From 8fbf1e7d097a2e06c738759f08787bad227c3349 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kristina Chodorow <kchodorow@google.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2016 15:54:21 +0000
Subject: Add documentation about where to put new Skylark rules

--
MOS_MIGRATED_REVID=124565078
---
 site/_layouts/documentation.html |   1 +
 site/docs/skylark/deploying.md   | 146 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 147 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 site/docs/skylark/deploying.md

(limited to 'site')

diff --git a/site/_layouts/documentation.html b/site/_layouts/documentation.html
index a35462d964..888b9ce350 100644
--- a/site/_layouts/documentation.html
+++ b/site/_layouts/documentation.html
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ nav: docs
                 </ul>
               </li>
               <li><a href="/docs/skylark/cookbook.html">Cookbook</a></li>
+              <li><a href="/docs/skylark/deploying.html">Packaging rules</a></li>
             </ul>
             <h3>How Bazel Works</h3>
             <ul class="sidebar-nav">
diff --git a/site/docs/skylark/deploying.md b/site/docs/skylark/deploying.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f648ad44ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/site/docs/skylark/deploying.md
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+---
+layout: documentation
+title: Deploying new Skylark rules
+---
+-->
+
+# Deploying new Skylark rules
+
+This documentation is for Skylark rule writers who are planning to make their
+rules available to others.
+
+## Where to put new rules
+
+In general, new rules should go into their own GitHub repository under your
+organization. Contact the [bazel-dev mailing
+list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bazel-dev) if you feel like your
+rules belong in the bazelbuild organization.
+
+You can see lots of examples of what your repository should look like on GitHub:
+see all of the repositories named `rules_whatever`.  In particular,
+[rules_scala](https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_scala) is a nice example of
+how to set up your repo.
+
+Rules can be grouped either by language (e.g., Scala) or some notion of platform
+(e.g., Android).
+
+## What a rule repository should contain
+
+Every rule repository should have a certain layout so that users can quickly
+understand new rules.
+
+For example, suppose we are writing new Skylark rules for the (make-believe)
+chaiscript language. We would have the following structure:
+
+```
+.travis.yml
+README.md
+WORKSPACE
+chaiscript/
+  BUILD
+  chaiscript.bzl
+tests/
+  BUILD
+  some_test.sh
+  another_test.py
+examples/
+  BUILD
+  bin.chai
+  lib.chai
+  test.chai
+```
+
+### README.md
+
+At the top level, there should be a README.md that contains (at least) what
+users will need to copy-paste into their WORKSPACE file to use your rule.
+In general, this will be a `git_repository` pointing to your GitHub repo and
+a macro call that downloads/configures any tools your rule needs. For example,
+for the [Go
+rules](https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_go/blob/master/README.md#setup), this
+looks like:
+
+```
+git_repository(
+    name = "io_bazel_rules_go",
+    remote = "https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_go.git",
+    tag = "0.0.2",
+)
+load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_repositories")
+
+go_repositories()
+```
+
+If your rules depend on another repository's rules, specify both in the
+`README.md` (see the [Skydoc rules](https://github.com/bazelbuild/skydoc#setup),
+which depend on the Sass rules, for an example of this).
+
+### Tests
+
+There should be tests that verify that the rules are working as expected. This
+can either be in the standard location for the language the rules are for or a
+`tests/` directory at the top level.
+
+### Optional: Examples
+
+It is useful to users to have an `examples/` directory that shows users a couple
+of basic ways that the rules can be used.
+
+## Testing
+
+Set up Travis as described in their [getting started
+docs](https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/getting-started/). Then add a
+`.travis.yml` file to your repository with the following content:
+
+```
+language:
+  - java
+jdk:
+  - oraclejdk8  # Building Bazel requires JDK8.
+before_install:
+  - wget https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/archive/0.3.0.zip  # Replace with desired version
+  - unzip 0.3.0.zip
+  - cd bazel-0.3.0
+  - ./compile.sh
+  - sudo cp output/bazel /usr/bin/bazel
+  - cd ..
+  - rm -rf bazel-0.3.0
+script:
+  - bazel build //...
+  - bazel test //...
+```
+
+Right now Bazel has to be compiled from source, as Travis does not support a
+version of GCC that works with the precompiled Bazel binaries. Thus, the
+`before_install` steps download the Bazel source, compile it, and "install" the
+Bazel binary in /usr/bin.
+
+If your repository is under the [bazelbuild organization](https://github.com/bazelbuild),
+contact the [bazel-dev](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bazel-dev) list
+to have it added to [ci.bazel.io](http://ci.bazel.io).
+
+## Documentation
+
+See the [Skydoc documentation](https://github.com/bazelbuild/skydoc) for
+instructions on how to comment your rules so that documentation can be generated
+automatically.
+
+## FAQs
+
+### Why can't we add our rule to the Bazel GitHub repository?
+
+We want to decouple rules from Bazel releases as much as possible. It's clearer
+who owns individual rules, reducing the load on Bazel developers. For our users,
+decoupling makes it easier to modify, upgrade, downgrade, and replace rules.
+Contributing to rules can be lighter weight than contributing to Bazel -
+depending on the rules -, including full submit access to the corresponding
+GitHub repository. Getting submit access to Bazel itself is a much more involved
+process.
+
+The downside is a more complicated one-time installation process for our users:
+they have to copy-paste a rule into their WORKSPACE file, as shown in the
+README section above.
+
+We used to have all of the Skylark rules in the Bazel repository (under
+`//tools/build_rules` or `//tools/build_defs`). We still have a couple rules
+there, but we are working on moving the remaining rules out.
-- 
cgit v1.2.3