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+Nautilus is part of the GNOME git repository. At the current time, any
+person with write access to the GNOME repository, can make changes to
+Nautilus. This is a good thing, in that it encourages many people to work
+on Nautilus, and progress can be made quickly. However, we'd like to ask
+people committing to Nautilus to follow a few rules:
+
+0) Ask first. If your changes are major, or could possibly break existing
+   code, you should always ask. If your change is minor and you've
+   been working on GVfs for a while it probably isn't necessary
+   to ask. But when in doubt, ask. Even if your change is correct,
+   somebody may know a better way to do things.
+
+   If you are making changes to Nautilus, you should be subscribed
+   to nautilus-list@gnome.org. (Subscription address:
+   nautilus-list-request@gnome.org.) This is a good place to ask
+   about intended changes.
+
+   #nautilus on GIMPNet (irc.gimp.org, irc.us.gimp.org, irc.eu.gimp.org, ...)
+   is also a good place to find Nautilus developers to discuss changes with.
+
+1) Ask _first_.
+
+2) With git, we no longer maintain a ChangeLog file, but you are expected
+   to produce a meaningful commit message. Changes without a sufficient
+   commit message will be reverted. See below for the expected format
+   of commit messages.
+
+3) Try to separate each change into multiple small commits that are
+   independent ("micro commits" in git speak). This way its easier to
+   see what each change does, making it easier to review, to cherry pick
+   to other branches, to revert, and to bisect.
+
+Notes:
+
+* When developing larger features or complicated bug fixes, it is
+  advisable to work in a branch in your own cloned Nautilus repository.
+  You may even consider making your repository publically available
+  so that others can easily test and review your changes.
+
+* The expected format for git commit messages is as follows:
+
+=== begin example commit ===
+Short explanation of the commit
+
+Longer explanation explaining exactly what's changed, whether any
+external or private interfaces changed, what bugs were fixed (with bug
+tracker reference if applicable) and so forth. Be concise but not too brief.
+=== end example commit ===
+
+  - Always add a brief description of the commit to the _first_ line of
+    the commit and terminate by two newlines (it will work without the
+    second newline, but that is not nice for the interfaces).
+
+  - First line (the brief description) must only be one sentence and
+    should start with a capital letter unless it starts with a lowercase
+    symbol or identifier. Don't use a trailing period either. Don't exceed
+    72 characters.
+
+  - The main description (the body) is normal prose and should use normal
+    punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. Normally, for patches
+    sent to a mailing list it's copied from there.
+
+  - When committing code on behalf of others use the --author option, e.g.
+    git commit -a --author "Joe Coder <joe@coder.org>" and --signoff.
+
+
+Alexander Larsson
+17 Apr 2009