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<h1>Getting Involved with the Clang Project</h1>

<p>Once you have <a href="get_started.html">checked out and built</a> clang and
played around with it, you might be wondering what you can do to make it better
and contribute to its development.  Alternatively, maybe you just want to follow
the development of the project to see it progress.
</p>

<h2>Contribute</h2>

See the <a href="hacking.html">hacking</a> document for information on how
to author patches.

<h2>Follow what's going on</h2>

<p>Clang is a subproject of the <a href="https://llvm.org">LLVM Project</a>, but
has its own mailing lists because the communities have people with different
interests.  The two clang lists are:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://lists.llvm.org/mailman/listinfo/cfe-commits">cfe-commits
</a> - This list is for patch submission/discussion.</li>

<li><a href="https://lists.llvm.org/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">cfe-dev</a> -
This list is for everything else Clang related (questions and answers, design
discussions, etc).</li>

</ul>

<p>If you are interested in clang only, these two lists should be all
you need.  If you are interested in the LLVM optimizer and code generator,
please consider signing up for <a
href="https://lists.llvm.org/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev">llvm-dev</a> and <a
href="https://lists.llvm.org/mailman/listinfo/llvm-commits">llvm-commits</a>
as well.</p>


<p>The most common way to talk with other developers on the project is through
the <a href="https://lists.llvm.org/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">cfe-dev mailing
list</a>.  The clang mailing list is a very friendly place and we welcome
newcomers.  In addition to the cfe-dev list, a significant amount of design
discussion takes place on the <a
href="https://lists.llvm.org/mailman/listinfo/cfe-commits">cfe-commits mailing
list</a>.  All of these lists have archives, so you can browse through previous
discussions or follow the list development on the web if you prefer.</p>

<p>You can also follow the <a href="http://planet.clang.org/">Planet Clang</a>
community news feed which offers a window into the world, work and lives of
Clang developers, contributors and the standards they implement.</p>

<p>If you're looking for something to work on, check out our <a
href="OpenProjects.html">Open Projects</a> page or look through the <a
href="https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/">LLVM bug tracker</a>.</p>

<h2 id="criteria">Contributing Extensions to Clang</h2>

<p>Clang is designed to support experimentation,
allowing programmers to easily extend the compiler to support great
new language features and tools. At some point, the authors of these
extensions may propose that the extensions become a part of Clang
itself, to benefit the whole Clang community. However, extensions
(particularly language extensions) have long-term maintenance costs
for Clang. The benefits of the extension need to be evaluated against
these costs. The Clang project uses the following criteria for this
evaluation:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Evidence of a significant user community: This is based on a number of
  factors, including an existing user community, the perceived likelihood that
  users would adopt such a feature if it were available, and any secondary
  effects that come from, e.g., a library adopting the feature and providing
  benefits to its users.</li>

  <li>A specific need to reside within the Clang tree: There are some extensions
  that would be better expressed as a separate tool, and should remain as
  separate tools even if they end up being hosted as part of the LLVM umbrella
  project.</li>

  <li>A specification: The specification must be sufficient to understand the
  design of the feature as well as interpret the meaning of specific examples.
  The specification should be detailed enough that another compiler vendor
  could implement the feature.</li>

  <li>Representation within the appropriate governing organization: For
  extensions to a language governed by a standards committee (C, C++, OpenCL),
  the extension itself must have an active proposal and proponent within that
  committee and have a reasonable chance of acceptance. Clang should drive the
  standard, not diverge from it. This criterion does not apply to all
  extensions, since some extensions fall outside of the realm of the standards
  bodies.</li>

  <li>A long-term support plan: increasingly large or complex extensions to
  Clang need matching commitments to supporting them over time, including
  improving their implementation and specification as Clang evolves. The
  capacity of the contributor to make that commitment is as important as the
  commitment itself.</li>

  <li>A high-quality implementation: The implementation must fit well into
  Clang's architecture, follow LLVM's coding conventions, and meet Clang's
  quality standards, including diagnostics and complete AST
  representations. This is particularly important for language extensions,
  because users will learn how those extensions work through the behavior of the
  compiler.</li>

  <li>A test suite: Extensive testing is crucial to ensure that the language
  extension is not broken by ongoing maintenance in Clang. The test suite
  should be complete enough that another compiler vendor could conceivably
  validate their implementation of the feature against it.</li>
</ol>

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