reformatted to be similar to the FAQ to make it look nicer on the site:

 mind when you decide to contribute to the project. This concerns new features

 as well as corrections to existing flaws or bugs.

Join the Community

 1. Learning cURL

 1.1 Join the Community

 1.2 License

 1.3 What To Read

 2. cURL Coding Standards

 2.1 Naming

 2.2 Indenting

 2.3 Commenting

 2.4 Line Lengths

 2.5 General Style

 2.6 Non-clobbering All Over

 2.7 Platform Dependent Code

 2.8 Write Separate Patches

 2.9 Patch Against Recent Sources

 2.10 Document

 2.11 Test Cases

 3. Pushing Out Your Changes 

 3.1 Write Access to CVS Repository

 3.2 How To Make a Patch

 3.3 How to get your changes into the main sources

==============================================================================

1. Learning cURL

1.1 Join the Community

 Skip over to http://curl.haxx.se/mail/ and join the appropriate mailing

 list(s).  Read up on details before you post questions. Read this file before

 you start sending patches! We prefer patches and discussions being held on

 the mailing list(s), not sent to individuals.

 Before posting to one of the curl mailing lists, please read up on the mailing

 list etiquette: http://curl.haxx.se/mail/etiquette.html

 We also hang out on IRC in #curl on irc.freenode.net

License

1.2. License

 When contributing with code, you agree to put your changes and new code under

 the same license curl and libcurl is already using unless stated and agreed

 give credit but also to keep a trace back to who made what changes. Please

 always provide us with your full real name when contributing!

What To Read

1.3 What To Read

 Source code, the man pages, the INTERNALS document, TODO, KNOWN_BUGS, the

 most recent CHANGES. Just lurking on the libcurl mailing list is gonna give

 you a lot of insights on what's going on right now. Asking there is a good

 idea too.

Naming

2. cURL Coding Standards

2.1 Naming

 Try using a non-confusing naming scheme for your new functions and variable

 names. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that you should use the same as in

 See the INTERNALS document on how we name non-exported library-global

 symbols.

Indenting

2.2 Indenting

 Please try using the same indenting levels and bracing method as all the

 other code already does. It makes the source code a lot easier to follow if

 using spaces only (no tabs) and having the opening brace ({) on the same line

 as the if() or while().

Commenting

2.3 Commenting

 Comment your source code extensively using C comments (/* comment */), DO NOT

 use C++ comments (// this style). Commented code is quality code and enables

 replaced when someone wants to extend things, since other persons' source

 code can get quite hard to read.

Line Lengths

2.4 Line Lengths

 We try to keep source lines shorter than 80 columns.

General Style

2.5 General Style

 Keep your functions small. If they're small you avoid a lot of mistakes and

 you don't accidentally mix up variables etc.

Non-clobbering All Over

2.6 Non-clobbering All Over

 When you write new functionality or fix bugs, it is important that you don't

 fiddle all over the source files and functions. Remember that it is likely

 functionality, try writing it in a new source file. If you fix bugs, try to

 fix one bug at a time and send them as separate patches.

Platform Dependent Code

2.7 Platform Dependent Code

 Use #ifdef HAVE_FEATURE to do conditional code. We avoid checking for

 particular operating systems or hardware in the #ifdef lines. The

 HAVE_FEATURE shall be generated by the configure script for unix-like systems

 and they are hard-coded in the config-[system].h files for the others.

Separate Patches

2.8 Write Separate Patches

 It is annoying when you get a huge patch from someone that is said to fix 511

 odd problems, but discussions and opinions don't agree with 510 of them - or

 description exactly what they correct so that all patches can be selectively

 applied by the maintainer or other interested parties.

Patch Against Recent Sources

2.9 Patch Against Recent Sources

 Please try to get the latest available sources to make your patches

 against. It makes the life of the developers so much easier. The very best is

 if you get the most up-to-date sources from the CVS repository, but the

 latest release archive is quite OK as well!

Document

2.10 Document

 Writing docs is dead boring and one of the big problems with many open source

 projects. Someone's gotta do it. It makes it a lot easier if you submit a

 ASCII files. All HTML files on the web site and in the release archives are

 generated from the nroff/ASCII versions.

Write Access to CVS Repository

 If you are a frequent contributor, or have another good reason, you can of

 course get write access to the CVS repository and then you'll be able to

 check-in all your changes straight into the CVS tree instead of sending all

 changes by mail as patches. Just ask if this is what you'd want. You will be

 required to have posted a few quality patches first, before you can be

 granted write access.

Test Cases

2.11 Test Cases

 Since the introduction of the test suite, we can quickly verify that the main

 features are working as they're supposed to. To maintain this situation and

 test case that verifies that it works as documented. If every submitter also

 posts a few test cases, it won't end up as a heavy burden on a single person!

How To Make a Patch

3. Pushing Out Your Changes 

3.1 Write Access to CVS Repository

 If you are a frequent contributor, or have another good reason, you can of

 course get write access to the CVS repository and then you'll be able to

 check-in all your changes straight into the CVS tree instead of sending all

 changes by mail as patches. Just ask if this is what you'd want. You will be

 required to have posted a few quality patches first, before you can be

 granted write access.

3.2 How To Make a Patch

 Keep a copy of the unmodified curl sources. Make your changes in a separate

 source tree. When you think you have something that you want to offer the

   http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/patch.htm

   http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm

How to get your patches into the libcurl sources

3.3 How to get your changes into the main sources

 1. Submit your patch to the curl-library mailing list