Contributing to Vim

Patches are welcome in whatever form. Discussions about patches happen on the vim-dev mailing list. If you create a pull request on GitHub it will be forwarded to the vim-dev mailing list. You can also send your patch there directly (but please note, the initial posting is subject to moderation). In that case an attachment with a unified diff format is preferred. Information about the mailing list can be found on the Vim website

A pull request has the advantage that it will trigger the Continuous Integration tests, you will be warned of problems (you can ignore the coverage warning, it's noisy).

Please consider adding a test. All new functionality should be tested and bug fixes should be tested for regressions: the test should fail before the fix and pass after the fix. Look through recent patches for examples and find help with ":help testing". The tests are located under "src/testdir".

Contributions will be distributed with Vim under the Vim license. Providing a change to be included implies that you agree with this and your contribution does not cause us trouble with trademarks or patents. There is no CLA to sign.

Reporting issues

We use GitHub issues, but that is not a requirement. Writing to the Vim mailing list is also fine.

Please use the GitHub issues only for actual issues. If you are not 100% sure that your problem is a Vim issue, please first discuss this on the Vim user mailing list. Try reproducing the problem without any of your plugins or settings:

vim --clean

If you report an issue, please describe exactly how to reproduce it. For example, don't say "insert some text" but say what you did exactly: ahere is some text<Esc>. Ideally, the steps you list can be used to write a test to verify the problem is fixed.

Feel free to report even the smallest problem, also typos in the documentation.

You can find known issues in the todo file: :help todo. Or open the todo file on GitHub to see the latest version.

Syntax, indent and other runtime files

The latest version of these files can be obtained from the repository. They are usually not updated with numbered patches. However, they may or may not work with older Vim releases (since they may contain new features).

If you find a problem with one of these files or have a suggestion for improvement, please first try to contact the maintainer directly. Look in the header of the file for the name, email address, github handle and/or upstream repository. You may also check the MAINTAINERS file.

The maintainer will take care of issues and send updates to the Vim project for distribution with Vim.

If the maintainer does not respond, contact the vim-dev mailing list.

Contributing new runtime files

If you want to contribute new runtime files for Vim or Neovim, please create a PR with your changes against this repository here. For new filetypes, do not forget:

• to add a new filetype test (keep it similar to the other filetype tests).
• all configuration switches should be documented (check filetype.txt and/or syntax.txt for filetype and syntax plugins)
• add yourself as Maintainer to the top of file (again, keep the header similar to other runtime files)
• add yourself to the MAINTAINERS file.

Translations

Translating messages and runtime files is very much appreciated! These things can be translated:

• Messages in Vim, see src/po/README.txt Also used for the desktop icons.
• Menus, see runtime/lang/README.txt
• Vim tutor, see runtime/tutor/README.txt
• Manual pages, see runtime/doc/*.1 for examples
• Installer, see nsis/lang/*.nsi for examples

The help files can be translated and made available separately. See https://www.vim.org/translations.php for examples.

How do I contribute to the project?

Please have a look at the following discussion, which should give you some ideas. Please also check the develop.txt helpfile for the recommended style. Often it's also beneficial to check the surrounding code for the style being used.

I have a question

If you have some question on the style guide, please contact the vim-dev mailing list. For other questions please use the Vi Stack Exchange website, the vim-use mailing list or make use of the discussion feature here at github.