nealrichardson commented on a change in pull request #7520:
URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/7520#discussion_r444318497



##########
File path: docs/source/developers/contributing.rst
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@@ -124,29 +181,72 @@ To contribute a patch:
   `ARROW-767: [C++] Filesystem abstraction 
<https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/4225>`_).
 * Make sure that your code passes the unit tests. You can find instructions how
   to run the unit tests for each Arrow component in its respective README file.
+
+Core developers and others with a stake in the part of the project your change
+affects will review, request changes, and hopefully indicate their approval
+in the end. To make the review process smooth for everyone, try to
+
+* Break your work into small, single-purpose patches if possible. It’s much
+  harder to merge in a large change with a lot of disjoint features, and
+  particularly if you're new to the project, smaller changes are much easier
+  for maintainers to accept.
 * Add new unit tests for your code.
+* Follow the style guides for the part(s) of the project you're modifying.
+  Some languages (C++, Python, and Rust, for example) run a lint check in
+  continuous integration. For all languages, see their respective developer
+  documentation and READMEs for style guidance. In general, try to make it look
+  as if the codebase has a single author, and emulate any conventions you see,
+  whether or not they are officially documented or checked.
+
+When tests are passing and the pull request has been approved by the interested
+parties, a committer will merge the pull request. This is done with a
+command-line utility that does a squash merge, so all of your commits will be
+registered as a single commit to the master branch; this simplifies the
+connection between JIRA issues and commits, and it makes it easier to bisect
+history to identify where changes were introduced. A side effect of this way of
+merging is that your pull request will appear in the GitHub interface to have
+been "closed without merge". Do not be alarmed: if you look at the bottom, you
+will see a message that says "@user closed this in $COMMIT".
+
+Local git conventions
++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+If you are tracking the Arrow source repository locally, here are some tips
+for using ``git``.
+
+All Arrow contributors work off of their personal fork of ``apache/arrow``
+and submit pull requests "upstream". Once you've cloned your fork of Arrow,
+be sure to::
+
+    $ git remote add upstream https://github.com/apache/arrow
+
+to set the "upstream" repository.
+
+You are encouraged to develop on branches, rather than your own "master" 
branch,
+and it helps to keep your fork's master branch synced with ``upstream/master``.
 
-Thank you in advance for your contributions!
+To start a new branch, pull the latest from upstream first::
 
-Common Git conventions followed within the project
---------------------------------------------------
+   $ git fetch upstream
+   $ git checkout master
+   $ git reset --hard upstream/master
+   $ git checkout -b $NEW_BRANCH_NAME
 
-If you are tracking the Arrow source repository locally, following some common 
Git
-conventions would make everyone's workflow compatible.  These recommendations 
along with
-their rationale are outlined below.
+It does not matter what you call your branch. Some people like to use the JIRA
+number as branch name, others use descriptive names.
 
-It is strongly discouraged to use a regular ``git merge``, as a linear commit 
history is
-prefered by the project.  It is much easier to maintain, and makes for easier
-``cherry-picking`` of features; useful for backporting fixes to maintenance 
releases.
+Once you have a branch going, you should sync with ``upstream/master``
+regularly, as many commits merge to master every day.
+It is recommended to use ``git rebase`` rather than ``git merge``.
 To sync your local copy of a branch, you may do the following::
 
     $ git pull upstream branch --rebase

Review comment:
       IDK personally, and IMO it's hard to give `git` advice because everyone 
has slightly different workflows that work for them




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