PaperMC is happy you're willing to contribute to our projects. We are usually very lentient with all submitted PRs, but there are still some guidelines you can follow to make the approval process go more smoothly.
Table of contents:
- Use a Personal Fork and not Organization
- Requirements
- Understanding Patches
- Adding Patches
- Modifying Patches
- PR Policy
- Formatting
- Patch Notes
- Obfuscation Helpers
- Configuration files
- Frequently Asked Questions
Paper will routinely modify your PR, whether it's a quick rebase or to take care of any minor nitpicks we might have. Often, it's better for us to solve these problems for you than make you go back and forth trying to fix it yourself.
Unfortunately, if you use an organization for your PR, it prevents Paper from modifying it. This requires us to manually merge your PR, resulting in us closing the PR instead of marking it as merged.
We much prefer to have PRs show as merged, so please do not use repositories on organizations for PRs.
See isaacs/github#1681 for more information on the issue.
To get started with PRing changes, you'll need the following software, most of
which can be obtained in (most) package managers such as apt
(Debian / Ubuntu;
you will most likely use this for WSL), homebrew
(macOS / Linux), and more:
git
(packagegit
everywhere);patch
(often packagepatch
);- A Java 8 or later JDK (packages vary, use Google/DuckDuckGo/etc.).
If you need one, you can find them on AdoptOpenJDK. maven
(often packagemaven
; can be found on Apache's site too).
If you're on Windows, check the section on WSL.
If you're compiling with Docker, you can use the
adoptopenjdk
images like so:
# docker run -it -v "$(pwd)":/data --rm adoptopenjdk:8-jdk-hotspot bash
Pulling image...
root@abcdefg1234:/# javac -version
javac 1.8.0_252
Paper is mostly patches and extensions to Spigot. These patches/extensions are split into different directories which target certain parts of the code. These directories are:
Paper-API
- Modifications toSpigot-API
/Bukkit
;Paper-MojangAPI
- An API for Mojang's Brigadier;Paper-Server
- Modifications toSpigot
/CraftBukkit
.
Because the entire structure is based on patches and git, a basic understanding of how to use git is required. A basic tutorial can be found here: https://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial.
Assuming you have already forked the repository:
- Clone your fork to your local machine;
- Type
./paper patch
in a terminal to apply the changes from upstream; - cd into
Paper-Server
for server changes, andPaper-API
for API changes.
You can also run./paper server
or./paper api
for these same directories respectively. - You can also run
./paper setup
, which allows you to typepaper <command>
from anywhere in the Paper structure in most cases.
Paper-Server
and Paper-API
aren't git repositories in the traditional sense:
- Every single commit in
Paper-Server
/Paper-API
is a patch; origin/master
points to a directory similar toPaper-Server
/Paper-API
but for Paper;- Typing
git status
should show that we are 10 or 11 commits ahead of master, meaning we have 10 or 11 patches Spigot and CraftBukkit don't.- If it says something like
212 commits ahead, 207 commits behind
, cd into the root directory of the cloned repository and typegit fetch
to update your upstream. Setting up a remote for the upstream Paper repository might be necessary.
- If it says something like
Adding patches to Paper is very simple:
- Modify
Paper-Server
and/orPaper-API
with the appropriate changes; - Type
git add .
inside these directories to add your changes; - Run
git commit
with the desired patch message; - Run
./paper rebuild
in the main directory to convert your commit into a new patch; - PR the generated patch file(s) back to this repository.
Your commit will be converted into a patch that you can then PR into Paper.
❗ Please note that if you have some specific implementation detail you'd like to document, you should do so in the patch message or in comments.
Modifying previous patches is a bit more complex:
This method works by temporarily resetting your HEAD
to the desired commit to
edit it using git rebase
.
❗ While in the middle of an edit, you will not be able to compile unless you also reset the opposing module(s) to a related commit. In the API's case, you must reset the Server, and reset the API if you're editing the Server.
The PaperMC build tool provides a handy command to automatically do this type of patch modification.
- Type
./paper edit server
or./paper edit api
depending on which project you want to edit;- It should show something like this in the text editor you get.
- If your editor does not have a "menu" at the bottom, you're using
vim
.
If you don't know how to usevim
and don't want to learn, enter:q!
and press enter. Before redoing this step, doexport EDITOR=nano
for an easier editor to use.
- Replace
pick
withedit
for the commit/patch you want to modify, and "save" the changes;- Only do this for one commit at a time.
- Make the changes you want to make to the patch;
- Type
./paper edit continue
in the root directory to finish and rebuild patches; - PR your modified patch file(s) back to this repository.
In case you need something more complex or want more control, these step-by-step instruction do exactly what the above slightly automated system above does.
- If you have changes you are working on, type
git stash
to store them for later;- You can type
git stash pop
to get them back at any point.
- You can type
- Type
git rebase -i upstream/upstream
;- It should show something like this in the text editor you get.
- If your editor does not have a "menu" at the bottom, you're using
vim
.
If you don't know how to usevim
and don't want to learn, enter:q!
and press enter. Before redoing this step, doexport EDITOR=nano
for an easier editor to use.
- Replace
pick
withedit
for the commit/patch you want to modify, and "save" the changes;- Only do this for one commit at a time.
- Make the changes you want to make to the patch;
- Type
git add .
to add your changes; - Type
git commit --amend
to commit;- Make sure to add
--amend
or else a new patch will be created. - You can also modify the commit message and author here.
- Make sure to add
- Type
git rebase --continue
to finish rebasing; - Type
./paper rebuild
in the root directory;- This will modify the appropriate patches based on your commits.
- PR your modified patch file(s) back to this repository.
If you are simply editing a more recent commit or your change is small, simply making the change at HEAD and then moving the commit after you have tested it may be easier.
This method has the benefit of being able to compile to test your change without messing with your HEADs.
- Make your change while at HEAD;
- Make a temporary commit. You don't need to make a message for this;
- Type
git rebase -i upstream/upstream
, move (cut) your temporary commit and move it under the line of the patch you wish to modify; - Change the
pick
to the appropriate action:f
/fixup
: Merge your changes into the patch without touching the message.s
/squash
: Merge your changes into the patch and use your commit message and subject.
- Type
./paper rebuild
in the root directory;- This will modify the appropriate patches based on your commits.
- PR your modified patch file(s) back to this repository.
- Make your change while at HEAD;
- Make a fixup commit.
git commit -a --fixup <hashOfPatchToFix>
;- You can also use
--squash
instead of--fixup
if you want the commit message to also be changed. - You can get the hash by looking at
git log
orgit blame
; your IDE can assist you too. - Alternatively, if you only know the name of the patch, you can do
git commit -a --fixup "Subject of Patch name"
.
- You can also use
- Rebase with autosquash:
git rebase --autosquash -i upstream/upstream
. This will automatically move your fixup commit to the right place, and you just need to "save" the changes. - Type
./paper rebuild
in the root directory;- This will modify the appropriate patches based on your commits.
- PR your modified patch file(s) back to this repository.
We'll accept changes that make sense. You should be able to justify their existence, along with any maintenance costs that come with them. Using obfuscation helpers aids in the maintenance costs. Remember that these changes will affect everyone who runs Paper, not just you and your server.
While we will fix minor formatting issues, you should stick to the guide below when making and submitting changes.
All modifications to non-Paper files should be marked.
- Multi-line changes start with
// Paper start
and end with// Paper end
; - You can put a comment with an explanation if it isn't obvious, like this:
// Paper start - reason
.- The comments should generally be about the reason the change was made, what it was before, or what the change is.
- Multi-line messages should start with
// Paper start
and use/* Multi line message here */
for the message itself.
- One-line changes should have
// Paper
or// Paper - reason
.
Here's an example of how to mark changes by Paper:
entity.getWorld().dontbeStupid(); // Paper - was beStupid() which is bad
entity.getFriends().forEach(Entity::explode);
entity.a();
entity.b();
// Paper start - use plugin-set spawn
// entity.getWorld().explode(entity.getWorld().getSpawn());
Location spawnLocation = ((CraftWorld)entity.getWorld()).getSpawnLocation();
entity.getWorld().explode(new BlockPosition(spawnLocation.getX(), spawnLocation.getY(), spawnLocation.getZ()));
// Paper end
We generally follow usual Java style (aka. Oracle style), or what is programmed into most IDEs and formatters by default. There are a few notes, however:
- It is fine to go over 80 lines as long as it doesn't hurt readability.
There are exceptions, especially in Spigot-related files - When in doubt or the code around your change is in a clearly different style, use the same style as the surrounding code.
When submitting patches to Paper, we may ask you to add notes to the patch header. While we do not require it for all changes, you should add patch notes when the changes you're making are technical, complex, or require an explanation of some kind. It is very likely that your patch will remain long after we've all forgotten about the details of your PR; patch notes will help us maintain it without having to dig back through GitHub history looking for your PR.
These notes should express the intent of your patch, as well as any pertinent technical details we should keep in mind long-term. Ultimately, they exist to make it easier for us to maintain the patch across major version changes.
If you add a message to your commit in the Paper-Server
/Paper-API
directories, the rebuild patches script will handle these patch notes
automatically as part of generating the patch file. If you are not
extremely careful, you should always just squash
or amend
a patch (see the
above sections on modifying patches) and rebuild.
Editing messages and patches by hand is possible, but you should patch and rebuild afterwards to make sure you did it correctly. This is slower than just modifying the patches properly after a few times, so you will not really gain anything but headaches from doing it by hand.
Underneath is an example patch header/note:
From 02abc033533f70ef3165a97bfda3f5c2fa58633a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shane Freeder <theboyetronic@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2017 00:29:07 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] revert serverside behavior of keepalives
This patch intends to bump up the time that a client has to reply to the
server back to 30 seconds as per pre 1.12.2, which allowed clients
more than enough time to reply potentially allowing them to be less
tempermental due to lag spikes on the network thread, e.g. that caused
by plugins that are interacting with netty.
We also add a system property to allow people to tweak how long the server
will wait for a reply. There is a compromise here between lower and higher
values, lower values will mean that dead connections can be closed sooner,
whereas higher values will make this less sensitive to issues such as spikes
from networking or during connections flood of chunk packets on slower clients,
at the cost of dead connections being kept open for longer.
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/minecraft/server/PlayerConnection.java b/src/main/java/net/minecraft/server/PlayerConnection.java
index a92bf8967..d0ab87d0f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/minecraft/server/PlayerConnection.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/minecraft/server/PlayerConnection.java
In an effort to make future updates easier on ourselves, Paper tries to use obfuscation helpers whenever possible. The purpose of these helpers is to make the code more readable and maintainable. These helpers should be be made as easy to inline as possible by the JVM whenever possible.
An obfuscation helper to access an obfuscated item may be as simple as something like this:
public final int getStuckArrows() { return this.bY(); } // Paper - OBFHELPER
Or it may be as complex as forwarding an entire method so that it can be overridden later:
public boolean be() {
// Paper start - OBFHELPER
return this.pushedByWater();
}
public boolean pushedByWater() {
// Paper end
return true;
}
While they may not always be done in exactly the same way, the general goal is always to improve readability and maintainability. Use your best judgment and do what fits best in your situation.
To use a configurable value in your patch, add a new entry in either the
PaperConfig
or PaperWorldConfig
classes. Use PaperConfig
if a value
must remain the same throughout all worlds, or the latter if it can change
between worlds. World-specific configuration options are preferred whenever
possible.
public static boolean saveEmptyScoreboardTeams = false;
private static void saveEmptyScoreboardTeams() {
// This is called automatically!
// The name also doesn't matter.
saveEmptyScoreboardTeams = getBoolean("settings.save-empty-scoreboard-teams", false);
}
Notice that the field is always public, but the setter is always private. This is important to the way the configuration generation system works. To access this value, reference it as you would any other static value:
if (!PaperConfig.saveEmptyScoreboardTeams) {
It is often preferred that you use the fully qualified name for the
configuration class when accessing it, like so:
com.destroystokyo.paper.PaperConfig.valueHere
.
If this is not done, a developer for Paper might fix that for you before
merging, but it's always nice if you make it a habit where you only need 1-2
lines changed.
public boolean useInhabitedTime = true;
private void useInhabitedTime() {
// This is called automatically!
// The name also doesn't matter.
useInhabitedTime = getBoolean("use-chunk-inhabited-timer", true);
}
Again, notice that the field is always public, but the setter is always private.
To access this value, you'll need an instance of the net.minecraft.World
object:
return this.world.paperConfig.useInhabitedTime ? this.w : 0;
By default, Paper (and upstream) only import files we make changes to. If you
would like to make changes to a file that isn't present in Paper-Server
's
source directory, you just need to add it to our import script ran during the
patching process.
- Save (rebuild) any patches you are in the middle of working on! Their progress will be lost if you do not;
- Identify the name(s) of the file(s) you want to import.
- A complete list of all possible file names can be found at
./work/Minecraft/$MCVER/spigot/net/minecraft/server
. You might find MiniMappingViewer very useful to find the file you need.
- A complete list of all possible file names can be found at
- Open the file at
./scripts/importmcdev.sh
and add the name of your file to the script. Skip to the 2nd last header and follow the instructions there; - Re-patch the server
./paper patch
; - Edit away!
❗ This change is temporary! DO NOT COMMIT CHANGES TO THIS FILE!
Once you have made your changes to the new file, and rebuilt patches, you may undo your changes toimportmcdev.sh
.
Any file modified in a patch file gets automatically imported, so you only need this temporarily to import it to create the first patch.
To undo your changes to the file, type git checkout scripts/importmcdev.sh
.
For most cases, it is preferred if you use yarn, as their license works with Paper's license. If you can't do that, MiniMappingViewer is always around to provide you with more of a general idea, but you cannot use the Mojang names for more than understanding the code.
yarn is in general more thorough than Mojang's own mappings, as they include method arguments as well, whereas Mojang's do not. If you need local variables to understand the code, you might be more lucky with ModCoderPack.
For more information on the Mojang name licensing issues, check this out: https://cpw.github.io/MinecraftMappingData.html
Well, quite simple: You add [CI-SKIP]
to the start of your commit subject.
This case most often applies to changes to files like README.md
, this very
file (CONTRIBUTING.md
), the LICENSE.md
file, and so forth.
This only applies if you're running Windows. If you're running a prior Windows release, either update to Windows 10 or move to macOS/Linux/BSD.
In order to speed up patching process on Windows, it's recommended you get WSL
2. This is available in Windows 10 v2004, build 19041 or higher. (You can check
your version by running winver
in the run window (Windows key + R)). If you're
out of date, update your system with the
Windows Update Assistant.
To setup WSL 2, follow the information here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
You will most likely want to use the Ubuntu apps. Once it's set up, install the
required tools with sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install $TOOL_NAMES -y
. Replace $TOOL_NAMES
with the packages found in the
requirements. You can now clone the repository and do
everything like usual.
❗ Do not use the
/mnt/
directory in WSL! Instead, mount the WSL directories in Windows like described here: https://www.howtogeek.com/426749/how-to-access-your-linux-wsl-files-in-windows-10/
To install the API to your local maven repository, do the following:
- Enter the API directory by running
./paper api
; - Run
mvn install
.- If you are working on a patch without much care for whether the tests
pass, you can instead run
mvn install -DskipTests
. Do not PR changes without running tests first. - If a test failed, you have to identify the failing tests by scrolling up a couple lines (i.e. around 50-200). You should find it fairly quickly.
- If you later need to use the Paper-API, you might want to remove the jar
from your local maven repository.
If you use Windows and don't usually build using WSL, you might not need to do this.
- If you are working on a patch without much care for whether the tests
pass, you can instead run
You can now use the API in your plugin to test it before PRing. You will also need to do this to build the Server with the implemented API.