--- a/modules/stdlib/CONTRIBUTING.md	Sat Mar 14 20:07:04 2015 +0000
+++ b/modules/stdlib/CONTRIBUTING.md	Sat Mar 14 20:09:45 2015 +0000
@@ -1,65 +1,220 @@
-# How to contribute
+Checklist (and a short version for the impatient)
+=================================================
+
+  * Commits:
+
+    - Make commits of logical units.
+
+    - Check for unnecessary whitespace with "git diff --check" before
+      committing.
+
+    - Commit using Unix line endings (check the settings around "crlf" in
+      git-config(1)).
+
+    - Do not check in commented out code or unneeded files.
+
+    - The first line of the commit message should be a short
+      description (50 characters is the soft limit, excluding ticket
+      number(s)), and should skip the full stop.
+
+    - Associate the issue in the message. The first line should include
+      the issue number in the form "(#XXXX) Rest of message".
+
+    - The body should provide a meaningful commit message, which:
 
-Third-party patches are essential for keeping stdlib great. We simply can't
-access the huge number of platforms and myriad configurations for running
-stdlib. We want to keep it as easy as possible to contribute changes that
-get things working in your environment. There are a few guidelines that we
-need contributors to follow so that we can have a chance of keeping on
-top of things.
+      - uses the imperative, present tense: "change", not "changed" or
+        "changes".
+
+      - includes motivation for the change, and contrasts its
+        implementation with the previous behavior.
+
+    - Make sure that you have tests for the bug you are fixing, or
+      feature you are adding.
+
+    - Make sure the test suites passes after your commit:
+      `bundle exec rspec spec/acceptance` More information on [testing](#Testing) below
 
-## Getting Started
+    - When introducing a new feature, make sure it is properly
+      documented in the README.md
+
+  * Submission:
+
+    * Pre-requisites:
+
+      - Make sure you have a [GitHub account](https://github.com/join)
+
+      - [Create a ticket](https://tickets.puppetlabs.com/secure/CreateIssue!default.jspa), or [watch the ticket](https://tickets.puppetlabs.com/browse/) you are patching for.
+
+    * Preferred method:
+
+      - Fork the repository on GitHub.
 
-* Make sure you have a [Redmine account](http://projects.puppetlabs.com)
-* Make sure you have a [GitHub account](https://github.com/signup/free)
-* Submit a ticket for your issue, assuming one does not already exist.
-  * Clearly describe the issue including steps to reproduce when it is a bug.
-  * Make sure you fill in the earliest version that you know has the issue.
-* Fork the repository on GitHub
+      - Push your changes to a topic branch in your fork of the
+        repository. (the format ticket/1234-short_description_of_change is
+        usually preferred for this project).
+
+      - Submit a pull request to the repository in the puppetlabs
+        organization.
+
+The long version
+================
+
+  1.  Make separate commits for logically separate changes.
 
-## Making Changes
+      Please break your commits down into logically consistent units
+      which include new or changed tests relevant to the rest of the
+      change.  The goal of doing this is to make the diff easier to
+      read for whoever is reviewing your code.  In general, the easier
+      your diff is to read, the more likely someone will be happy to
+      review it and get it into the code base.
+
+      If you are going to refactor a piece of code, please do so as a
+      separate commit from your feature or bug fix changes.
+
+      We also really appreciate changes that include tests to make
+      sure the bug is not re-introduced, and that the feature is not
+      accidentally broken.
 
-* Create a topic branch from where you want to base your work.
-  * This is usually the master branch.
-  * Only target release branches if you are certain your fix must be on that
-    branch.
-  * To quickly create a topic branch based on master; `git branch
-    fix/master/my_contribution master` then checkout the new branch with `git
-    checkout fix/master/my_contribution`.  Please avoid working directly on the
-    `master` branch.
-* Make commits of logical units.
-* Check for unnecessary whitespace with `git diff --check` before committing.
-* Make sure your commit messages are in the proper format.
+      Describe the technical detail of the change(s).  If your
+      description starts to get too long, that is a good sign that you
+      probably need to split up your commit into more finely grained
+      pieces.
+
+      Commits which plainly describe the things which help
+      reviewers check the patch and future developers understand the
+      code are much more likely to be merged in with a minimum of
+      bike-shedding or requested changes.  Ideally, the commit message
+      would include information, and be in a form suitable for
+      inclusion in the release notes for the version of Puppet that
+      includes them.
+
+      Please also check that you are not introducing any trailing
+      whitespace or other "whitespace errors".  You can do this by
+      running "git diff --check" on your changes before you commit.
+
+  2.  Sending your patches
+
+      To submit your changes via a GitHub pull request, we _highly_
+      recommend that you have them on a topic branch, instead of
+      directly on "master".
+      It makes things much easier to keep track of, especially if
+      you decide to work on another thing before your first change
+      is merged in.
+
+      GitHub has some pretty good
+      [general documentation](http://help.github.com/) on using
+      their site.  They also have documentation on
+      [creating pull requests](http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/).
 
-````
-    (#99999) Make the example in CONTRIBUTING imperative and concrete
+      In general, after pushing your topic branch up to your
+      repository on GitHub, you can switch to the branch in the
+      GitHub UI and click "Pull Request" towards the top of the page
+      in order to open a pull request.
+
+
+  3.  Update the related GitHub issue.
+
+      If there is a GitHub issue associated with the change you
+      submitted, then you should update the ticket to include the
+      location of your branch, along with any other commentary you
+      may wish to make.
+
+Testing
+=======
+
+Getting Started
+---------------
+
+Our puppet modules provide [`Gemfile`](./Gemfile)s which can tell a ruby
+package manager such as [bundler](http://bundler.io/) what Ruby packages,
+or Gems, are required to build, develop, and test this software.
+
+Please make sure you have [bundler installed](http://bundler.io/#getting-started)
+on your system, then use it to install all dependencies needed for this project,
+by running
 
-    Without this patch applied the example commit message in the CONTRIBUTING
-    document is not a concrete example.  This is a problem because the
-    contributor is left to imagine what the commit message should look like
-    based on a description rather than an example.  This patch fixes the
-    problem by making the example concrete and imperative.
+```shell
+% bundle install
+Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/........
+Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/..
+Using rake (10.1.0)
+Using builder (3.2.2)
+-- 8><-- many more --><8 --
+Using rspec-system-puppet (2.2.0)
+Using serverspec (0.6.3)
+Using rspec-system-serverspec (1.0.0)
+Using bundler (1.3.5)
+Your bundle is complete!
+Use `bundle show [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
+```
 
-    The first line is a real life imperative statement with a ticket number
-    from our issue tracker.  The body describes the behavior without the patch,
-    why this is a problem, and how the patch fixes the problem when applied.
-````
+NOTE some systems may require you to run this command with sudo.
+
+If you already have those gems installed, make sure they are up-to-date:
 
-* Make sure you have added the necessary tests for your changes.
-* Run _all_ the tests to assure nothing else was accidentally broken.
+```shell
+% bundle update
+```
+
+With all dependencies in place and up-to-date we can now run the tests:
+
+```shell
+% rake spec
+```
 
-## Submitting Changes
+This will execute all the [rspec tests](http://rspec-puppet.com/) tests
+under [spec/defines](./spec/defines), [spec/classes](./spec/classes),
+and so on. rspec tests may have the same kind of dependencies as the
+module they are testing. While the module defines in its [Modulefile](./Modulefile),
+rspec tests define them in [.fixtures.yml](./fixtures.yml).
+
+Some puppet modules also come with [beaker](https://github.com/puppetlabs/beaker)
+tests. These tests spin up a virtual machine under
+[VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org/)) with, controlling it with
+[Vagrant](http://www.vagrantup.com/) to actually simulate scripted test
+scenarios. In order to run these, you will need both of those tools
+installed on your system.
 
-* Sign the [Contributor License Agreement](http://links.puppetlabs.com/cla).
-* Push your changes to a topic branch in your fork of the repository.
-* Submit a pull request to the repository in the puppetlabs organization.
-* Update your Redmine ticket to mark that you have submitted code and are ready for it to be reviewed.
-  * Include a link to the pull request in the ticket
+You can run them by issuing the following command
+
+```shell
+% rake spec_clean
+% rspec spec/acceptance
+```
+
+This will now download a pre-fabricated image configured in the [default node-set](./spec/acceptance/nodesets/default.yml),
+install puppet, copy this module and install its dependencies per [spec/spec_helper_acceptance.rb](./spec/spec_helper_acceptance.rb)
+and then run all the tests under [spec/acceptance](./spec/acceptance).
+
+Writing Tests
+-------------
 
-# Additional Resources
+XXX getting started writing tests.
+
+If you have commit access to the repository
+===========================================
+
+Even if you have commit access to the repository, you will still need to
+go through the process above, and have someone else review and merge
+in your changes.  The rule is that all changes must be reviewed by a
+developer on the project (that did not write the code) to ensure that
+all changes go through a code review process.
+
+Having someone other than the author of the topic branch recorded as
+performing the merge is the record that they performed the code
+review.
 
-* [More information on contributing](http://links.puppetlabs.com/contribute-to-puppet)
-* [Bug tracker (Redmine)](http://projects.puppetlabs.com)
-* [Contributor License Agreement](http://links.puppetlabs.com/cla)
+
+Additional Resources
+====================
+
+* [Getting additional help](http://puppetlabs.com/community/get-help)
+
+* [Writing tests](http://projects.puppetlabs.com/projects/puppet/wiki/Development_Writing_Tests)
+
+* [Patchwork](https://patchwork.puppetlabs.com)
+
 * [General GitHub documentation](http://help.github.com/)
+
 * [GitHub pull request documentation](http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/)
-* #puppet-dev IRC channel on freenode.org
+