1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
2 .. Copyright (c) 2011 The Chromium OS Authors
3 .. Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
4 .. Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@savoirfairelinux.com>
6 .. revised v3 24-Nov-11
7 .. revised v4 Independence Day 2020, with Patchwork integration
12 This tool is a Python script which:
14 - Creates patch directly from your branch
15 - Cleans them up by removing unwanted tags
16 - Inserts a cover letter with change lists
17 - Runs the patches through checkpatch.pl and its own checks
18 - Optionally emails them out to selected people
20 It also has some Patchwork features:
22 - shows review tags from Patchwork so you can update your local patches
23 - pulls these down into a new branch on request
24 - lists comments received on a series
26 It is intended to automate patch creation and make it a less
27 error-prone process. It is useful for U-Boot and Linux work so far,
28 since they use the checkpatch.pl script.
30 It is configured almost entirely by tags it finds in your commits.
31 This means that you can work on a number of different branches at
32 once, and keep the settings with each branch rather than having to
33 git format-patch, git send-email, etc. with the correct parameters
34 each time. So for example if you put::
36 Series-to: fred.blogs@napier.co.nz
38 in one of your commits, the series will be sent there.
40 In Linux and U-Boot this will also call get_maintainer.pl on each of your
41 patches automatically (unless you use -m to disable this).
47 This tool requires a certain way of working:
49 - Maintain a number of branches, one for each patch series you are
51 - Add tags into the commits within each branch to indicate where the
52 series should be sent, cover letter, version, etc. Most of these are
53 normally in the top commit so it is easy to change them with 'git
55 - Each branch tracks the upstream branch, so that this script can
56 automatically determine the number of commits in it (optional)
57 - Check out a branch, and run this script to create and send out your
58 patches. Weeks later, change the patches and repeat, knowing that you
59 will get a consistent result each time.
65 For most cases of using patman for U-Boot development, patman can use the
66 file 'doc/git-mailrc' in your U-Boot directory to supply the email aliases
67 you need. To make this work, tell git where to find the file by typing
70 git config sendemail.aliasesfile doc/git-mailrc
72 For both Linux and U-Boot the 'scripts/get_maintainer.pl' handles
73 figuring out where to send patches pretty well. For other projects,
74 you may want to specify a different script to be run, for example via
75 a project-specific `.patman` file::
77 # .patman configuration file at the root of some project
80 get_maintainer_script: etc/teams.scm get-maintainer
82 The `get_maintainer_script` option corresponds to the
83 `--get-maintainer-script` argument of the `send` command. It is
84 looked relatively to the root of the current git repository, as well
85 as on PATH. It can also be provided arguments, as shown above. The
86 contract is that the script should accept a patch file name and return
87 a list of email addresses, one per line, like `get_maintainer.pl`
90 During the first run patman creates a config file for you by taking the default
91 user name and email address from the global .gitconfig file.
93 To add your own, create a file `~/.patman` like this::
98 me: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
100 u-boot: U-Boot Mailing List <u-boot@lists.denx.de>
101 wolfgang: Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de>
102 others: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>, Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
104 As hinted above, Patman will also look for a `.patman` configuration
105 file at the root of the current project git repository, which makes it
106 possible to override the `project` settings variable or anything else
107 in a project-specific way. The values of this "local" configuration
108 file take precedence over those of the "global" one.
110 Aliases are recursive.
112 The checkpatch.pl in the U-Boot tools/ subdirectory will be located and
113 used. Failing that you can put it into your path or ~/bin/checkpatch.pl
115 If you want to avoid sending patches to email addresses that are picked up
116 by patman but are known to bounce you can add a [bounces] section to your
117 .patman file. Unlike the [alias] section these are simple key: value pairs
118 that are not recursive::
121 gonefishing: Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
124 If you want to change the defaults for patman's command-line arguments,
125 you can add a [settings] section to your .patman file. This can be used
126 for any command line option by referring to the "dest" for the option in
127 patman.py. For reference, the useful ones (at the moment) shown below
128 (all with the non-default setting)::
134 smtp_server: /path/to/sendmail
135 patchwork_server: https://patchwork.ozlabs.org
137 If you want to adjust settings (or aliases) that affect just a single
138 project you can add a section that looks like [project_settings] or
139 [project_alias]. If you want to use tags for your linux work, you could do::
152 ./tools/patman/patman send -n
154 If it can't detect the upstream branch, try telling it how many patches
155 there are in your series
159 ./tools/patman/patman -c5 send -n
161 This will create patch files in your current directory and tell you who
162 it is thinking of sending them to. Take a look at the patch files:
166 ./tools/patman/patman -c5 -s1 send -n
168 Similar to the above, but skip the first commit and take the next 5. This
169 is useful if your top commit is for setting up testing.
175 The most up to date version of patman can be found in the U-Boot sources.
176 However to use it on other projects it may be more convenient to install it as
177 a standalone application. A distutils installer is included, this can be used
182 cd tools/patman && python setup.py install
188 To make this script useful you must add tags like the following into any
189 commit. Most can only appear once in the whole series.
191 Series-to: email / alias
192 Email address / alias to send patch series to (you can add this
195 Series-cc: email / alias, ...
196 Email address / alias to Cc patch series to (you can add this
200 Sets the version number of this patch series
202 Series-prefix: prefix
203 Sets the subject prefix. Normally empty but it can be RFC for
204 RFC patches, or RESEND if you are being ignored. The patch subject
205 is like [RFC PATCH] or [RESEND PATCH].
206 In the meantime, git format.subjectprefix option will be added as
207 well. If your format.subjectprefix is set to InternalProject, then
208 the patch shows like: [InternalProject][RFC/RESEND PATCH]
210 Series-postfix: postfix
211 Sets the subject "postfix". Normally empty, but can be the name of a
212 tree such as net or net-next if that needs to be specified. The patch
213 subject is like [PATCH net] or [PATCH net-next].
216 Sets the name of the series. You don't need to have a name, and
217 patman does not yet use it, but it is convenient to put the branch
218 name here to help you keep track of multiple upstreaming efforts.
220 Series-links: [id | version:id]...
221 Set the ID of the series in patchwork. You can set this after you send
222 out the series and look in patchwork for the resulting series. The
223 URL you want is the one for the series itself, not any particular patch.
224 E.g. for http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
225 the series ID is 187331. This property can have a list of series IDs,
226 one for each version of the series, e.g.
230 Series-links: 1:187331 2:188434 189372
232 Patman always uses the one without a version, since it assumes this is
233 the latest one. When this tag is provided, patman can compare your local
234 branch against patchwork to see what new reviews your series has
235 collected ('patman status').
237 Series-patchwork-url: url
238 This allows specifying the Patchwork URL for a branch. This overrides
239 both the setting files and the command-line argument. The URL should
240 include the protocol and web site, with no trailing slash, for example
241 'https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project'
244 Sets the cover letter contents for the series. The first line
245 will become the subject of the cover letter::
248 This is the patch set title
253 Cover-letter-cc: email / alias
254 Additional email addresses / aliases to send cover letter to (you
255 can add this multiple times)
258 Sets some notes for the patch series, which you don't want in
259 the commit messages, but do want to send, The notes are joined
260 together and put after the cover letter. Can appear multiple
270 Similar, but for a single commit (patch). These notes will appear
271 immediately below the --- cut in the patch file::
278 Signed-off-by: Their Name <email>
279 A sign-off is added automatically to your patches (this is
280 probably a bug). If you put this tag in your patches, it will
281 override the default signoff that patman automatically adds.
282 Multiple duplicate signoffs will be removed.
284 Tested-by / Reviewed-by / Acked-by
285 These indicate that someone has tested/reviewed/acked your patch.
286 When you get this reply on the mailing list, you can add this
287 tag to the relevant commit and the script will include it when
288 you send out the next version. If 'Tested-by:' is set to
289 yourself, it will be removed. No one will believe you.
293 Tested-by: Their Name <fred@bloggs.com>
294 Reviewed-by: Their Name <email>
295 Acked-by: Their Name <email>
298 This can appear in any commit. It lists the changes for a
299 particular version n of that commit. The change list is
300 created based on this information. Each commit gets its own
301 change list and also the whole thing is repeated in the cover
302 letter (where duplicate change lines are merged).
304 By adding your change lists into your commits it is easier to
305 keep track of what happened. When you amend a commit, remember
306 to update the log there and then, knowing that the script will
312 - Guinea pig moved into its cage
313 - Other changes ending with a blank line
317 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
318 only appear in the changelog of the commit this tag is in. This is
319 useful when you want to add notes which may not make sense in the cover
320 letter. For example, you can have short changes such as "New" or
326 - This line will not appear in the cover-letter changelog
330 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
331 only appear in the cover-letter changelog. This is useful to summarize
332 changes made with Commit-changes, or to add additional context to
338 - This line will only appear in the cover letter
341 Patch-cc: Their Name <email>
342 This copies a single patch to another email address. Note that the
343 Cc: used by git send-email is ignored by patman, but will be
344 interpreted by git send-email if you use it.
346 Series-process-log: sort, uniq
347 This tells patman to sort and/or uniq the change logs. Changes may be
348 multiple lines long, as long as each subsequent line of a change begins
349 with a whitespace character. For example,
354 continues onto the next line
355 - But this change is separate
357 Use 'sort' to sort the entries, and 'uniq' to include only
358 unique entries. If omitted, no change log processing is done.
359 Separate each tag with a comma.
362 This tag is stripped out but is used to generate the Message-Id
363 of the emails that will be sent. When you keep the Change-Id the
364 same you are asserting that this is a slightly different version
365 (but logically the same patch) as other patches that have been
366 sent out with the same Change-Id.
368 Various other tags are silently removed, like these Chrome OS and
375 Commit-xxxx: (except Commit-notes)
377 Exercise for the reader: Try adding some tags to one of your current
378 patch series and see how the patches turn out.
381 Where Patches Are Sent
382 ----------------------
384 Once the patches are created, patman sends them using git send-email. The
385 whole series is sent to the recipients in Series-to: and Series-cc.
386 You can Cc individual patches to other people with the Patch-cc: tag. Tags
387 in the subject are also picked up to Cc patches. For example, a commit like
390 commit 10212537b85ff9b6e09c82045127522c0f0db981
391 Author: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
392 Date: Mon Nov 7 23:18:44 2011 -0500
394 x86: arm: add a git mailrc file for maintainers
396 This should make sending out e-mails to the right people easier.
398 Patch-cc: sandbox, mikef, ag
401 will create a patch which is copied to x86, arm, sandbox, mikef, ag and
404 If you have a cover letter it will get sent to the union of the Patch-cc
405 lists of all of the other patches. If you want to sent it to additional
406 people you can add a tag::
408 Cover-letter-cc: <list of addresses>
410 These people will get the cover letter even if they are not on the To/Cc
411 list for any of the patches.
414 Patchwork Integration
415 ---------------------
417 Patman has a very basic integration with Patchwork. If you point patman to
418 your series on patchwork it can show you what new reviews have appeared since
419 you sent your series.
421 To set this up, add a Series-link tag to one of the commits in your series
430 and patman will show you each patch and what review tags have been collected,
434 21 x86: mtrr: Update the command to use the new mtrr
435 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
436 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
437 22 x86: mtrr: Restructure so command execution is in
438 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
439 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
442 This shows that patch 21 and 22 were sent out with one review but have since
443 attracted another review each. If the series needs changes, you can update
444 these commits with the new review tag before sending the next version of the
447 To automatically pull into these tags into a new branch, use the -d option:
451 patman status -d mtrr4
453 This will create a new 'mtrr4' branch which is the same as your current branch
454 but has the new review tags in it. The tags are added in alphabetic order and
455 are placed immediately after any existing ack/review/test/fixes tags, or at the
456 end. You can check that this worked with:
460 patman -b mtrr4 status
462 which should show that there are no new responses compared to this new branch.
464 There is also a -C option to list the comments received for each patch.
470 The basic workflow is to create your commits, add some tags to the top
471 commit, and type 'patman' to check and send them.
473 Here is an example workflow for a series of 4 patches. Let's say you have
474 these rather contrived patches in the following order in branch us-cmd in
475 your tree where 'us' means your upstreaming activity (newest to oldest as
476 output by git log --oneline)::
479 89234f5 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
480 8d640a7 mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
481 0c859a9 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
482 a74443f sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
484 The first patch is some test things that enable your code to be compiled,
485 but that you don't want to submit because there is an existing patch for it
486 on the list. So you can tell patman to create and check some patches
487 (skipping the first patch) with:
493 If you want to do all of them including the work-in-progress one, then
494 (if you are tracking an upstream branch):
500 Let's say that patman reports an error in the second patch. Then:
505 # change 'pick' to 'edit' in 89234f5
506 # use editor to make code changes
508 git rebase --continue
510 Now you have an updated patch series. To check it:
516 Let's say it is now clean and you want to send it. Now you need to set up
517 the destination. So amend the top commit with:
523 Use your editor to add some tags, so that the whole commit message is::
525 The current run_command() is really only one of the options, with
526 hush providing the other. It really shouldn't be called directly
527 in case the hush parser is bring used, so rename this function to
528 better explain its purpose::
531 Series-cc: bfin, marex
534 Unified command execution in one place
536 At present two parsers have similar code to execute commands. Also
537 cmd_usage() is called all over the place. This series adds a single
538 function which processes commands called cmd_process().
541 Change-Id: Ica71a14c1f0ecb5650f771a32fecb8d2eb9d8a17
544 You want this to be an RFC and Cc the whole series to the bfin alias and
545 to Marek. Two of the patches have tags (those are the bits at the front of
546 the subject that say mmc: sparc: and sandbox:), so 8d640a7 will be Cc'd to
547 mmc and sparc, and the last one to sandbox.
549 Now to send the patches, take off the -n flag:
555 The patches will be created, shown in your editor, and then sent along with
556 the cover letter. Note that patman's tags are automatically removed so that
557 people on the list don't see your secret info.
559 Of course patches often attract comments and you need to make some updates.
560 Let's say one person sent comments and you get an Acked-by: on one patch.
561 Also, the patch on the list that you were waiting for has been merged,
562 so you can drop your wip commit.
564 Take a look on patchwork and find out the URL of the series. This will be
565 something like `http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331`
566 Add this to a tag in your top commit::
570 You can use then patman to collect the Acked-by tag to the correct commit,
571 creating a new 'version 2' branch for us-cmd:
575 patman status -d us-cmd2
578 You can look at the comments in Patchwork or with:
584 Then you can resync with upstream:
588 git fetch origin # or whatever upstream is called
589 git rebase origin/master
591 and use git rebase -i to edit the commits, dropping the wip one.
593 Then update the `Series-cc:` in the top commit to add the person who reviewed
596 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
598 and remove the Series-prefix: tag since it it isn't an RFC any more. The
599 series is now version two, so the series info in the top commit looks like
603 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
608 Finally, you need to add a change log to the two commits you changed. You
609 add change logs to each individual commit where the changes happened, like
613 - Updated the command decoder to reduce code size
614 - Wound the torque propounder up a little more
616 (note the blank line at the end of the list)
618 When you run patman it will collect all the change logs from the different
619 commits and combine them into the cover letter, if you have one. So finally
620 you have a new series of commits::
622 faeb973 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
623 1b2f2fe mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
624 cfbe330 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
625 0682677 sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
633 and it will create and send the version 2 series.
639 #. When you change back to the us-cmd branch days or weeks later all your
640 information is still there, safely stored in the commits. You don't need
641 to remember what version you are up to, who you sent the last lot of patches
642 to, or anything about the change logs.
643 #. If you put tags in the subject, patman will Cc the maintainers
644 automatically in many cases.
645 #. If you want to keep the commits from each series you sent so that you can
646 compare change and see what you did, you can either create a new branch for
647 each version, or just tag the branch before you start changing it:
651 git tag sent/us-cmd-rfc
653 git tag sent/us-cmd-v2
655 #. If you want to modify the patches a little before sending, you can do
656 this in your editor, but be careful!
657 #. If you want to run git send-email yourself, use the -n flag which will
658 print out the command line patman would have used.
659 #. It is a good idea to add the change log info as you change the commit,
660 not later when you can't remember which patch you changed. You can always
661 go back and change or remove logs from commits.
662 #. Some mailing lists have size limits and when we add binary contents to
663 our patches it's easy to exceed the size limits. Use "--no-binary" to
664 generate patches without any binary contents. You are supposed to include
665 a link to a git repository in your "Commit-notes", "Series-notes" or
666 "Cover-letter" for maintainers to fetch the original commit.
667 #. Patches will have no changelog entries for revisions where they did not
668 change. For clarity, if there are no changes for this patch in the most
669 recent revision of the series, a note will be added. For example, a patch
670 with the following tags in the commit::
679 would have a changelog of:::
681 (no changes since v4)
693 This script has been split into sensible files but still needs work.
694 Most of these are indicated by a TODO in the code.
696 It would be nice if this could handle the In-reply-to side of things.
698 The tests are incomplete, as is customary. Use the 'test' subcommand to run
703 $ tools/patman/patman test
705 Note that since the test suite depends on data files only available in
706 the git checkout, the `test` command is hidden unless `patman` is
707 invoked from the U-Boot git repository.
709 Alternatively, you can run the test suite via Pytest:
713 $ cd tools/patman && pytest
715 Error handling doesn't always produce friendly error messages - e.g.
716 putting an incorrect tag in a commit may provide a confusing message.
718 There might be a few other features not mentioned in this README. They
719 might be bugs. In particular, tags are case sensitive which is probably