary to make the patch compatible with Apache's subversion repository). For subsequent patches, if necessary, number each version to make it easier for reviewers to track their progress.
• Attach the patch to the JIRA issue (click More Actions and then Attach File from the top menu) using the comment to briefly explain what changes it contains and what testing was done. Mark the JIRA as Patch Available to let reviewers know it's ripe for evaluation.
• Optionally, you can open reviewboard request for the patch, although not all reviewers use this tool.

A committer should review the patch shortly and either provide feedback for a new version, or commit it to the Giraph source.