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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/SubmittingPatches')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 159 |
1 files changed, 146 insertions, 13 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches index 01354c2bb5..76fc84d878 100644 --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches @@ -6,11 +6,15 @@ Checklist (and a short version for the impatient): - check for unnecessary whitespace with "git diff --check" before committing - do not check in commented out code or unneeded files - - provide a meaningful commit message - the first line of the commit message should be a short description and should skip the full stop + - the body should provide a meaningful commit message, which: + - uses the imperative, present tense: "change", + not "changed" or "changes". + - includes motivation for the change, and contrasts + its implementation with previous behaviour - if you want your work included in git.git, add a - "Signed-off-by: Your Name <your@email.com>" line to the + "Signed-off-by: Your Name <you@example.com>" line to the commit message (or just use the option "-s" when committing) to confirm that you agree to the Developer's Certificate of Origin @@ -20,9 +24,6 @@ Checklist (and a short version for the impatient): Patch: - use "git format-patch -M" to create the patch - - send your patch to <git@vger.kernel.org>. If you use - git-send-email(1), please test it first by sending - email to yourself. - do not PGP sign your patch - do not attach your patch, but read in the mail body, unless you cannot teach your mailer to @@ -31,12 +32,15 @@ Checklist (and a short version for the impatient): corrupt whitespaces. - provide additional information (which is unsuitable for the commit message) between the "---" and the diffstat - - send the patch to the list _and_ the maintainer - if you change, add, or remove a command line option or make some other user interface change, the associated documentation should be updated as well. - if your name is not writable in ASCII, make sure that you send off a message in the correct encoding. + - send the patch to the list (git@vger.kernel.org) and the + maintainer (gitster@pobox.com) if (and only if) the patch + is ready for inclusion. If you use git-send-email(1), + please test it first by sending email to yourself. Long version: @@ -62,6 +66,14 @@ Describe the technical detail of the change(s). If your description starts to get too long, that's a sign that you probably need to split up your commit to finer grained pieces. +That being said, patches which plainly describe the things that +help reviewers check the patch, and future maintainers understand +the code, are the most beautiful patches. Descriptions that summarise +the point in the subject well, and describe the motivation for the +change, the approach taken by the change, and if relevant how this +differs substantially from the prior version, can be found on Usenet +archives back into the late 80's. Consider it like good Netiquette, +but for code. Oh, another thing. I am picky about whitespaces. Make sure your changes do not trigger errors with the sample pre-commit hook shipped @@ -71,7 +83,7 @@ run git diff --check on your changes before you commit. (1a) Try to be nice to older C compilers -We try to support wide range of C compilers to compile +We try to support a wide range of C compilers to compile git with. That means that you should not use C99 initializers, even if a lot of compilers grok it. @@ -112,7 +124,12 @@ lose tabs that way if you are not careful. It is a common convention to prefix your subject line with [PATCH]. This lets people easily distinguish patches from other -e-mail discussions. +e-mail discussions. Use of additional markers after PATCH and +the closing bracket to mark the nature of the patch is also +encouraged. E.g. [PATCH/RFC] is often used when the patch is +not ready to be applied but it is for discussion, [PATCH v2], +[PATCH v3] etc. are often seen when you are sending an update to +what you have previously sent. "git format-patch" command follows the best current practice to format the body of an e-mail message. At the beginning of the @@ -157,7 +174,8 @@ Note that your maintainer does not necessarily read everything on the git mailing list. If your patch is for discussion first, send it "To:" the mailing list, and optionally "cc:" him. If it is trivially correct or after the list reached a consensus, send -it "To:" the maintainer and optionally "cc:" the list. +it "To:" the maintainer and optionally "cc:" the list for +inclusion. Also note that your maintainer does not actively involve himself in maintaining what are in contrib/ hierarchy. When you send fixes and @@ -210,10 +228,56 @@ then you just add a line saying This line can be automatically added by git if you run the git-commit command with the -s option. -Some people also put extra tags at the end. They'll just be ignored for -now, but you can do this to mark internal company procedures or just -point out some special detail about the sign-off. +Notice that you can place your own Signed-off-by: line when +forwarding somebody else's patch with the above rules for +D-C-O. Indeed you are encouraged to do so. Do not forget to +place an in-body "From: " line at the beginning to properly attribute +the change to its true author (see (2) above). +Also notice that a real name is used in the Signed-off-by: line. Please +don't hide your real name. + +Some people also put extra tags at the end. + +"Acked-by:" says that the patch was reviewed by the person who +is more familiar with the issues and the area the patch attempts +to modify. "Tested-by:" says the patch was tested by the person +and found to have the desired effect. + +------------------------------------------------ +An ideal patch flow + +Here is an ideal patch flow for this project the current maintainer +suggests to the contributors: + + (0) You come up with an itch. You code it up. + + (1) Send it to the list and cc people who may need to know about + the change. + + The people who may need to know are the ones whose code you + are butchering. These people happen to be the ones who are + most likely to be knowledgeable enough to help you, but + they have no obligation to help you (i.e. you ask for help, + don't demand). "git log -p -- $area_you_are_modifying" would + help you find out who they are. + + (2) You get comments and suggestions for improvements. You may + even get them in a "on top of your change" patch form. + + (3) Polish, refine, and re-send to the list and the people who + spend their time to improve your patch. Go back to step (2). + + (4) The list forms consensus that the last round of your patch is + good. Send it to the list and cc the maintainer. + + (5) A topic branch is created with the patch and is merged to 'next', + and cooked further and eventually graduates to 'master'. + +In any time between the (2)-(3) cycle, the maintainer may pick it up +from the list and queue it to 'pu', in order to make it easier for +people play with it without having to pick up and apply the patch to +their trees themselves. ------------------------------------------------ MUA specific hints @@ -252,7 +316,7 @@ If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons. patch appropriately. * Your MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that - the patch does not apply. Look at .dotest/ subdirectory and + the patch does not apply. Look at .git/rebase-apply/ subdirectory and see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common corruption patterns mentioned above. @@ -324,9 +388,36 @@ Thunderbird (A Large Angry SCM) +By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag them as +being 'format=flowed', both of which will make the resulting email unusable +by git. + Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using Thunderbird. +There are two different approaches. One approach is to configure +Thunderbird to not mangle patches. The second approach is to use +an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches. + +Approach #1 (configuration): + +This recipe is current as of Thunderbird 2.0.0.19. Three steps: + 1. Configure your mail server composition as plain text + Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing, + uncheck 'Compose Messages in HTML'. + 2. Configure your general composition window to not wrap + Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0 + 3. Disable the use of format=flowed + Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for: + mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed + toggle it to make sure it is set to 'false'. + +After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you +otherwise would (cut + paste, git-format-patch | git-imap-send, etc), +and the patches should not be mangled. + +Approach #2 (external editor): + This recipe appears to work with the current [*1*] Thunderbird from Suse. The following Thunderbird extensions are needed: @@ -370,6 +461,11 @@ settings but I haven't tried, yet. mail.identity.default.compose_html => false mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false +(Lukas Sandström) + +There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help +you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the +steps above and then use the script as the external editor. Gnus ---- @@ -402,3 +498,40 @@ This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail. 5) Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send. + + +Gmail +----- + +GMail does not appear to have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web +interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send. You can however +use any IMAP email client to connect to the google imap server, and forward +the emails through that. Just make sure to disable line wrapping in that +email client. Alternatively, use "git send-email" instead. + +Submitting properly formatted patches via Gmail is simple now that +IMAP support is available. First, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your +account settings: + +[imap] + folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts" + host = imaps://imap.gmail.com + user = user@gmail.com + pass = p4ssw0rd + port = 993 + sslverify = false + +You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error +that the "Folder doesn't exist". + +Next, ensure that your Gmail settings are correct. In "Settings" the +"Use Unicode (UTF-8) encoding for outgoing messages" should be checked. + +Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the following +command to send the patch emails to your Gmail Drafts folder. + + $ git format-patch -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send + +Go to your Gmail account, open the Drafts folder, find the patch email, fill +in the To: and CC: fields and send away! + |