+Checklist (and a short version for the impatient):
+
+ Commits:
+
+ - make commits of logical units
+ - 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
+ - if you want your work included in git.git, add a
+ "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
+ - make sure that you have tests for the bug you are fixing
+ - make sure that the test suite passes after your commit
+
+ Patch:
+
+ - use "git format-patch -M" to create the patch
+ - do not PGP sign your patch
+ - do not attach your patch, but read in the mail
+ body, unless you cannot teach your mailer to
+ leave the formatting of the patch alone.
+ - be careful doing cut & paste into your mailer, not to
+ corrupt whitespaces.
+ - provide additional information (which is unsuitable for
+ the commit message) between the "---" and the diffstat
+ - 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 you use
+ git-send-email(1), please test it first by sending
+ email to yourself.
+
+Long version:
+
I started reading over the SubmittingPatches document for Linux
kernel, primarily because I wanted to have a document similar to
it for the core GIT to make sure people understand what they are
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. To help ensure this does not happen,
+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
+git with. That means that you should not use C99 initializers, even
+if a lot of compilers grok it.
+
+Also, variables have to be declared at the beginning of the block
+(you can check this with gcc, using the -Wdeclaration-after-statement
+option).
+
+Another thing: NULL pointers shall be written as NULL, not as 0.
+
-(2) Generate your patch using git/cogito out of your commits.
+(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.
-git diff tools 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 submitted
+"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.
material between the three dash lines and the diffstat.
Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not.
-Do not let your e-mail client send quoted-printable. Many
+Do not let your e-mail client send quoted-printable. Do not let
+your e-mail client send format=flowed which would destroy
+whitespaces in your patches. Many
popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME
attachment as plain text, making it impossible to comment on
your code. A MIME attachment also takes a bit more time to
is trivially correct or after the list reached a consensus, send
it "To:" the maintainer and optionally "cc:" the list.
+Also note that your maintainer does not actively involve himself in
+maintaining what are in contrib/ hierarchy. When you send fixes and
+enhancements to them, do not forget to "cc: " the person who primarily
+worked on that hierarchy in contrib/.
+
-(6) Sign your work
+(4) Sign your work
To improve tracking of who did what, we've borrowed the
"sign-off" procedure from the Linux kernel project on patches
Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
+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.
$ git fetch http://kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git master:test-apply
$ git checkout test-apply
$ git reset --hard
- $ git applymbox a.patch
+ $ git am a.patch
If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons.
does not have much to do with your MUA. Please rebase the
patch appropriately.
-* Your MUA corrupted your patch; applymbox would complain that
+* Your MUA corrupted your patch; "am" 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.
--- a/pico/pico.c
+++ b/pico/pico.c
@@ -219,7 +219,9 @@ PICO *pm;
- switch(pico_all_done){ /* prepare for/handle final events */
- case COMP_EXIT : /* already confirmed */
- packheader();
+ switch(pico_all_done){ /* prepare for/handle final events */
+ case COMP_EXIT : /* already confirmed */
+ packheader();
+#if 0
- stripwhitespace();
+ stripwhitespace();
+#endif
- c |= COMP_EXIT;
- break;
-
+ c |= COMP_EXIT;
+ 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
(A Large Angry SCM)
Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using
-Thunderbird. [*3*]
+Thunderbird.
This recipe appears to work with the current [*1*] Thunderbird from Suse.
The following Thunderbird extensions are needed:
AboutConfig 0.5
http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/
- External Editor 0.5.4
- http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/exteditor
+ External Editor 0.7.2
+ http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8
1) Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice.
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
-*3* Even after following these hints, Thunderbird will still trim
-trailing whitespace from each line. I currently have no work around for
-for this issue.
+Gnus
+----
+
+'|' in the *Summary* buffer can be used to pipe the current
+message to an external program, and this is a handy way to drive
+"git am". However, if the message is MIME encoded, what is
+piped into the program is the representation you see in your
+*Article* buffer after unwrapping MIME. This is often not what
+you would want for two reasons. It tends to screw up non ASCII
+characters (most notably in people's names), and also
+whitespaces (fatal in patches). Running 'C-u g' to display the
+message in raw form before using '|' to run the pipe can work
+this problem around.
+
+
+KMail
+-----
+
+This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail.
+
+1) Prepare the patch as a text file.
+
+2) Click on New Mail.
+
+3) Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that
+"Word wrap" is not set.
+
+4) Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch.
+
+5) Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the
+message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.