Extract contributing guide into CONTRIBUTING.md

While at it, refactor the guide for clarity. Some of the new text was
taken from erlware/relx/CONTRIBUTING.md and modified as needed.

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+Contributing to rebar
+---------------------
+
+Before implementing a new feature, you should submit a ticket for discussion on your plans.  
+The feature might have been rejected already, or the implementation might already be decided.
+
+See [Community and Resources](README.md#community-and-resources).
+
+Code style
+----------
+
+The following rules must be followed:
+ * Do not introduce trailing whitespace
+ * Do not mix spaces and tabs
+ * Do not introduce lines longer than 80 characters
+
+The following rules should be followed:
+ * Write small functions whenever possible
+ * Avoid having too many clauses containing clauses containing clauses.  
+   Basically, avoid deeply nested functions.
+
+[erlang-mode (emacs)](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.el.html)
+indentation is preferred. This will keep the code base consistent.  
+vi users are encouraged to give [Vim emulation](http://emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil) ([more
+info](https://gitorious.org/evil/pages/Home)) a try.
+
+Pull requests and branching
+---------------------------
+
+Use one topic branch per pull request. If you do that, you can add extra commits or fix up  
+buggy commits via `git rebase -i`, and update the branch. The updated branch will be  
+visible in the same pull request. Therefore, you should not open a new pull request when  
+you have to fix your changes.
+
+Do not commit to master in your fork.
+
+Provide a clean branch without merge commits.
+
+Committing your changes
+-----------------------
+
+Please ensure that all commits pass all tests, and do not have extra Dialyzer warnings.  
+To do that run `make check`. If you didn't build via `make debug` at first, the beam files in  
+`ebin/` might be missing debug_info required for [xref](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/xref.html) 
+and [Dialyzer](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html), causing a test 
+failure.  
+If that happens, running `make clean` before running `make check` could solve the problem.  
+If you change any of the files with known but safe to ignore Dialyzer warnings, you may  
+have to adapt the line number(s) in [dialyzer_reference](dialyzer_reference). If you do that, 
+do not remove the  
+leading blank line.
+
+#### Structuring your commits
+
+Fixing a bug is one commit.  
+Adding a feature is one commit.  
+Adding two features is two commits.  
+Two unrelated changes is two commits.
+
+If you fix a (buggy) commit, squash (`git rebase -i`) the changes as a fixup commit into  
+the original commit.
+
+#### Writing Commit Messages
+
+It's important to write a proper commit title and description. The commit title must be  
+at most 50 characters; it is the first line of the commit text. The second line of the  
+commit text must be left blank. The third line and beyond is the commit message. You  
+should write a commit message. If you do, wrap all lines at 72 characters. You should  
+explain what the commit does, what references you used, and any other information  
+that helps understanding your changes.
+
+Basically, structure your commit message like this:
+
+<pre>
+One line summary (at most 50 characters)
+
+Longer description (wrap at 72 characters)
+</pre>
+
+##### Commit title/summary
+
+* At most 50 characters
+* What was changed
+* Imperative present tense (Fix, Add, Change)
+ * `Fix bug 123`
+ * `Add 'foobar' command`
+ * `Change default timeout to 123`
+* No period
+
+##### Commit description
+
+* Wrap at 72 characters
+* Why, explain intention and implementation approach
+* Present tense

README.md

@@ -51,77 +51,7 @@ and you can use rebar to build OTP-compliant apps.
 Contributing to rebar
 =====================
 
-Pull requests and branching
+Please refer to [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md).
----------------------------
-
-Use one topic branch per pull request.
-
-Do not commit to master in your fork.
-
-Provide a clean branch without any merge commits from upstream.
-
-Usually you should squash any intermediate commits into the original single commit.
-
-Code style
-----------
-
-Do not introduce trailing whitespace.
-
-Do not mix spaces and tabs.
-
-Do not introduce lines longer than 80 characters.
-
-[erlang-mode (emacs)](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.el.html) indentation
-is preferred.  vi-only users are encouraged to give [Vim
-emulation](http://emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil) ([more
-info](https://gitorious.org/evil/pages/Home)) a try.
-
-Writing Commit Messages
------------------------
-
-Structure your commit message like this:
-
-<pre>
-One line summary (less than 50 characters)
-
-Longer description (wrap at 72 characters)
-</pre>
-
-### Summary
-
-* Less than 50 characters
-* What was changed
-* Imperative present tense (fix, add, change)
-  * `Fix bug 123`
-  * `Add 'foobar' command`
-  * `Change default timeout to 123`
-* No period
-
-### Description
-
-* Wrap at 72 characters
-* Why, explain intention and implementation approach
-* Present tense
-
-### Atomicity
-
-* Break up logical changes
-* Make whitespace changes separately
-
-Run checks
-----------
-
-Before you submit a patch, run ``make check`` to execute the test suite and
-check for [xref](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/xref.html) and
-[Dialyzer](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html) warnings. You may have
-to run ``make clean`` first.
-
-[Dialyzer](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html) warnings are compared
-against a set of safe-to-ignore warnings found in
-[dialyzer_reference](https://raw.github.com/rebar/rebar/master/dialyzer_reference).
-[xref](http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/xref.html) is run with [custom
-queries](https://raw.github.com/rebar/rebar/master/rebar.config) to suppress
-safe-to-ignore warnings.
 
 Community and Resources
 -----------------------