## <a name="patches"></a>How do I submit a change to MySQL++?

This is covered in detail in the library's [hacker's guide](/doc/trunk/HACKERS.md).

But in brief: we want the patch in unified diff format, made against either the latest release of MySQL++ or (preferably) against [the trunk of the Fossil repository](/timeline?r=trunk). You can send it either to the [mailing list](http://lists.mysql.com/plusplus/), or to [the ticket tracker](/ticket). We prefer that you only use the ticket tracker for patches that are so trivial or obvious that they won’t need discussion.

When a patch is rejected, the most common reason is that it breaks the library’s binary interface (ABI), so that an old program can’t link to the changed library without recompiling. We only make such changes at major version transitions. These transitions are rare, and we can’t even promise that there will ever be another one, much less when it will occur. If you have a choice of two ways to get your desired effect and one of them doesn’t break the ABI, it will increase the chances that we accept your patch if you do it that way.

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