Goal:
Determine whether an old patch or merge request still applies and passes automated tests.
Skills required:
Detailed steps:
- Set up prerequisites: Log in, Git from Common Prerequisites for Contributors.
- Choose a project to work on, either Drupal core or a contributed module, theme, or distribution that you are familiar with.
- Find the issues for the project, and filter the list to status Needs Review (example: issue list for Drupal core). Optionally, filter the list to the current major development version, such as Drupal 9.x only.
- For this task, you are looking for old issues whose Category is Bug report, Feature request, or Task. The default sort is by date last updated (newest first). Click the "Last updated" column header to reverse the sort, so the oldest issues are first.
- Select an issue and click the issue title to go to the issue page.
- Determine whether the issue is using patch files or merge requests. Patch files will be listed in the Files section of the issue, and the file names will end in extension
.patch. Merge requests are described in the merge request documentation. If the issue has neither a patch file nor a merge request:- Change the issue status to Active (see Creating or updating an issue report for instructions on how to update an issue).
- Add a comment saying that the issue has no patch or merge request, and therefore the status was wrong.
- Submit your comment and changes, by clicking Save.
- Find another issue to work on.
- The next step is to see if the patch or merge request applies to the latest code base, or if it needs to be rerolled/rebased. To do this:
- For issues using patches, download the latest patch file. Use Git to clone or update your local Git repository to the development version that the issue pertains to. Then attempt to apply the patch.
- For issues using merge requests, the issue fork/merge request area should show either a green are saying the merge request is "mergeable" (meaning it applies to the latest code base), or a red area saying it is not mergeable (meaning it doesn't).
- If the changes do not apply:
- Change the issue status to Needs work.
- Add the issue tag "needs reroll".
- Add a comment stating that the patch or merge request does not apply.
- Save your comment and changes.
- If the changes do apply, click the "retest" link in the patch file or merge request area. This will trigger a re-run of the automated tests for the project. Wait for the tests to complete (this can take up to an hour for Drupal core; most contributed projects take less time). Note: Not all contributed projects have automated tests set up. If you cannot find a retest link, skip this step.
- If the tests pass and the changes applied, add a comment to the issue stating what you did and what happened.
- If the tests did not pass, the testing bot should have set the issue status to Needs work. Add a comment saying that you have verified that the patch applied, but the tests no longer pass.
