Burp is open and free software. Some assume that this means that I will spend my time working for them, and that I will do it for free.

This is not the case. Although I enjoy working on burp, I have my own idea of priorities that do not necessarily align with anybody else's priorities.

Additionally, the spare time that I use to work on burp is actually very limited.
I am a dad, I have non-burp paid work, I am in a rock band, and I sometimes like to eat or sleep.

If you want some work to go into a burp release, here are some suggestions:

• Make a request for paid work.
  This will take you to the front of my queue.
  You may request support, advice, bug fixes or anything else. Email me directly to do this.
• Make a request for free work.
  This will be prioritised as I find appropriate.
• Do the work yourself and request that I merge your patch.
  All of the sources and build tools are available to you.

Of course, you are also quite welcome to do the work yourself and never send me anything, but this means that you'll probably end up doing more in the future as you will have to maintain your own patches.

Making a request

Requests may be made via three different means.

1. In general, I prefer that they are sent to the burp-users mailing list. If you use the mailing list, it means everybody on the mailing list gets a chance to respond to your questions, not just me. And messages on the mailing list can be find via search engines too, so everybody benefits. Use this link to subscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/burp-users

2. You may send me an email directly by using this page. This is the best choice if you are looking for me to do some paid work, or want to send a message that is personal to me only.

3. You may open a pull request or an issue on github. Opening pull requests directly on github is great. But if you want to open an issue on github, I prefer that you discuss it on the mailing list first. It is often the case that issues opened on github are actually requests for help that can be answered more efficiently on the mailing list. This is because more people read and reply to the mailing list than the github issue list.

Sometimes, I receive messages that are full of arrogance and entitlement. If you are like that, you greatly reduce your chances of achieving anything.

I always try to be polite and courteous, so please try to be polite and courteous in your requests. Most people are fine in this respect. A lot of people do not speak English as a first language, but good will still comes across in their messages. That is very much appreciated.

Support

The majority of requests that I get fall into this category. These requests are often resolved by pointing the person at a relevant page in the DOCS section of the website. So, you should check there before making your request.

Feature requests and bug reports

A smaller percentage of requests are for new features and bug fixes. I am happy to receive them, because they help to make burp better.

However, be aware that your feature or bug may be very important to you, but I may have different priorities.

Pull requests

If you have done some work yourself, you may then wish to submit a patch in order to get it into a proper release. The best way to do this is via a pull request on github, but patches via email are OK too.

If you are adding a new feature, you should add an automated test, or tests, to the utest directory so that your new code is demonstrably functional and doesn't break existing code.

If you are fixing a bug, you should try to include a test case that demonstrates that you have fixed the bug.

Pull requests are the most infrequent of the requests that I receive, and I am happy to review them and point you in the right direction when I can.