Thank you for considering contributing to the Shader-Slang project! We welcome your help to improve and enhance our project. Please take a moment to read through this guide to understand how you can contribute.
This document is to guide you to contribute to the project. This document is intended to be easy to follow without sending the readers to other pages and links. You can simply copy and paste command lines described on this document.
- Please read and follow the contributor Code of Conduct.
- Bug reports and feature requests should go through the GitHub issue tracker
- Changes should ideally come in as small pull requests on top of master, coming from your own personal fork of the project
- Large features that will involve multiple contributors or a long development time should be discussed in issues, and broken down into smaller pieces that can be implemented and checked in in stages
Navigate to the Shader-Slang repository. Click on the "Fork" button in the top right corner to create a copy of the repository in your GitHub account. This document will assume that the name of your forked repository is "slang". Make sure your "Actions" are enabled. Visit your forked repository and click on the "Actions" tab and enable the actions.
-
Clone your fork locally, replacing "USER-NAME" in the command below with your actual username..
$ git clone --recursive --tags https://github.com/USER-NAME/slang.git $ cd slang
-
Fetch tags by adding the original repository as an upstream. It is important to have tags in your forked repository, because our workflow/action uses the information for the build process. But the tags are not fetched by default when you fork a repository in github. You need to add the original repository as an upstream and fetch tags manually.
$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/shader-slang/slang.git $ git fetch --tags upstream
You can check whether the tags are fetched properly with the following command.
$ git tag -l
-
Push tags to your forked repository The tags are fetched to your local machine but it hasn't been pushed to the forked repository yet. You need to push tags to your forked repository with the following command.
$ git push --tags origin
Create a new branch for your contribution:
$ git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
Please follow the instructions of how to Building Slang from Source.
For a quick reference, follow the instructions below.
Download and install CMake from CMake.org/download
Run CMake with the following command to generate a Visual Studio 2022 Solution:
C:\git\slang> cmake.exe --preset vs2022 # For VisualStudio 2022
C:\git\slang> cmake.exe --preset vs2019 # For VisualStudio 2019
Open build/slang.sln
with VisualStudio IDE and build it for "x64".
Or you can build with a following command:
C:\git\slang> cmake.exe --build --preset release
Install CMake and Ninja.
$ sudo apt-get install cmake ninja-build
Warning: Currently the required CMake version is 3.25 or above.
Run CMake with a following command to generate Makefile:
$ cmake --preset default
Build with a following command:
$ cmake --build --preset release
Install XCode from AppStore.
Install CMake and Ninja; we recommend using homebrew for installing them.
brew install ninja
brew install cmake
Run CMake with a following command to generate Makefile:
$ cmake --preset default
Build with a following command:
$ cmake --build --preset release
slang-llvm is required to run slang-test properly. Follow the instructions below if you wish to build slang-llvm locally.
$ external/build-llvm.sh --source-dir build/slang-llvm_src --install-prefix build/slang-llvm_install
You need to use the following command to re-generate Makefile,
$ cmake --preset default --fresh -DSLANG_SLANG_LLVM_FLAVOR=USE_SYSTEM_LLVM -DLLVM_DIR=build/slang-llvm_install/lib/cmake/llvm -DClang_DIR=build/slang-llvm_install/lib/cmake/clang
Build with a following command:
$ cmake --build --preset release
Make your changes and ensure to follow our Design Decisions.
Test your changes thoroughly to ensure they do not introduce new issues. This is done by building and running a "slang-test" from the repository root directory. For more details about "slang-test", please refer to a Documentation on testing.
Note: slang-test is meant to launch from the root of the repository. It uses a hard-coded directory name "tests/" that is expected to exist in the current working directory.
Note: One of the options for
slang-test.exe
is-api
, and it takes an additional keyword to specify which API to test. When the option is-api all-cpu
, as an example, it means it tests all APIs except CPU. The minus sign (-) afterall
means "exclude" and you can "include" with plus sign (+) like-api gl+dx11
.
If you are familiar with Workflow/Actions in github, you can check Our Workflows. "Test Slang" section in ci.yml is where "slang-test" runs.
For a quick reference, follow the instructions below.
- Download and install VulkanSDK from LunarG SDK page.
- Set an environment variable to enable SPIR-V validation in Slang compiler,
C:\git\slang> set SLANG_RUN_SPIRV_VALIDATION=1
- Run slang-test with multiple threads. This may take 10 minutes or less depending on the performance of your computer.
C:\git\slang> build\Release\bin\slang-test.exe -use-test-server -server-count 8
Note: if you increase
-server-count
more than 16, you may find some of tests randomly fail. This is a known issue on the graphics driver side. - Check whether the test is finished as expected.
- Install Vulkan-SDK by following the Instructions in LunarG .
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install vulkan-sdk
- Run slang-test with multiple threads. This may take 10 minutes or less depending on the performance of your computer.
$ ./build/Release/bin/slang-test -use-test-server -server-count 8
- Check whether the test is finished as expected.
Commit your changes to the branch with a descriptive commit message:
$ git commit
It is important to have a descriptive commit message. Unlike comments inside of the source code, the commit messages don't spoil over time because it is tied to a specific change and it can be reviewed by many people many years later.
Here is a good example of a commit message
Add user authentication feature
Fixes #1234
This commit introduces a new user authentication feature. It includes changes to the login page, user database, and session management to provide secure user authentication.
Push your branch to your forked repository with the following command.
$ git push origin feature/your-feature-name
Request a pull from "shader-slang" repository.
For the Pull Request, you will need to write a PR message. This message is for a set of commits you are requesting to pull. Try to make it brief because the actual details should be in the commit messages of each commit.
The PR requires an approval from people who have permissions. They will review the changes before approve the Pull. During this step, you will get feedbacks from other people and they may request you to make some changes. When you need to make adjustments, you can commit new changes to the branch in your forlked repository that already has the changes in PR process. When new commits are added to the branch, they will automatically appear in the PR.
After your pull request is submitted, you can update your repository for your next changes.
Update your forked repository in github When your forked repository is behind the original repository, Github will allow you to sync via a "Sync fork" button.
Update your local machine from your forked repository
$ git checkout master
$ git pull
$ git submodule update --init --recursive
When you update the submodule, "--init" is required if there are new submodules added to the project. Update tags on your local machine and your forked repository
$ git fetch --tags upstream
$ git push --tags origin
Follow our Coding conventions to maintain consistency throughout the project.
Here are a few highlights
- Indent by four spaces. Don't use tabs except in files that require them (e.g., Makefiles).
- Don't use the STL containers, iostreams, or the built-in C++ RTTI system.
- Don't use the C++ variants of C headers (e.g., use
<stdio.h>
instead of<cstdio>
). - Don't use exceptions for non-fatal errors (and even then support a build flag to opt out of exceptions).
- Types should use UpperCamelCase, values should use lowerCamelCase, and macros should use SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE with a prefix
SLANG_
. - Global variables should have a
g
prefix, non-const static class members can have ans
prefix, constant data (in the sense of static const) should have ak
prefix, and anm_
prefix on member variables and a_
prefix on member functions are allowed. - Prefixes based on types (e.g., p for pointers) should never be used.
- In function parameter lists, an
in
,out
, orio
prefix can be added to a parameter name to indicate whether a pointer/reference/buffer is intended to be used for input, output, or both input and output. - Trailing commas should always be used for array initializer lists.
- Try to write comments that explain the "why" of your code more than the "what".
We track all our work with GitHub issues. Check the Issues for open issues. If you find a bug or want to suggest an enhancement, please open a new issue.
If you're new to the project or looking for a good starting point, consider exploring issues labeled as Good first bug. These are beginner-friendly bugs that provide a great entry point for new contributors.
Join our Discussions.
By contributing to Shader-Slang, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License. The full text of the License can be found in the LICENSE file in the root of the repository.