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CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# Contribution Guidelines
+
+# Main Rules
+
+* All code must have unit tests written with `cmocka`
+* All code must pass valgrind testing with `ctest -T memcheck`
+* All code must be formatted with `make format`
+* All newly written typedefs, global variables, function declarations, etc.. must having valid doxygen comments
+
+# Memory Allocations
+
+* Where possible conduct memory allocations outside of mutex locks
+* This helps minimize the time spend in a lock, thus minimizing the time we block other threads
+
+# Braces
+
+
+You must always have the opening brace on the same line of the expression. 
+
+For example the following is acceptable
+
+```C
+if (abc == true) {
+    /* do stuff */
+}
+```
+
+Whereas the following is not acceptable:
+
+```C
+if (abc == true)
+{
+  /* do stuff */
+}
+```