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31408251 JH |
1 | I started reading over the SubmittingPatches document for Linux |
2 | kernel, primarily because I wanted to have a document similar to | |
3 | it for the core GIT to make sure people understand what they are | |
4 | doing when they write "Signed-off-by" line. | |
5 | ||
6 | But the patch submission requirements are a lot more relaxed | |
45d2b286 JH |
7 | here on the technical/contents front, because the core GIT is |
8 | thousand times smaller ;-). So here is only the relevant bits. | |
31408251 JH |
9 | |
10 | ||
11 | (1) Make separate commits for logically separate changes. | |
12 | ||
13 | Unless your patch is really trivial, you should not be sending | |
14 | out a patch that was generated between your working tree and | |
15 | your commit head. Instead, always make a commit with complete | |
16 | commit message and generate a series of patches from your | |
17 | repository. It is a good discipline. | |
18 | ||
19 | Describe the technical detail of the change(s). | |
20 | ||
45d2b286 | 21 | If your description starts to get too long, that's a sign that you |
31408251 JH |
22 | probably need to split up your commit to finer grained pieces. |
23 | ||
45d2b286 JH |
24 | Oh, another thing. I am picky about whitespaces. Make sure your |
25 | changes do not trigger errors with the sample pre-commit hook shipped | |
26 | in templates/hooks--pre-commit. | |
31408251 | 27 | |
31408251 | 28 | |
45d2b286 JH |
29 | (2) Generate your patch using git tools out of your commits. |
30 | ||
31 | git based diff tools (git, Cogito, and StGIT included) generate | |
32 | unidiff which is the preferred format. | |
33 | ||
31408251 JH |
34 | You do not have to be afraid to use -M option to "git diff" or |
35 | "git format-patch", if your patch involves file renames. The | |
36 | receiving end can handle them just fine. | |
37 | ||
38 | Please make sure your patch does not include any extra files | |
39 | which do not belong in a patch submission. Make sure to review | |
40 | your patch after generating it, to ensure accuracy. Before | |
41 | sending out, please make sure it cleanly applies to the "master" | |
45d2b286 JH |
42 | branch head. If you are preparing a work based on "next" branch, |
43 | that is fine, but please mark it as such. | |
31408251 JH |
44 | |
45 | ||
46 | (3) Sending your patches. | |
47 | ||
45d2b286 | 48 | People on the git mailing list need to be able to read and |
31408251 JH |
49 | comment on the changes you are submitting. It is important for |
50 | a developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard | |
51 | e-mail tools, so that they may comment on specific portions of | |
addf88e4 | 52 | your code. For this reason, all patches should be submitted |
45d2b286 JH |
53 | "inline". WARNING: Be wary of your MUAs word-wrap |
54 | corrupting your patch. Do not cut-n-paste your patch; you can | |
55 | lose tabs that way if you are not careful. | |
31408251 | 56 | |
45d2b286 | 57 | It is a common convention to prefix your subject line with |
31408251 JH |
58 | [PATCH]. This lets people easily distinguish patches from other |
59 | e-mail discussions. | |
60 | ||
61 | "git format-patch" command follows the best current practice to | |
62 | format the body of an e-mail message. At the beginning of the | |
63 | patch should come your commit message, ending with the | |
64 | Signed-off-by: lines, and a line that consists of three dashes, | |
65 | followed by the diffstat information and the patch itself. If | |
66 | you are forwarding a patch from somebody else, optionally, at | |
67 | the beginning of the e-mail message just before the commit | |
68 | message starts, you can put a "From: " line to name that person. | |
69 | ||
70 | You often want to add additional explanation about the patch, | |
71 | other than the commit message itself. Place such "cover letter" | |
72 | material between the three dash lines and the diffstat. | |
73 | ||
74 | Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not. | |
e30b217b JH |
75 | Do not let your e-mail client send quoted-printable. Do not let |
76 | your e-mail client send format=flowed which would destroy | |
77 | whitespaces in your patches. Many | |
31408251 JH |
78 | popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME |
79 | attachment as plain text, making it impossible to comment on | |
80 | your code. A MIME attachment also takes a bit more time to | |
81 | process. This does not decrease the likelihood of your | |
82 | MIME-attached change being accepted, but it makes it more likely | |
83 | that it will be postponed. | |
84 | ||
85 | Exception: If your mailer is mangling patches then someone may ask | |
9847f7e0 | 86 | you to re-send them using MIME, that is OK. |
31408251 | 87 | |
9847f7e0 JH |
88 | Do not PGP sign your patch, at least for now. Most likely, your |
89 | maintainer or other people on the list would not have your PGP | |
90 | key and would not bother obtaining it anyway. Your patch is not | |
91 | judged by who you are; a good patch from an unknown origin has a | |
92 | far better chance of being accepted than a patch from a known, | |
93 | respected origin that is done poorly or does incorrect things. | |
94 | ||
95 | If you really really really really want to do a PGP signed | |
96 | patch, format it as "multipart/signed", not a text/plain message | |
97 | that starts with '-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----'. That is | |
98 | not a text/plain, it's something else. | |
99 | ||
100 | Note that your maintainer does not necessarily read everything | |
101 | on the git mailing list. If your patch is for discussion first, | |
102 | send it "To:" the mailing list, and optionally "cc:" him. If it | |
103 | is trivially correct or after the list reached a consensus, send | |
104 | it "To:" the maintainer and optionally "cc:" the list. | |
31408251 | 105 | |
04d24455 JH |
106 | Also note that your maintainer does not actively involve himself in |
107 | maintaining what are in contrib/ hierarchy. When you send fixes and | |
108 | enhancements to them, do not forget to "cc: " the person who primarily | |
109 | worked on that hierarchy in contrib/. | |
110 | ||
31408251 | 111 | |
84ab7b6f | 112 | (4) Sign your work |
31408251 JH |
113 | |
114 | To improve tracking of who did what, we've borrowed the | |
115 | "sign-off" procedure from the Linux kernel project on patches | |
116 | that are being emailed around. Although core GIT is a lot | |
117 | smaller project it is a good discipline to follow it. | |
118 | ||
119 | The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for | |
120 | the patch, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have | |
121 | the right to pass it on as a open-source patch. The rules are | |
122 | pretty simple: if you can certify the below: | |
123 | ||
124 | Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1 | |
125 | ||
126 | By making a contribution to this project, I certify that: | |
127 | ||
128 | (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I | |
129 | have the right to submit it under the open source license | |
130 | indicated in the file; or | |
131 | ||
132 | (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best | |
133 | of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source | |
134 | license and I have the right under that license to submit that | |
135 | work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part | |
136 | by me, under the same open source license (unless I am | |
137 | permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated | |
138 | in the file; or | |
139 | ||
140 | (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other | |
141 | person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified | |
142 | it. | |
143 | ||
144 | (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution | |
145 | are public and that a record of the contribution (including all | |
146 | personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is | |
147 | maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with | |
148 | this project or the open source license(s) involved. | |
149 | ||
150 | then you just add a line saying | |
151 | ||
152 | Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org> | |
153 | ||
69945602 PC |
154 | This line can be automatically added by git if you run the git-commit |
155 | command with the -s option. | |
156 | ||
31408251 JH |
157 | Some people also put extra tags at the end. They'll just be ignored for |
158 | now, but you can do this to mark internal company procedures or just | |
159 | point out some special detail about the sign-off. | |
9740d289 JH |
160 | |
161 | ||
162 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
163 | MUA specific hints | |
164 | ||
165 | Some of patches I receive or pick up from the list share common | |
166 | patterns of breakage. Please make sure your MUA is set up | |
167 | properly not to corrupt whitespaces. Here are two common ones | |
168 | I have seen: | |
169 | ||
170 | * Empty context lines that do not have _any_ whitespace. | |
171 | ||
172 | * Non empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the | |
173 | beginning. | |
174 | ||
9847f7e0 JH |
175 | One test you could do yourself if your MUA is set up correctly is: |
176 | ||
177 | * Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except | |
178 | To: and Cc: lines, which would not contain the list and | |
179 | maintainer address. | |
180 | ||
181 | * Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it say | |
182 | a.patch. | |
183 | ||
184 | * Try to apply to the tip of the "master" branch from the | |
185 | git.git public repository: | |
186 | ||
187 | $ git fetch http://kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git master:test-apply | |
188 | $ git checkout test-apply | |
189 | $ git reset --hard | |
190 | $ git applymbox a.patch | |
191 | ||
192 | If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons. | |
193 | ||
194 | * Your patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is _bad_ but | |
195 | does not have much to do with your MUA. Please rebase the | |
196 | patch appropriately. | |
197 | ||
198 | * Your MUA corrupted your patch; applymbox would complain that | |
199 | the patch does not apply. Look at .dotest/ subdirectory and | |
200 | see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common | |
201 | corruption patterns mentioned above. | |
202 | ||
203 | * While you are at it, check what are in 'info' and | |
204 | 'final-commit' files as well. If what is in 'final-commit' is | |
205 | not exactly what you would want to see in the commit log | |
206 | message, it is very likely that your maintainer would end up | |
207 | hand editing the log message when he applies your patch. | |
208 | Things like "Hi, this is my first patch.\n", if you really | |
209 | want to put in the patch e-mail, should come after the | |
210 | three-dash line that signals the end of the commit message. | |
211 | ||
9740d289 JH |
212 | |
213 | Pine | |
214 | ---- | |
215 | ||
216 | (Johannes Schindelin) | |
217 | ||
218 | I don't know how many people still use pine, but for those poor | |
219 | souls it may be good to mention that the quell-flowed-text is | |
220 | needed for recent versions. | |
221 | ||
222 | ... the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, too. AFAIK it | |
223 | was introduced in 4.60. | |
224 | ||
225 | (Linus Torvalds) | |
226 | ||
227 | And 4.58 needs at least this. | |
228 | ||
229 | --- | |
230 | diff-tree 8326dd8350be64ac7fc805f6563a1d61ad10d32c (from e886a61f76edf5410573e92e38ce22974f9c40f1) | |
231 | Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@g5.osdl.org> | |
232 | Date: Mon Aug 15 17:23:51 2005 -0700 | |
233 | ||
234 | Fix pine whitespace-corruption bug | |
235 | ||
236 | There's no excuse for unconditionally removing whitespace from | |
237 | the pico buffers on close. | |
238 | ||
239 | diff --git a/pico/pico.c b/pico/pico.c | |
240 | --- a/pico/pico.c | |
241 | +++ b/pico/pico.c | |
242 | @@ -219,7 +219,9 @@ PICO *pm; | |
243 | switch(pico_all_done){ /* prepare for/handle final events */ | |
244 | case COMP_EXIT : /* already confirmed */ | |
245 | packheader(); | |
246 | +#if 0 | |
247 | stripwhitespace(); | |
248 | +#endif | |
249 | c |= COMP_EXIT; | |
250 | break; | |
251 | ||
252 | ||
1eb446fa JH |
253 | (Daniel Barkalow) |
254 | ||
255 | > A patch to SubmittingPatches, MUA specific help section for | |
256 | > users of Pine 4.63 would be very much appreciated. | |
257 | ||
258 | Ah, it looks like a recent version changed the default behavior to do the | |
259 | right thing, and inverted the sense of the configuration option. (Either | |
260 | that or Gentoo did it.) So you need to set the | |
261 | "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, unless the option you have is | |
262 | "strip-whitespace-before-send", in which case you should avoid checking | |
263 | it. | |
264 | ||
9740d289 JH |
265 | |
266 | Thunderbird | |
267 | ----------- | |
268 | ||
269 | (A Large Angry SCM) | |
270 | ||
271 | Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using | |
cf6de18a | 272 | Thunderbird. |
9740d289 JH |
273 | |
274 | This recipe appears to work with the current [*1*] Thunderbird from Suse. | |
275 | ||
276 | The following Thunderbird extensions are needed: | |
277 | AboutConfig 0.5 | |
278 | http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/ | |
ff62b7f3 LS |
279 | External Editor 0.7.2 |
280 | http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8 | |
9740d289 JH |
281 | |
282 | 1) Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice. | |
283 | ||
284 | 2) Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to | |
285 | uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the | |
286 | "Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to send the | |
287 | patch. [*2*] | |
288 | ||
289 | 3) In the main Thunderbird window, _before_ you open the compose window | |
290 | for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the following to the | |
291 | indicated values: | |
292 | mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false | |
cf6de18a | 293 | mailnews.wraplength => 0 |
9740d289 JH |
294 | |
295 | 4) Open a compose window and click the external editor icon. | |
296 | ||
297 | 5) In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit the | |
298 | editor normally. | |
299 | ||
300 | 6) Back in the compose window: Add whatever other text you wish to the | |
301 | message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send. | |
302 | ||
303 | 7) Optionally, undo the about:config/account settings changes made in | |
304 | steps 2 & 3. | |
305 | ||
306 | ||
307 | [Footnotes] | |
308 | *1* Version 1.0 (20041207) from the MozillaThunderbird-1.0-5 rpm of Suse | |
309 | 9.3 professional updates. | |
310 | ||
311 | *2* It may be possible to do this with about:config and the following | |
312 | settings but I haven't tried, yet. | |
313 | mail.html_compose => false | |
314 | mail.identity.default.compose_html => false | |
315 | mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false | |
316 | ||
e30b217b JH |
317 | |
318 | ||
319 | Gnus | |
320 | ---- | |
321 | ||
322 | '|' in the *Summary* buffer can be used to pipe the current | |
323 | message to an external program, and this is a handy way to drive | |
324 | "git am". However, if the message is MIME encoded, what is | |
325 | piped into the program is the representation you see in your | |
326 | *Article* buffer after unwrapping MIME. This is often not what | |
327 | you would want for two reasons. It tends to screw up non ASCII | |
328 | characters (most notably in people's names), and also | |
329 | whitespaces (fatal in patches). Running 'C-u g' to display the | |
330 | message in raw form before using '|' to run the pipe can work | |
331 | this problem around. | |
332 |