0c3d26d24a
The script appp.sh can be used with the External Editor extension for Mozilla Thunderbird in order to be able to send inline patches in an easy way. Signed-off-by: Lukas Sandström <lukass@etek.chalmers.se> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
459 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
459 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
Checklist (and a short version for the impatient):
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Commits:
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- make commits of logical units
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- check for unnecessary whitespace with "git diff --check"
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before committing
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- do not check in commented out code or unneeded files
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- provide a meaningful commit message
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- the first line of the commit message should be a short
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description and should skip the full stop
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- if you want your work included in git.git, add a
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"Signed-off-by: Your Name <you@example.com>" line to the
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commit message (or just use the option "-s" when
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committing) to confirm that you agree to the Developer's
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Certificate of Origin
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- make sure that you have tests for the bug you are fixing
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- make sure that the test suite passes after your commit
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Patch:
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- use "git format-patch -M" to create the patch
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- do not PGP sign your patch
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- do not attach your patch, but read in the mail
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body, unless you cannot teach your mailer to
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leave the formatting of the patch alone.
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- be careful doing cut & paste into your mailer, not to
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corrupt whitespaces.
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- provide additional information (which is unsuitable for
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the commit message) between the "---" and the diffstat
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- if you change, add, or remove a command line option or
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make some other user interface change, the associated
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documentation should be updated as well.
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- if your name is not writable in ASCII, make sure that
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you send off a message in the correct encoding.
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- send the patch to the list (git@vger.kernel.org) and the
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maintainer (gitster@pobox.com) if (and only if) the patch
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is ready for inclusion. If you use git-send-email(1),
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please test it first by sending email to yourself.
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Long version:
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I started reading over the SubmittingPatches document for Linux
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kernel, primarily because I wanted to have a document similar to
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it for the core GIT to make sure people understand what they are
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doing when they write "Signed-off-by" line.
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But the patch submission requirements are a lot more relaxed
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here on the technical/contents front, because the core GIT is
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thousand times smaller ;-). So here is only the relevant bits.
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(1) Make separate commits for logically separate changes.
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Unless your patch is really trivial, you should not be sending
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out a patch that was generated between your working tree and
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your commit head. Instead, always make a commit with complete
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commit message and generate a series of patches from your
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repository. It is a good discipline.
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Describe the technical detail of the change(s).
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If your description starts to get too long, that's a sign that you
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probably need to split up your commit to finer grained pieces.
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Oh, another thing. I am picky about whitespaces. Make sure your
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changes do not trigger errors with the sample pre-commit hook shipped
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in templates/hooks--pre-commit. To help ensure this does not happen,
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run git diff --check on your changes before you commit.
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(1a) Try to be nice to older C compilers
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We try to support wide range of C compilers to compile
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git with. That means that you should not use C99 initializers, even
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if a lot of compilers grok it.
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Also, variables have to be declared at the beginning of the block
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(you can check this with gcc, using the -Wdeclaration-after-statement
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option).
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Another thing: NULL pointers shall be written as NULL, not as 0.
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(2) Generate your patch using git tools out of your commits.
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git based diff tools (git, Cogito, and StGIT included) generate
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unidiff which is the preferred format.
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You do not have to be afraid to use -M option to "git diff" or
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"git format-patch", if your patch involves file renames. The
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receiving end can handle them just fine.
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Please make sure your patch does not include any extra files
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which do not belong in a patch submission. Make sure to review
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your patch after generating it, to ensure accuracy. Before
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sending out, please make sure it cleanly applies to the "master"
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branch head. If you are preparing a work based on "next" branch,
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that is fine, but please mark it as such.
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(3) Sending your patches.
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People on the git mailing list need to be able to read and
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comment on the changes you are submitting. It is important for
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a developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard
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e-mail tools, so that they may comment on specific portions of
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your code. For this reason, all patches should be submitted
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"inline". WARNING: Be wary of your MUAs word-wrap
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corrupting your patch. Do not cut-n-paste your patch; you can
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lose tabs that way if you are not careful.
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It is a common convention to prefix your subject line with
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[PATCH]. This lets people easily distinguish patches from other
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e-mail discussions. Use of additional markers after PATCH and
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the closing bracket to mark the nature of the patch is also
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encouraged. E.g. [PATCH/RFC] is often used when the patch is
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not ready to be applied but it is for discussion, [PATCH v2],
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[PATCH v3] etc. are often seen when you are sending an update to
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what you have previously sent.
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"git format-patch" command follows the best current practice to
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format the body of an e-mail message. At the beginning of the
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patch should come your commit message, ending with the
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Signed-off-by: lines, and a line that consists of three dashes,
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followed by the diffstat information and the patch itself. If
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you are forwarding a patch from somebody else, optionally, at
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the beginning of the e-mail message just before the commit
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message starts, you can put a "From: " line to name that person.
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You often want to add additional explanation about the patch,
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other than the commit message itself. Place such "cover letter"
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material between the three dash lines and the diffstat.
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Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not.
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Do not let your e-mail client send quoted-printable. Do not let
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your e-mail client send format=flowed which would destroy
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whitespaces in your patches. Many
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popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME
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attachment as plain text, making it impossible to comment on
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your code. A MIME attachment also takes a bit more time to
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process. This does not decrease the likelihood of your
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MIME-attached change being accepted, but it makes it more likely
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that it will be postponed.
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Exception: If your mailer is mangling patches then someone may ask
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you to re-send them using MIME, that is OK.
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Do not PGP sign your patch, at least for now. Most likely, your
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maintainer or other people on the list would not have your PGP
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key and would not bother obtaining it anyway. Your patch is not
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judged by who you are; a good patch from an unknown origin has a
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far better chance of being accepted than a patch from a known,
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respected origin that is done poorly or does incorrect things.
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If you really really really really want to do a PGP signed
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patch, format it as "multipart/signed", not a text/plain message
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that starts with '-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----'. That is
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not a text/plain, it's something else.
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Note that your maintainer does not necessarily read everything
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on the git mailing list. If your patch is for discussion first,
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send it "To:" the mailing list, and optionally "cc:" him. If it
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is trivially correct or after the list reached a consensus, send
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it "To:" the maintainer and optionally "cc:" the list for
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inclusion.
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Also note that your maintainer does not actively involve himself in
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maintaining what are in contrib/ hierarchy. When you send fixes and
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enhancements to them, do not forget to "cc: " the person who primarily
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worked on that hierarchy in contrib/.
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(4) Sign your work
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To improve tracking of who did what, we've borrowed the
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"sign-off" procedure from the Linux kernel project on patches
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that are being emailed around. Although core GIT is a lot
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smaller project it is a good discipline to follow it.
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The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for
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the patch, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have
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the right to pass it on as a open-source patch. The rules are
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pretty simple: if you can certify the below:
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Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
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By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
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(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
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have the right to submit it under the open source license
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indicated in the file; or
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(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
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of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
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license and I have the right under that license to submit that
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work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
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by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
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permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
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in the file; or
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(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
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person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
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it.
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(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
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are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
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personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
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maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
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this project or the open source license(s) involved.
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then you just add a line saying
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Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
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This line can be automatically added by git if you run the git-commit
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command with the -s option.
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Notice that you can place your own Signed-off-by: line when
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forwarding somebody else's patch with the above rules for
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D-C-O. Indeed you are encouraged to do so. Do not forget to
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place an in-body "From: " line at the beginning to properly attribute
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the change to its true author (see (2) above).
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Some people also put extra tags at the end.
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"Acked-by:" says that the patch was reviewed by the person who
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is more familiar with the issues and the area the patch attempts
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to modify. "Tested-by:" says the patch was tested by the person
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and found to have the desired effect.
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------------------------------------------------
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An ideal patch flow
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Here is an ideal patch flow for this project the current maintainer
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suggests to the contributors:
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(0) You come up with an itch. You code it up.
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(1) Send it to the list and cc people who may need to know about
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the change.
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The people who may need to know are the ones whose code you
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are butchering. These people happen to be the ones who are
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most likely to be knowledgeable enough to help you, but
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they have no obligation to help you (i.e. you ask for help,
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don't demand). "git log -p -- $area_you_are_modifying" would
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help you find out who they are.
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(2) You get comments and suggestions for improvements. You may
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even get them in a "on top of your change" patch form.
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(3) Polish, refine, and re-send to the list and the people who
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spend their time to improve your patch. Go back to step (2).
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(4) The list forms consensus that the last round of your patch is
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good. Send it to the list and cc the maintainer.
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(5) A topic branch is created with the patch and is merged to 'next',
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and cooked further and eventually graduates to 'master'.
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In any time between the (2)-(3) cycle, the maintainer may pick it up
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from the list and queue it to 'pu', in order to make it easier for
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people play with it without having to pick up and apply the patch to
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their trees themselves.
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------------------------------------------------
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MUA specific hints
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Some of patches I receive or pick up from the list share common
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patterns of breakage. Please make sure your MUA is set up
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properly not to corrupt whitespaces. Here are two common ones
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I have seen:
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* Empty context lines that do not have _any_ whitespace.
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* Non empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the
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beginning.
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One test you could do yourself if your MUA is set up correctly is:
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* Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except
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To: and Cc: lines, which would not contain the list and
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maintainer address.
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* Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it say
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a.patch.
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* Try to apply to the tip of the "master" branch from the
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git.git public repository:
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$ git fetch http://kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git master:test-apply
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$ git checkout test-apply
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$ git reset --hard
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$ git am a.patch
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If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons.
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* Your patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is _bad_ but
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does not have much to do with your MUA. Please rebase the
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patch appropriately.
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* Your MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that
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the patch does not apply. Look at .dotest/ subdirectory and
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see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common
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corruption patterns mentioned above.
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* While you are at it, check what are in 'info' and
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'final-commit' files as well. If what is in 'final-commit' is
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not exactly what you would want to see in the commit log
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message, it is very likely that your maintainer would end up
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hand editing the log message when he applies your patch.
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Things like "Hi, this is my first patch.\n", if you really
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want to put in the patch e-mail, should come after the
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three-dash line that signals the end of the commit message.
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Pine
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----
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(Johannes Schindelin)
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I don't know how many people still use pine, but for those poor
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souls it may be good to mention that the quell-flowed-text is
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needed for recent versions.
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... the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, too. AFAIK it
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was introduced in 4.60.
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(Linus Torvalds)
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And 4.58 needs at least this.
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---
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diff-tree 8326dd8350be64ac7fc805f6563a1d61ad10d32c (from e886a61f76edf5410573e92e38ce22974f9c40f1)
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Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@g5.osdl.org>
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Date: Mon Aug 15 17:23:51 2005 -0700
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Fix pine whitespace-corruption bug
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There's no excuse for unconditionally removing whitespace from
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the pico buffers on close.
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diff --git a/pico/pico.c b/pico/pico.c
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--- a/pico/pico.c
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+++ b/pico/pico.c
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@@ -219,7 +219,9 @@ PICO *pm;
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switch(pico_all_done){ /* prepare for/handle final events */
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case COMP_EXIT : /* already confirmed */
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packheader();
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+#if 0
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stripwhitespace();
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+#endif
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c |= COMP_EXIT;
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break;
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(Daniel Barkalow)
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> A patch to SubmittingPatches, MUA specific help section for
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> users of Pine 4.63 would be very much appreciated.
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Ah, it looks like a recent version changed the default behavior to do the
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right thing, and inverted the sense of the configuration option. (Either
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that or Gentoo did it.) So you need to set the
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"no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, unless the option you have is
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"strip-whitespace-before-send", in which case you should avoid checking
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it.
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Thunderbird
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-----------
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(A Large Angry SCM)
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Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using
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Thunderbird.
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This recipe appears to work with the current [*1*] Thunderbird from Suse.
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The following Thunderbird extensions are needed:
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AboutConfig 0.5
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http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/
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External Editor 0.7.2
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http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8
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1) Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice.
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2) Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to
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uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the
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"Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to send the
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patch. [*2*]
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3) In the main Thunderbird window, _before_ you open the compose window
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for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the following to the
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indicated values:
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mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false
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mailnews.wraplength => 0
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4) Open a compose window and click the external editor icon.
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5) In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit the
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editor normally.
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6) Back in the compose window: Add whatever other text you wish to the
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message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.
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7) Optionally, undo the about:config/account settings changes made in
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steps 2 & 3.
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[Footnotes]
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*1* Version 1.0 (20041207) from the MozillaThunderbird-1.0-5 rpm of Suse
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9.3 professional updates.
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*2* It may be possible to do this with about:config and the following
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settings but I haven't tried, yet.
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mail.html_compose => false
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mail.identity.default.compose_html => false
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mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false
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(Lukas Sandström)
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There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help
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you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the
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steps above and then use the script as the external editor.
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Gnus
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----
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'|' in the *Summary* buffer can be used to pipe the current
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message to an external program, and this is a handy way to drive
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"git am". However, if the message is MIME encoded, what is
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piped into the program is the representation you see in your
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*Article* buffer after unwrapping MIME. This is often not what
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you would want for two reasons. It tends to screw up non ASCII
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characters (most notably in people's names), and also
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whitespaces (fatal in patches). Running 'C-u g' to display the
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message in raw form before using '|' to run the pipe can work
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this problem around.
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KMail
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-----
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This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail.
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1) Prepare the patch as a text file.
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2) Click on New Mail.
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3) Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that
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"Word wrap" is not set.
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4) Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch.
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5) Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the
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message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.
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