doing when they write "Signed-off-by" line.
But the patch submission requirements are a lot more relaxed
-here, because the core GIT is thousand times smaller ;-). So
-here is only the relevant bits.
+here on the technical/contents front, because the core GIT is
+thousand times smaller ;-). So here is only the relevant bits.
(1) Make separate commits for logically separate changes.
Describe the technical detail of the change(s).
-If your description starts to get long, that's a sign that you
+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.
+Oh, another thing. I am picky about whitespaces. Make sure your
+changes do not trigger errors with the sample pre-commit hook shipped
+in templates/hooks--pre-commit.
-(2) Generate your patch using git/cogito out of your commits.
-git diff tools generate unidiff which is the preferred format.
+(2) Generate your patch using git tools out of your commits.
+
+git based diff tools (git, Cogito, and StGIT included) generate
+unidiff which is the preferred format.
+
You do not have to be afraid to use -M option to "git diff" or
"git format-patch", if your patch involves file renames. The
receiving end can handle them just fine.
which do not belong in a patch submission. Make sure to review
your patch after generating it, to ensure accuracy. Before
sending out, please make sure it cleanly applies to the "master"
-branch head.
+branch head. If you are preparing a work based on "next" branch,
+that is fine, but please mark it as such.
(3) Sending your patches.
-People on the git mailing list needs to be able to read and
+People on the git mailing list need to be able to read and
comment on the changes you are submitting. It is important for
a developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard
e-mail tools, so that they may comment on specific portions of
-your code. For this reason, all patches should be submitting
-e-mail "inline". WARNING: Be wary of your MUAs word-wrap
-corrupting your patch. Do not cut-n-paste your patch.
+your code. For this reason, all patches should be submited
+"inline". WARNING: Be wary of your MUAs word-wrap
+corrupting your patch. Do not cut-n-paste your patch; you can
+lose tabs that way if you are not careful.
-It is common convention to prefix your subject line with
+It is a common convention to prefix your subject line with
[PATCH]. This lets people easily distinguish patches from other
e-mail discussions.
that it will be postponed.
Exception: If your mailer is mangling patches then someone may ask
-you to re-send them using MIME.
+you to re-send them using MIME, that is OK.
+
+Do not PGP sign your patch, at least for now. Most likely, your
+maintainer or other people on the list would not have your PGP
+key and would not bother obtaining it anyway. Your patch is not
+judged by who you are; a good patch from an unknown origin has a
+far better chance of being accepted than a patch from a known,
+respected origin that is done poorly or does incorrect things.
-Note that your maintainer does not subscribe to the git mailing
-list (he reads it via mail-to-news gateway). If your patch is
-for discussion first, send it "To:" the mailing list, and
-optoinally "cc:" him. If it is trivially correct or after list
-discussion reached consensus, send it "To:" the maintainer and
-optionally "cc:" the list.
+If you really really really really want to do a PGP signed
+patch, format it as "multipart/signed", not a text/plain message
+that starts with '-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----'. That is
+not a text/plain, it's something else.
+
+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.
(6) Sign your work
* Non empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the
beginning.
+One test you could do yourself if your MUA is set up correctly is:
+
+* Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except
+ To: and Cc: lines, which would not contain the list and
+ maintainer address.
+
+* Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it say
+ a.patch.
+
+* Try to apply to the tip of the "master" branch from the
+ git.git public repository:
+
+ $ git fetch http://kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git master:test-apply
+ $ git checkout test-apply
+ $ git reset --hard
+ $ git applymbox a.patch
+
+If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons.
+
+* Your patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is _bad_ but
+ does not have much to do with your MUA. Please rebase the
+ patch appropriately.
+
+* Your MUA corrupted your patch; applymbox would complain that
+ the patch does not apply. Look at .dotest/ subdirectory and
+ see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common
+ corruption patterns mentioned above.
+
+* While you are at it, check what are in 'info' and
+ 'final-commit' files as well. If what is in 'final-commit' is
+ not exactly what you would want to see in the commit log
+ message, it is very likely that your maintainer would end up
+ hand editing the log message when he applies your patch.
+ Things like "Hi, this is my first patch.\n", if you really
+ want to put in the patch e-mail, should come after the
+ three-dash line that signals the end of the commit message.
+
Pine
----
break;
+(Daniel Barkalow)
+
+> A patch to SubmittingPatches, MUA specific help section for
+> users of Pine 4.63 would be very much appreciated.
+
+Ah, it looks like a recent version changed the default behavior to do the
+right thing, and inverted the sense of the configuration option. (Either
+that or Gentoo did it.) So you need to set the
+"no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, unless the option you have is
+"strip-whitespace-before-send", in which case you should avoid checking
+it.
+
Thunderbird
-----------
for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the following to the
indicated values:
mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false
- mailnews.wraplength => 999
+ mailnews.wraplength => 0
4) Open a compose window and click the external editor icon.
mail.identity.default.compose_html => false
mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false
-
-