# Contributing to the Yocto Project

## Introduction

The Yocto Project team is happy for people to experiment with the Yocto Project. A number of places exist to find help if you run into difficulties or find bugs. To find out how to download source code, see the Yocto Project Release list item in The Yocto Project Development Manual.

## Tracking Bugs

If you find problems with the Yocto Project, you should report them using the Bugzilla application at .

## Mailing lists

To subscribe to the Yocto Project mailing lists, click on the following URLs and follow the instructions:

- for a Yocto Discussions mailing list.

- for a Yocto Project Discussions mailing list.

- for a mailing list to receive offical Yocto Project announcements for developments and as well as Yocto Project milestones.

## Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Two IRC channels on freenode are available for Yocto Project and Poky discussions:

- `#yocto`

- `#poky`

## Links

Following is a list of resources you will find helpful:

- The Yocto Project website: The home site for the Yocto Project.

- OpenedHand: The company where the Yocto Project build system Poky was first developed. OpenedHand has since been acquired by Intel Corporation.

- Intel Corporation: The company who acquired OpenedHand in 2008 and continues development on the Yocto Project.

- OpenEmbedded: The upstream, generic, embedded distribution the Yocto Project build system (Poky) derives from and to which it contributes.

- Bitbake: The tool used to process Yocto Project metadata.

- BitBake User Manual: A comprehensive guide to the BitBake tool.

- Pimlico: A suite of lightweight Personal Information Management (PIM) applications designed primarily for handheld and mobile devices.

- QEMU: An open source machine emulator and virtualizer.

## Contributions

Contributions to the Yocto Project are very welcome. You should send patches to the Yocto Project mailing list along with a "signed-off-by:" line in the same style as required by the Linux kernel. Adding this line signifies the developer has agreed to the Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1 as follows:

         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.

A Poky contributions tree (`poky-contrib`, `git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky-contrib.git`) exists for contributors to stage contributions. If people desire such access, please ask on the mailing list. Usually, the Yocto Project team will grant access to anyone with a proven track record of good patches.