---
name: "mrtg-contrib"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "mrtg"
version: "2.17.10-13+deb13u2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mrtg-contrib"
---

# mrtg-contrib(1)

Contribution Guidelines for MRTG

## NAME

mrtg-contrib - Contribution Guidelines for MRTG

## DESCRIPTION

If you have written an extension to mrtg or created a bug fix, please consider contributing it to the project. As I get quite a number of contributions every week, here are a few guidelines which explain how to contribute so that I can use the contribution without too much additional work.

### Translations

MRTG messages have been translated to a number of languages but there are still many which have not been covered yet. If you want to add yours, go into the *mrtg-2.17.10/translate* directory and follow the instructions given in the *README* file.

### Patches

When you have created your modification or extension to mrtg and want to submit it to me, please crate a patch for the files which you have modified. Do not send entire files unless they are new.

To create a patch, get hold of a copy of GNU diff (Many Unix systems will have this installed already. In the NT world you might want to get http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ to get all the nice GNU tools available.) and type

```
 diff --unified --ignore-space-change old-file new-file > simple.patch
```

or if you have modified several files do

```
 diff --recursive --unified --ignore-space-change old-dir/ new-dir/ >long.patch
```

### Documentation

All documentation of mrtg is done with the perl **POD** system. If you want to learn about it, type

```
 perldoc perlpod
```

and read the instructions. If you have bugfixes or additions to the existing documents, make sure you modify the **POD** files and not the html or txt versions.

I take documentation very seriously. Whenever you create a new feature for mrtg which you want to get included in the official release, your patch must also contain modifications for the relevant **pod** file in the *doc* tree or for the documentation sections of *cfgmaker* and *indexmaker*.

## ADDRESS

Send your patches, translations and contributions to Tobias Oetiker \<tobi@oetiker.ch\>

## AUTHOR

Tobias Oetiker \<tobi@oetiker.ch\>