SubmittingPatches.html

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
   3     "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
   4 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
   5 <head>
   6 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8" />
   7 <meta name="generator" content="AsciiDoc 10.2.0" />
   8 <title>Submitting Patches</title>
   9 <style type="text/css">
  10 /* Shared CSS for AsciiDoc xhtml11 and html5 backends */
  11
  12 /* Default font. */
  13 body {
  14   font-family: Georgia,serif;
  15 }
  16
  17 /* Title font. */
  18 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6,
  19 div.title, caption.title,
  20 thead, p.table.header,
  21 #toctitle,
  22 #author, #revnumber, #revdate, #revremark,
  23 #footer {
  24   font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
  25 }
  26
  27 body {
  28   margin: 1em 5% 1em 5%;
  29 }
  30
  31 a {
  32   color: blue;
  33   text-decoration: underline;
  34 }
  35 a:visited {
  36   color: fuchsia;
  37 }
  38
  39 em {
  40   font-style: italic;
  41   color: navy;
  42 }
  43
  44 strong {
  45   font-weight: bold;
  46   color: #083194;
  47 }
  48
  49 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  50   color: #527bbd;
  51   margin-top: 1.2em;
  52   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
  53   line-height: 1.3;
  54 }
  55
  56 h1, h2, h3 {
  57   border-bottom: 2px solid silver;
  58 }
  59 h2 {
  60   padding-top: 0.5em;
  61 }
  62 h3 {
  63   float: left;
  64 }
  65 h3 + * {
  66   clear: left;
  67 }
  68 h5 {
  69   font-size: 1.0em;
  70 }
  71
  72 div.sectionbody {
  73   margin-left: 0;
  74 }
  75
  76 hr {
  77   border: 1px solid silver;
  78 }
  79
  80 p {
  81   margin-top: 0.5em;
  82   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
  83 }
  84
  85 ul, ol, li > p {
  86   margin-top: 0;
  87 }
  88 ul > li     { color: #aaa; }
  89 ul > li > * { color: black; }
  90
  91 .monospaced, code, pre {
  92   font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
  93   font-size: inherit;
  94   color: navy;
  95   padding: 0;
  96   margin: 0;
  97 }
  98 pre {
  99   white-space: pre-wrap;
 100 }
 101
 102 #author {
 103   color: #527bbd;
 104   font-weight: bold;
 105   font-size: 1.1em;
 106 }
 107 #email {
 108 }
 109 #revnumber, #revdate, #revremark {
 110 }
 111
 112 #footer {
 113   font-size: small;
 114   border-top: 2px solid silver;
 115   padding-top: 0.5em;
 116   margin-top: 4.0em;
 117 }
 118 #footer-text {
 119   float: left;
 120   padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 121 }
 122 #footer-badges {
 123   float: right;
 124   padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 125 }
 126
 127 #preamble {
 128   margin-top: 1.5em;
 129   margin-bottom: 1.5em;
 130 }
 131 div.imageblock, div.exampleblock, div.verseblock,
 132 div.quoteblock, div.literalblock, div.listingblock, div.sidebarblock,
 133 div.admonitionblock {
 134   margin-top: 1.0em;
 135   margin-bottom: 1.5em;
 136 }
 137 div.admonitionblock {
 138   margin-top: 2.0em;
 139   margin-bottom: 2.0em;
 140   margin-right: 10%;
 141   color: #606060;
 142 }
 143
 144 div.content { /* Block element content. */
 145   padding: 0;
 146 }
 147
 148 /* Block element titles. */
 149 div.title, caption.title {
 150   color: #527bbd;
 151   font-weight: bold;
 152   text-align: left;
 153   margin-top: 1.0em;
 154   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 155 }
 156 div.title + * {
 157   margin-top: 0;
 158 }
 159
 160 td div.title:first-child {
 161   margin-top: 0.0em;
 162 }
 163 div.content div.title:first-child {
 164   margin-top: 0.0em;
 165 }
 166 div.content + div.title {
 167   margin-top: 0.0em;
 168 }
 169
 170 div.sidebarblock > div.content {
 171   background: #ffffee;
 172   border: 1px solid #dddddd;
 173   border-left: 4px solid #f0f0f0;
 174   padding: 0.5em;
 175 }
 176
 177 div.listingblock > div.content {
 178   border: 1px solid #dddddd;
 179   border-left: 5px solid #f0f0f0;
 180   background: #f8f8f8;
 181   padding: 0.5em;
 182 }
 183
 184 div.quoteblock, div.verseblock {
 185   padding-left: 1.0em;
 186   margin-left: 1.0em;
 187   margin-right: 10%;
 188   border-left: 5px solid #f0f0f0;
 189   color: #888;
 190 }
 191
 192 div.quoteblock > div.attribution {
 193   padding-top: 0.5em;
 194   text-align: right;
 195 }
 196
 197 div.verseblock > pre.content {
 198   font-family: inherit;
 199   font-size: inherit;
 200 }
 201 div.verseblock > div.attribution {
 202   padding-top: 0.75em;
 203   text-align: left;
 204 }
 205 /* DEPRECATED: Pre version 8.2.7 verse style literal block. */
 206 div.verseblock + div.attribution {
 207   text-align: left;
 208 }
 209
 210 div.admonitionblock .icon {
 211   vertical-align: top;
 212   font-size: 1.1em;
 213   font-weight: bold;
 214   text-decoration: underline;
 215   color: #527bbd;
 216   padding-right: 0.5em;
 217 }
 218 div.admonitionblock td.content {
 219   padding-left: 0.5em;
 220   border-left: 3px solid #dddddd;
 221 }
 222
 223 div.exampleblock > div.content {
 224   border-left: 3px solid #dddddd;
 225   padding-left: 0.5em;
 226 }
 227
 228 div.imageblock div.content { padding-left: 0; }
 229 span.image img { border-style: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; }
 230 a.image:visited { color: white; }
 231
 232 dl {
 233   margin-top: 0.8em;
 234   margin-bottom: 0.8em;
 235 }
 236 dt {
 237   margin-top: 0.5em;
 238   margin-bottom: 0;
 239   font-style: normal;
 240   color: navy;
 241 }
 242 dd > *:first-child {
 243   margin-top: 0.1em;
 244 }
 245
 246 ul, ol {
 247     list-style-position: outside;
 248 }
 249 ol.arabic {
 250   list-style-type: decimal;
 251 }
 252 ol.loweralpha {
 253   list-style-type: lower-alpha;
 254 }
 255 ol.upperalpha {
 256   list-style-type: upper-alpha;
 257 }
 258 ol.lowerroman {
 259   list-style-type: lower-roman;
 260 }
 261 ol.upperroman {
 262   list-style-type: upper-roman;
 263 }
 264
 265 div.compact ul, div.compact ol,
 266 div.compact p, div.compact p,
 267 div.compact div, div.compact div {
 268   margin-top: 0.1em;
 269   margin-bottom: 0.1em;
 270 }
 271
 272 tfoot {
 273   font-weight: bold;
 274 }
 275 td > div.verse {
 276   white-space: pre;
 277 }
 278
 279 div.hdlist {
 280   margin-top: 0.8em;
 281   margin-bottom: 0.8em;
 282 }
 283 div.hdlist tr {
 284   padding-bottom: 15px;
 285 }
 286 dt.hdlist1.strong, td.hdlist1.strong {
 287   font-weight: bold;
 288 }
 289 td.hdlist1 {
 290   vertical-align: top;
 291   font-style: normal;
 292   padding-right: 0.8em;
 293   color: navy;
 294 }
 295 td.hdlist2 {
 296   vertical-align: top;
 297 }
 298 div.hdlist.compact tr {
 299   margin: 0;
 300   padding-bottom: 0;
 301 }
 302
 303 .comment {
 304   background: yellow;
 305 }
 306
 307 .footnote, .footnoteref {
 308   font-size: 0.8em;
 309 }
 310
 311 span.footnote, span.footnoteref {
 312   vertical-align: super;
 313 }
 314
 315 #footnotes {
 316   margin: 20px 0 20px 0;
 317   padding: 7px 0 0 0;
 318 }
 319
 320 #footnotes div.footnote {
 321   margin: 0 0 5px 0;
 322 }
 323
 324 #footnotes hr {
 325   border: none;
 326   border-top: 1px solid silver;
 327   height: 1px;
 328   text-align: left;
 329   margin-left: 0;
 330   width: 20%;
 331   min-width: 100px;
 332 }
 333
 334 div.colist td {
 335   padding-right: 0.5em;
 336   padding-bottom: 0.3em;
 337   vertical-align: top;
 338 }
 339 div.colist td img {
 340   margin-top: 0.3em;
 341 }
 342
 343 @media print {
 344   #footer-badges { display: none; }
 345 }
 346
 347 #toc {
 348   margin-bottom: 2.5em;
 349 }
 350
 351 #toctitle {
 352   color: #527bbd;
 353   font-size: 1.1em;
 354   font-weight: bold;
 355   margin-top: 1.0em;
 356   margin-bottom: 0.1em;
 357 }
 358
 359 div.toclevel0, div.toclevel1, div.toclevel2, div.toclevel3, div.toclevel4 {
 360   margin-top: 0;
 361   margin-bottom: 0;
 362 }
 363 div.toclevel2 {
 364   margin-left: 2em;
 365   font-size: 0.9em;
 366 }
 367 div.toclevel3 {
 368   margin-left: 4em;
 369   font-size: 0.9em;
 370 }
 371 div.toclevel4 {
 372   margin-left: 6em;
 373   font-size: 0.9em;
 374 }
 375
 376 span.aqua { color: aqua; }
 377 span.black { color: black; }
 378 span.blue { color: blue; }
 379 span.fuchsia { color: fuchsia; }
 380 span.gray { color: gray; }
 381 span.green { color: green; }
 382 span.lime { color: lime; }
 383 span.maroon { color: maroon; }
 384 span.navy { color: navy; }
 385 span.olive { color: olive; }
 386 span.purple { color: purple; }
 387 span.red { color: red; }
 388 span.silver { color: silver; }
 389 span.teal { color: teal; }
 390 span.white { color: white; }
 391 span.yellow { color: yellow; }
 392
 393 span.aqua-background { background: aqua; }
 394 span.black-background { background: black; }
 395 span.blue-background { background: blue; }
 396 span.fuchsia-background { background: fuchsia; }
 397 span.gray-background { background: gray; }
 398 span.green-background { background: green; }
 399 span.lime-background { background: lime; }
 400 span.maroon-background { background: maroon; }
 401 span.navy-background { background: navy; }
 402 span.olive-background { background: olive; }
 403 span.purple-background { background: purple; }
 404 span.red-background { background: red; }
 405 span.silver-background { background: silver; }
 406 span.teal-background { background: teal; }
 407 span.white-background { background: white; }
 408 span.yellow-background { background: yellow; }
 409
 410 span.big { font-size: 2em; }
 411 span.small { font-size: 0.6em; }
 412
 413 span.underline { text-decoration: underline; }
 414 span.overline { text-decoration: overline; }
 415 span.line-through { text-decoration: line-through; }
 416
 417 div.unbreakable { page-break-inside: avoid; }
 418
 419
 420 /*
 421  * xhtml11 specific
 422  *
 423  * */
 424
 425 div.tableblock {
 426   margin-top: 1.0em;
 427   margin-bottom: 1.5em;
 428 }
 429 div.tableblock > table {
 430   border: 3px solid #527bbd;
 431 }
 432 thead, p.table.header {
 433   font-weight: bold;
 434   color: #527bbd;
 435 }
 436 p.table {
 437   margin-top: 0;
 438 }
 439 /* Because the table frame attribute is overridden by CSS in most browsers. */
 440 div.tableblock > table[frame="void"] {
 441   border-style: none;
 442 }
 443 div.tableblock > table[frame="hsides"] {
 444   border-left-style: none;
 445   border-right-style: none;
 446 }
 447 div.tableblock > table[frame="vsides"] {
 448   border-top-style: none;
 449   border-bottom-style: none;
 450 }
 451
 452
 453 /*
 454  * html5 specific
 455  *
 456  * */
 457
 458 table.tableblock {
 459   margin-top: 1.0em;
 460   margin-bottom: 1.5em;
 461 }
 462 thead, p.tableblock.header {
 463   font-weight: bold;
 464   color: #527bbd;
 465 }
 466 p.tableblock {
 467   margin-top: 0;
 468 }
 469 table.tableblock {
 470   border-width: 3px;
 471   border-spacing: 0px;
 472   border-style: solid;
 473   border-color: #527bbd;
 474   border-collapse: collapse;
 475 }
 476 th.tableblock, td.tableblock {
 477   border-width: 1px;
 478   padding: 4px;
 479   border-style: solid;
 480   border-color: #527bbd;
 481 }
 482
 483 table.tableblock.frame-topbot {
 484   border-left-style: hidden;
 485   border-right-style: hidden;
 486 }
 487 table.tableblock.frame-sides {
 488   border-top-style: hidden;
 489   border-bottom-style: hidden;
 490 }
 491 table.tableblock.frame-none {
 492   border-style: hidden;
 493 }
 494
 495 th.tableblock.halign-left, td.tableblock.halign-left {
 496   text-align: left;
 497 }
 498 th.tableblock.halign-center, td.tableblock.halign-center {
 499   text-align: center;
 500 }
 501 th.tableblock.halign-right, td.tableblock.halign-right {
 502   text-align: right;
 503 }
 504
 505 th.tableblock.valign-top, td.tableblock.valign-top {
 506   vertical-align: top;
 507 }
 508 th.tableblock.valign-middle, td.tableblock.valign-middle {
 509   vertical-align: middle;
 510 }
 511 th.tableblock.valign-bottom, td.tableblock.valign-bottom {
 512   vertical-align: bottom;
 513 }
 514
 515
 516 /*
 517  * manpage specific
 518  *
 519  * */
 520
 521 body.manpage h1 {
 522   padding-top: 0.5em;
 523   padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 524   border-top: 2px solid silver;
 525   border-bottom: 2px solid silver;
 526 }
 527 body.manpage h2 {
 528   border-style: none;
 529 }
 530 body.manpage div.sectionbody {
 531   margin-left: 3em;
 532 }
 533
 534 @media print {
 535   body.manpage div#toc { display: none; }
 536 }
 537
 538
 539 </style>
 540 <script type="text/javascript">
 541 /*<![CDATA[*/
 542 var asciidoc = {  // Namespace.
 543
 544 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 545 // Table Of Contents generator
 546 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 547
 548 /* Author: Mihai Bazon, September 2002
 549  * http://students.infoiasi.ro/~mishoo
 550  *
 551  * Table Of Content generator
 552  * Version: 0.4
 553  *
 554  * Feel free to use this script under the terms of the GNU General Public
 555  * License, as long as you do not remove or alter this notice.
 556  */
 557
 558  /* modified by Troy D. Hanson, September 2006. License: GPL */
 559  /* modified by Stuart Rackham, 2006, 2009. License: GPL */
 560
 561 // toclevels = 1..4.
 562 toc: function (toclevels) {
 563
 564   function getText(el) {
 565     var text = "";
 566     for (var i = el.firstChild; i != null; i = i.nextSibling) {
 567       if (i.nodeType == 3 /* Node.TEXT_NODE */) // IE doesn't speak constants.
 568         text += i.data;
 569       else if (i.firstChild != null)
 570         text += getText(i);
 571     }
 572     return text;
 573   }
 574
 575   function TocEntry(el, text, toclevel) {
 576     this.element = el;
 577     this.text = text;
 578     this.toclevel = toclevel;
 579   }
 580
 581   function tocEntries(el, toclevels) {
 582     var result = new Array;
 583     var re = new RegExp('[hH]([1-'+(toclevels+1)+'])');
 584     // Function that scans the DOM tree for header elements (the DOM2
 585     // nodeIterator API would be a better technique but not supported by all
 586     // browsers).
 587     var iterate = function (el) {
 588       for (var i = el.firstChild; i != null; i = i.nextSibling) {
 589         if (i.nodeType == 1 /* Node.ELEMENT_NODE */) {
 590           var mo = re.exec(i.tagName);
 591           if (mo && (i.getAttribute("class") || i.getAttribute("className")) != "float") {
 592             result[result.length] = new TocEntry(i, getText(i), mo[1]-1);
 593           }
 594           iterate(i);
 595         }
 596       }
 597     }
 598     iterate(el);
 599     return result;
 600   }
 601
 602   var toc = document.getElementById("toc");
 603   if (!toc) {
 604     return;
 605   }
 606
 607   // Delete existing TOC entries in case we're reloading the TOC.
 608   var tocEntriesToRemove = [];
 609   var i;
 610   for (i = 0; i < toc.childNodes.length; i++) {
 611     var entry = toc.childNodes[i];
 612     if (entry.nodeName.toLowerCase() == 'div'
 613      && entry.getAttribute("class")
 614      && entry.getAttribute("class").match(/^toclevel/))
 615       tocEntriesToRemove.push(entry);
 616   }
 617   for (i = 0; i < tocEntriesToRemove.length; i++) {
 618     toc.removeChild(tocEntriesToRemove[i]);
 619   }
 620
 621   // Rebuild TOC entries.
 622   var entries = tocEntries(document.getElementById("content"), toclevels);
 623   for (var i = 0; i < entries.length; ++i) {
 624     var entry = entries[i];
 625     if (entry.element.id == "")
 626       entry.element.id = "_toc_" + i;
 627     var a = document.createElement("a");
 628     a.href = "#" + entry.element.id;
 629     a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(entry.text));
 630     var div = document.createElement("div");
 631     div.appendChild(a);
 632     div.className = "toclevel" + entry.toclevel;
 633     toc.appendChild(div);
 634   }
 635   if (entries.length == 0)
 636     toc.parentNode.removeChild(toc);
 637 },
 638
 639
 640 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 641 // Footnotes generator
 642 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 643
 644 /* Based on footnote generation code from:
 645  * http://www.brandspankingnew.net/archive/2005/07/format_footnote.html
 646  */
 647
 648 footnotes: function () {
 649   // Delete existing footnote entries in case we're reloading the footnodes.
 650   var i;
 651   var noteholder = document.getElementById("footnotes");
 652   if (!noteholder) {
 653     return;
 654   }
 655   var entriesToRemove = [];
 656   for (i = 0; i < noteholder.childNodes.length; i++) {
 657     var entry = noteholder.childNodes[i];
 658     if (entry.nodeName.toLowerCase() == 'div' && entry.getAttribute("class") == "footnote")
 659       entriesToRemove.push(entry);
 660   }
 661   for (i = 0; i < entriesToRemove.length; i++) {
 662     noteholder.removeChild(entriesToRemove[i]);
 663   }
 664
 665   // Rebuild footnote entries.
 666   var cont = document.getElementById("content");
 667   var spans = cont.getElementsByTagName("span");
 668   var refs = {};
 669   var n = 0;
 670   for (i=0; i<spans.length; i++) {
 671     if (spans[i].className == "footnote") {
 672       n++;
 673       var note = spans[i].getAttribute("data-note");
 674       if (!note) {
 675         // Use [\s\S] in place of . so multi-line matches work.
 676         // Because JavaScript has no s (dotall) regex flag.
 677         note = spans[i].innerHTML.match(/\s*\[([\s\S]*)]\s*/)[1];
 678         spans[i].innerHTML =
 679           "[<a id='_footnoteref_" + n + "' href='#_footnote_" + n +
 680           "' title='View footnote' class='footnote'>" + n + "</a>]";
 681         spans[i].setAttribute("data-note", note);
 682       }
 683       noteholder.innerHTML +=
 684         "<div class='footnote' id='_footnote_" + n + "'>" +
 685         "<a href='#_footnoteref_" + n + "' title='Return to text'>" +
 686         n + "</a>. " + note + "</div>";
 687       var id =spans[i].getAttribute("id");
 688       if (id != null) refs["#"+id] = n;
 689     }
 690   }
 691   if (n == 0)
 692     noteholder.parentNode.removeChild(noteholder);
 693   else {
 694     // Process footnoterefs.
 695     for (i=0; i<spans.length; i++) {
 696       if (spans[i].className == "footnoteref") {
 697         var href = spans[i].getElementsByTagName("a")[0].getAttribute("href");
 698         href = href.match(/#.*/)[0];  // Because IE return full URL.
 699         n = refs[href];
 700         spans[i].innerHTML =
 701           "[<a href='#_footnote_" + n +
 702           "' title='View footnote' class='footnote'>" + n + "</a>]";
 703       }
 704     }
 705   }
 706 },
 707
 708 install: function(toclevels) {
 709   var timerId;
 710
 711   function reinstall() {
 712     asciidoc.footnotes();
 713     if (toclevels) {
 714       asciidoc.toc(toclevels);
 715     }
 716   }
 717
 718   function reinstallAndRemoveTimer() {
 719     clearInterval(timerId);
 720     reinstall();
 721   }
 722
 723   timerId = setInterval(reinstall, 500);
 724   if (document.addEventListener)
 725     document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", reinstallAndRemoveTimer, false);
 726   else
 727     window.onload = reinstallAndRemoveTimer;
 728 }
 729
 730 }
 731 asciidoc.install();
 732 /*]]>*/
 733 </script>
 734 </head>
 735 <body class="article">
 736 <div id="header">
 737 <h1>Submitting Patches</h1>
 738 <span id="revdate">2024-04-30</span>
 739 </div>
 740 <div id="content">
 741 <div class="sect1">
 742 <h2 id="_guidelines">Guidelines</h2>
 743 <div class="sectionbody">
 744 <div class="paragraph"><p>Here are some guidelines for contributing back to this
 745 project. There is also a <a href="MyFirstContribution.html">step-by-step tutorial</a>
 746 available which covers many of these same guidelines.</p></div>
 747 <div class="sect2">
 748 <h3 id="choose-starting-point">Choose a starting point.</h3>
 749 <div class="paragraph"><p>As a preliminary step, you must first choose a starting point for your
 750 work. Typically this means choosing a branch, although technically
 751 speaking it is actually a particular commit (typically the HEAD, or tip,
 752 of the branch).</p></div>
 753 <div class="paragraph"><p>There are several important branches to be aware of. Namely, there are
 754 four integration branches as discussed in <a href="gitworkflows.html">gitworkflows(7)</a>:</p></div>
 755 <div class="ulist"><ul>
 756 <li>
 757 <p>
 758 maint
 759 </p>
 760 </li>
 761 <li>
 762 <p>
 763 master
 764 </p>
 765 </li>
 766 <li>
 767 <p>
 768 next
 769 </p>
 770 </li>
 771 <li>
 772 <p>
 773 seen
 774 </p>
 775 </li>
 776 </ul></div>
 777 <div class="paragraph"><p>The branches lower on the list are typically descendants of the ones
 778 that come before it. For example, <code>maint</code> is an "older" branch than
 779 <code>master</code> because <code>master</code> usually has patches (commits) on top of
 780 <code>maint</code>.</p></div>
 781 <div class="paragraph"><p>There are also "topic" branches, which contain work from other
 782 contributors.  Topic branches are created by the Git maintainer (in
 783 their fork) to organize the current set of incoming contributions on
 784 the mailing list, and are itemized in the regular "What&#8217;s cooking in
 785 git.git" announcements.  To find the tip of a topic branch, run <code>git log
 786 --first-parent master..seen</code> and look for the merge commit. The second
 787 parent of this commit is the tip of the topic branch.</p></div>
 788 <div class="paragraph"><p>There is one guiding principle for choosing the right starting point: in
 789 general, always base your work on the oldest integration branch that
 790 your change is relevant to (see "Merge upwards" in
 791 <a href="gitworkflows.html">gitworkflows(7)</a>).  What this principle means is that for the
 792 vast majority of cases, the starting point for new work should be the
 793 latest HEAD commit of <code>maint</code> or <code>master</code> based on the following cases:</p></div>
 794 <div class="ulist"><ul>
 795 <li>
 796 <p>
 797 If you are fixing bugs in the released version, use <code>maint</code> as the
 798   starting point (which may mean you have to fix things without using
 799   new API features on the cutting edge that recently appeared in
 800   <code>master</code> but were not available in the released version).
 801 </p>
 802 </li>
 803 <li>
 804 <p>
 805 Otherwise (such as if you are adding new features) use <code>master</code>.
 806 </p>
 807 </li>
 808 </ul></div>
 809 <div class="admonitionblock">
 810 <table><tr>
 811 <td class="icon">
 812 <div class="title">Note</div>
 813 </td>
 814 <td class="content">In exceptional cases, a bug that was introduced in an old
 815 version may have to be fixed for users of releases that are much older
 816 than the recent releases.  <code>git describe --contains X</code> may describe
 817 <code>X</code> as <code>v2.30.0-rc2-gXXXXXX</code> for the commit <code>X</code> that introduced the
 818 bug, and the bug may be so high-impact that we may need to issue a new
 819 maintenance release for Git 2.30.x series, when "Git 2.41.0" is the
 820 current release.  In such a case, you may want to use the tip of the
 821 maintenance branch for the 2.30.x series, which may be available in the
 822 <code>maint-2.30</code> branch in <a href="https://github.com/gitster/git">the maintainer&#8217;s
 823 "broken out" repo</a>.</td>
 824 </tr></table>
 825 </div>
 826 <div class="paragraph"><p>This also means that <code>next</code> or <code>seen</code> are inappropriate starting points
 827 for your work, if you want your work to have a realistic chance of
 828 graduating to <code>master</code>.  They are simply not designed to be used as a
 829 base for new work; they are only there to make sure that topics in
 830 flight work well together. This is why both <code>next</code> and <code>seen</code> are
 831 frequently re-integrated with incoming patches on the mailing list and
 832 force-pushed to replace previous versions of themselves. A topic that is
 833 literally built on top of <code>next</code> cannot be merged to <code>master</code> without
 834 dragging in all the other topics in <code>next</code>, some of which may not be
 835 ready.</p></div>
 836 <div class="paragraph"><p>For example, if you are making tree-wide changes, while somebody else is
 837 also making their own tree-wide changes, your work may have severe
 838 overlap with the other person&#8217;s work.  This situation may tempt you to
 839 use <code>next</code> as your starting point (because it would have the other
 840 person&#8217;s work included in it), but doing so would mean you&#8217;ll not only
 841 depend on the other person&#8217;s work, but all the other random things from
 842 other contributors that are already integrated into <code>next</code>.  And as soon
 843 as <code>next</code> is updated with a new version, all of your work will need to
 844 be rebased anyway in order for them to be cleanly applied by the
 845 maintainer.</p></div>
 846 <div class="paragraph"><p>Under truly exceptional circumstances where you absolutely must depend
 847 on a select few topic branches that are already in <code>next</code> but not in
 848 <code>master</code>, you may want to create your own custom base-branch by forking
 849 <code>master</code> and merging the required topic branches into it. You could then
 850 work on top of this base-branch.  But keep in mind that this base-branch
 851 would only be known privately to you.  So when you are ready to send
 852 your patches to the list, be sure to communicate how you created it in
 853 your cover letter.  This critical piece of information would allow
 854 others to recreate your base-branch on their end in order for them to
 855 try out your work.</p></div>
 856 <div class="paragraph"><p>Finally, note that some parts of the system have dedicated maintainers
 857 with their own separate source code repositories (see the section
 858 "Subsystems" below).</p></div>
 859 </div>
 860 <div class="sect2">
 861 <h3 id="separate-commits">Make separate commits for logically separate changes.</h3>
 862 <div class="paragraph"><p>Unless your patch is really trivial, you should not be sending
 863 out a patch that was generated between your working tree and
 864 your commit head.  Instead, always make a commit with complete
 865 commit message and generate a series of patches from your
 866 repository.  It is a good discipline.</p></div>
 867 <div class="paragraph"><p>Give an explanation for the change(s) that is detailed enough so
 868 that people can judge if it is good thing to do, without reading
 869 the actual patch text to determine how well the code does what
 870 the explanation promises to do.</p></div>
 871 <div class="paragraph"><p>If your description starts to get too long, that&#8217;s a sign that you
 872 probably need to split up your commit to finer grained pieces.
 873 That being said, patches which plainly describe the things that
 874 help reviewers check the patch, and future maintainers understand
 875 the code, are the most beautiful patches.  Descriptions that summarize
 876 the point in the subject well, and describe the motivation for the
 877 change, the approach taken by the change, and if relevant how this
 878 differs substantially from the prior version, are all good things
 879 to have.</p></div>
 880 <div class="paragraph"><p>Make sure that you have tests for the bug you are fixing.  See
 881 <code>t/README</code> for guidance.</p></div>
 882 <div class="paragraph" id="tests"><p>When adding a new feature, make sure that you have new tests to show
 883 the feature triggers the new behavior when it should, and to show the
 884 feature does not trigger when it shouldn&#8217;t.  After any code change,
 885 make sure that the entire test suite passes.  When fixing a bug, make
 886 sure you have new tests that break if somebody else breaks what you
 887 fixed by accident to avoid regression.  Also, try merging your work to
 888 <em>next</em> and <em>seen</em> and make sure the tests still pass; topics by others
 889 that are still in flight may have unexpected interactions with what
 890 you are trying to do in your topic.</p></div>
 891 <div class="paragraph"><p>Pushing to a fork of <a href="https://github.com/git/git">https://github.com/git/git</a> will use their CI
 892 integration to test your changes on Linux, Mac and Windows. See the
 893 <a href="#GHCI">GitHub CI</a> section for details.</p></div>
 894 <div class="paragraph"><p>Do not forget to update the documentation to describe the updated
 895 behavior and make sure that the resulting documentation set formats
 896 well (try the Documentation/doc-diff script).</p></div>
 897 <div class="paragraph"><p>We currently have a liberal mixture of US and UK English norms for
 898 spelling and grammar, which is somewhat unfortunate.  A huge patch that
 899 touches the files all over the place only to correct the inconsistency
 900 is not welcome, though.  Potential clashes with other changes that can
 901 result from such a patch are not worth it.  We prefer to gradually
 902 reconcile the inconsistencies in favor of US English, with small and
 903 easily digestible patches, as a side effect of doing some other real
 904 work in the vicinity (e.g. rewriting a paragraph for clarity, while
 905 turning en_UK spelling to en_US).  Obvious typographical fixes are much
 906 more welcomed ("teh &#8594; "the"), preferably submitted as independent
 907 patches separate from other documentation changes.</p></div>
 908 <div class="paragraph" id="whitespace-check"><p>Oh, another thing.  We are picky about whitespaces.  Make sure your
 909 changes do not trigger errors with the sample pre-commit hook shipped
 910 in <code>templates/hooks--pre-commit</code>.  To help ensure this does not happen,
 911 run <code>git diff --check</code> on your changes before you commit.</p></div>
 912 </div>
 913 <div class="sect2">
 914 <h3 id="describe-changes">Describe your changes well.</h3>
 915 <div class="paragraph"><p>The log message that explains your changes is just as important as the
 916 changes themselves.  Your code may be clearly written with in-code
 917 comment to sufficiently explain how it works with the surrounding
 918 code, but those who need to fix or enhance your code in the future
 919 will need to know <em>why</em> your code does what it does, for a few
 920 reasons:</p></div>
 921 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
 922 <li>
 923 <p>
 924 Your code may be doing something differently from what you wanted it
 925   to do.  Writing down what you actually wanted to achieve will help
 926   them fix your code and make it do what it should have been doing
 927   (also, you often discover your own bugs yourself, while writing the
 928   log message to summarize the thought behind it).
 929 </p>
 930 </li>
 931 <li>
 932 <p>
 933 Your code may be doing things that were only necessary for your
 934   immediate needs (e.g. "do X to directories" without implementing or
 935   even designing what is to be done on files).  Writing down why you
 936   excluded what the code does not do will help guide future developers.
 937   Writing down "we do X to directories, because directories have
 938   characteristic Y" would help them infer "oh, files also have the same
 939   characteristic Y, so perhaps doing X to them would also make sense?".
 940   Saying "we don&#8217;t do the same X to files, because &#8230;" will help them
 941   decide if the reasoning is sound (in which case they do not waste
 942   time extending your code to cover files), or reason differently (in
 943   which case, they can explain why they extend your code to cover
 944   files, too).
 945 </p>
 946 </li>
 947 </ol></div>
 948 <div class="paragraph"><p>The goal of your log message is to convey the <em>why</em> behind your
 949 change to help future developers.</p></div>
 950 <div class="paragraph"><p>The first line of the commit message should be a short description (50
 951 characters is the soft limit, see DISCUSSION in <a href="git-commit.html">git-commit(1)</a>),
 952 and should skip the full stop.  It is also conventional in most cases to
 953 prefix the first line with "area: " where the area is a filename or
 954 identifier for the general area of the code being modified, e.g.</p></div>
 955 <div class="ulist"><ul>
 956 <li>
 957 <p>
 958 doc: clarify distinction between sign-off and pgp-signing
 959 </p>
 960 </li>
 961 <li>
 962 <p>
 963 githooks.txt: improve the intro section
 964 </p>
 965 </li>
 966 </ul></div>
 967 <div class="paragraph"><p>If in doubt which identifier to use, run <code>git log --no-merges</code> on the
 968 files you are modifying to see the current conventions.</p></div>
 969 <div class="paragraph" id="summary-section"><p>The title sentence after the "area:" prefix omits the full stop at the
 970 end, and its first word is not capitalized (the omission
 971 of capitalization applies only to the word after the "area:"
 972 prefix of the title) unless there is a reason to
 973 capitalize it other than because it is the first word in the sentence.
 974 E.g. "doc: clarify&#8230;", not "doc: Clarify&#8230;", or "githooks.txt:
 975 improve&#8230;", not "githooks.txt: Improve&#8230;".  But "refs: HEAD is also
 976 treated as a ref" is correct, as we spell <code>HEAD</code> in all caps even when
 977 it appears in the middle of a sentence.</p></div>
 978 <div class="paragraph" id="meaningful-message"><p>The body should provide a meaningful commit message, which:</p></div>
 979 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
 980 <li>
 981 <p>
 982 explains the problem the change tries to solve, i.e. what is wrong
 983   with the current code without the change.
 984 </p>
 985 </li>
 986 <li>
 987 <p>
 988 justifies the way the change solves the problem, i.e. why the
 989   result with the change is better.
 990 </p>
 991 </li>
 992 <li>
 993 <p>
 994 alternate solutions considered but discarded, if any.
 995 </p>
 996 </li>
 997 </ol></div>
 998 <div class="paragraph" id="present-tense"><p>The problem statement that describes the status quo is written in the
 999 present tense.  Write "The code does X when it is given input Y",
1000 instead of "The code used to do Y when given input X".  You do not
1001 have to say "Currently"---the status quo in the problem statement is
1002 about the code <em>without</em> your change, by project convention.</p></div>
1003 <div class="paragraph" id="imperative-mood"><p>Describe your changes in imperative mood, e.g. "make xyzzy do frotz"
1004 instead of "[This patch] makes xyzzy do frotz" or "[I] changed xyzzy
1005 to do frotz", as if you are giving orders to the codebase to change
1006 its behavior.  Try to make sure your explanation can be understood
1007 without external resources. Instead of giving a URL to a mailing list
1008 archive, summarize the relevant points of the discussion.</p></div>
1009 <div class="paragraph" id="commit-reference"><p>There are a few reasons why you may want to refer to another commit in
1010 the "more stable" part of the history (i.e. on branches like <code>maint</code>,
1011 <code>master</code>, and <code>next</code>):</p></div>
1012 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
1013 <li>
1014 <p>
1015 A commit that introduced the root cause of a bug you are fixing.
1016 </p>
1017 </li>
1018 <li>
1019 <p>
1020 A commit that introduced a feature that you are enhancing.
1021 </p>
1022 </li>
1023 <li>
1024 <p>
1025 A commit that conflicts with your work when you made a trial merge
1026   of your work into <code>next</code> and <code>seen</code> for testing.
1027 </p>
1028 </li>
1029 </ol></div>
1030 <div class="paragraph"><p>When you reference a commit on a more stable branch (like <code>master</code>,
1031 <code>maint</code> and <code>next</code>), use the format "abbreviated hash (subject,
1032 date)", like this:</p></div>
1033 <div class="literalblock">
1034 <div class="content">
1035 <pre><code>        Commit f86a374 (pack-bitmap.c: fix a memleak, 2015-03-30)
1036         noticed that ...</code></pre>
1037 </div></div>
1038 <div class="paragraph"><p>The "Copy commit reference" command of gitk can be used to obtain this
1039 format (with the subject enclosed in a pair of double-quotes), or this
1040 invocation of <code>git show</code>:</p></div>
1041 <div class="literalblock">
1042 <div class="content">
1043 <pre><code>        git show -s --pretty=reference &lt;commit&gt;</code></pre>
1044 </div></div>
1045 <div class="paragraph"><p>or, on an older version of Git without support for --pretty=reference:</p></div>
1046 <div class="literalblock">
1047 <div class="content">
1048 <pre><code>        git show -s --date=short --pretty='format:%h (%s, %ad)' &lt;commit&gt;</code></pre>
1049 </div></div>
1050 </div>
1051 <div class="sect2">
1052 <h3 id="sign-off">Certify your work by adding your <code>Signed-off-by</code> trailer</h3>
1053 <div class="paragraph"><p>To improve tracking of who did what, we ask you to certify that you
1054 wrote the patch or have the right to pass it on under the same license
1055 as ours, by "signing off" your patch.  Without sign-off, we cannot
1056 accept your patches.</p></div>
1057 <div class="paragraph"><p>If (and only if) you certify the below D-C-O:</p></div>
1058 <div class="quoteblock" id="dco">
1059 <div class="title">Developer&#8217;s Certificate of Origin 1.1</div>
1060 <div class="content">
1061 <div class="paragraph"><p>By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:</p></div>
1062 <div class="olist loweralpha"><ol class="loweralpha">
1063 <li>
1064 <p>
1065 The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
1066    have the right to submit it under the open source license
1067    indicated in the file; or
1068 </p>
1069 </li>
1070 <li>
1071 <p>
1072 The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
1073    of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
1074    license and I have the right under that license to submit that
1075    work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
1076    by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
1077    permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
1078    in the file; or
1079 </p>
1080 </li>
1081 <li>
1082 <p>
1083 The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
1084    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
1085    it.
1086 </p>
1087 </li>
1088 <li>
1089 <p>
1090 I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
1091    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
1092    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
1093    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
1094    this project or the open source license(s) involved.
1095 </p>
1096 </li>
1097 </ol></div>
1098 </div>
1099 <div class="attribution">
1100 </div></div>
1101 <div class="paragraph"><p>you add a "Signed-off-by" trailer to your commit, that looks like
1102 this:</p></div>
1103 <div class="literalblock">
1104 <div class="content">
1105 <pre><code>        Signed-off-by: Random J Developer &lt;random@developer.example.org&gt;</code></pre>
1106 </div></div>
1107 <div class="paragraph"><p>This line can be added by Git if you run the git-commit command with
1108 the -s option.</p></div>
1109 <div class="paragraph"><p>Notice that you can place your own <code>Signed-off-by</code> trailer when
1110 forwarding somebody else&#8217;s patch with the above rules for
1111 D-C-O.  Indeed you are encouraged to do so.  Do not forget to
1112 place an in-body "From: " line at the beginning to properly attribute
1113 the change to its true author (see (2) above).</p></div>
1114 <div class="paragraph"><p>This procedure originally came from the Linux kernel project, so our
1115 rule is quite similar to theirs, but what exactly it means to sign-off
1116 your patch differs from project to project, so it may be different
1117 from that of the project you are accustomed to.</p></div>
1118 <div class="paragraph" id="real-name"><p>Also notice that a real name is used in the <code>Signed-off-by</code> trailer. Please
1119 don&#8217;t hide your real name.</p></div>
1120 <div class="paragraph" id="commit-trailers"><p>If you like, you can put extra tags at the end:</p></div>
1121 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
1122 <li>
1123 <p>
1124 <code>Reported-by:</code> is used to credit someone who found the bug that
1125   the patch attempts to fix.
1126 </p>
1127 </li>
1128 <li>
1129 <p>
1130 <code>Acked-by:</code> says that the person who is more familiar with the area
1131   the patch attempts to modify liked the patch.
1132 </p>
1133 </li>
1134 <li>
1135 <p>
1136 <code>Reviewed-by:</code>, unlike the other tags, can only be offered by the
1137   reviewers themselves when they are completely satisfied with the
1138   patch after a detailed analysis.
1139 </p>
1140 </li>
1141 <li>
1142 <p>
1143 <code>Tested-by:</code> is used to indicate that the person applied the patch
1144   and found it to have the desired effect.
1145 </p>
1146 </li>
1147 <li>
1148 <p>
1149 <code>Co-authored-by:</code> is used to indicate that people exchanged drafts
1150    of a patch before submitting it.
1151 </p>
1152 </li>
1153 <li>
1154 <p>
1155 <code>Helped-by:</code> is used to credit someone who suggested ideas for
1156   changes without providing the precise changes in patch form.
1157 </p>
1158 </li>
1159 <li>
1160 <p>
1161 <code>Mentored-by:</code> is used to credit someone with helping develop a
1162   patch as part of a mentorship program (e.g., GSoC or Outreachy).
1163 </p>
1164 </li>
1165 <li>
1166 <p>
1167 <code>Suggested-by:</code> is used to credit someone with suggesting the idea
1168   for a patch.
1169 </p>
1170 </li>
1171 </ol></div>
1172 <div class="paragraph"><p>While you can also create your own trailer if the situation warrants it, we
1173 encourage you to instead use one of the common trailers in this project
1174 highlighted above.</p></div>
1175 <div class="paragraph"><p>Only capitalize the very first letter of tags, i.e. favor
1176 "Signed-off-by" over "Signed-Off-By" and "Acked-by:" over "Acked-By".</p></div>
1177 </div>
1178 <div class="sect2">
1179 <h3 id="git-tools">Generate your patch using Git tools out of your commits.</h3>
1180 <div class="paragraph"><p>Git based diff tools generate unidiff which is the preferred format.</p></div>
1181 <div class="paragraph"><p>You do not have to be afraid to use <code>-M</code> option to <code>git diff</code> or
1182 <code>git format-patch</code>, if your patch involves file renames.  The
1183 receiving end can handle them just fine.</p></div>
1184 <div class="paragraph" id="review-patch"><p>Please make sure your patch does not add commented out debugging code,
1185 or include any extra files which do not relate to what your patch
1186 is trying to achieve. Make sure to review
1187 your patch after generating it, to ensure accuracy.  Before
1188 sending out, please make sure it cleanly applies to the starting point you
1189 have chosen in the "Choose a starting point" section.</p></div>
1190 <div class="admonitionblock">
1191 <table><tr>
1192 <td class="icon">
1193 <div class="title">Note</div>
1194 </td>
1195 <td class="content">From the perspective of those reviewing your patch, the <code>master</code>
1196 branch is the default expected starting point.  So if you have chosen a
1197 different starting point, please communicate this choice in your cover
1198 letter.</td>
1199 </tr></table>
1200 </div>
1201 </div>
1202 <div class="sect2">
1203 <h3 id="send-patches">Sending your patches.</h3>
1204 <div class="sect3">
1205 <h4 id="_choosing_your_reviewers">Choosing your reviewers</h4>
1206 <div class="admonitionblock">
1207 <table><tr>
1208 <td class="icon">
1209 <div class="title">Note</div>
1210 </td>
1211 <td class="content">Patches that may be
1212 security relevant should be submitted privately to the Git Security
1213 mailing list<span class="footnote" id="_footnote_security-ml"><br />[The Git Security mailing list: <a href="mailto:git-security@googlegroups.com">git-security@googlegroups.com</a>]<br /></span>, instead of the public mailing list.</td>
1214 </tr></table>
1215 </div>
1216 <div class="paragraph"><p>Send your patch with "To:" set to the mailing list, with "cc:" listing
1217 people who are involved in the area you are touching (the <code>git-contacts</code>
1218 script in <code>contrib/contacts/</code><span class="footnote" id="_footnote_contrib-scripts"><br />[Scripts under <code>contrib/</code> are not part of the core <code>git</code> binary and must be called directly. Clone the Git codebase and run <code>perl contrib/contacts/git-contacts</code>.]<br /></span> can help to
1219 identify them), to solicit comments and reviews.  Also, when you made
1220 trial merges of your topic to <code>next</code> and <code>seen</code>, you may have noticed
1221 work by others conflicting with your changes.  There is a good possibility
1222 that these people may know the area you are touching well.</p></div>
1223 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you are using <code>send-email</code>, you can feed it the output of <code>git-contacts</code> like
1224 this:</p></div>
1225 <div class="literalblock">
1226 <div class="content">
1227 <pre><code>        git send-email --cc-cmd='perl contrib/contacts/git-contacts' feature/*.patch</code></pre>
1228 </div></div>
1229 <div class="paragraph"><p>After the list reached a consensus that it is a good idea to apply the
1230 patch, re-send it with "To:" set to the maintainer<span class="footnote"><br />[The current maintainer: <a href="mailto:gitster@pobox.com">gitster@pobox.com</a>]<br /></span>
1231 and "cc:" the list<span class="footnote"><br />[The mailing list: <a href="mailto:git@vger.kernel.org">git@vger.kernel.org</a>]<br /></span> for inclusion.  This is especially relevant
1232 when the maintainer did not heavily participate in the discussion and
1233 instead left the review to trusted others.</p></div>
1234 <div class="paragraph"><p>Do not forget to add trailers such as <code>Acked-by:</code>, <code>Reviewed-by:</code> and
1235 <code>Tested-by:</code> lines as necessary to credit people who helped your
1236 patch, and "cc:" them when sending such a final version for inclusion.</p></div>
1237 </div>
1238 <div class="sect3">
1239 <h4 id="_code_format_patch_code_and_code_send_email_code"><code>format-patch</code> and <code>send-email</code></h4>
1240 <div class="paragraph"><p>Learn to use <code>format-patch</code> and <code>send-email</code> if possible.  These commands
1241 are optimized for the workflow of sending patches, avoiding many ways
1242 your existing e-mail client (often optimized for "multipart/*" MIME
1243 type e-mails) might render your patches unusable.</p></div>
1244 <div class="admonitionblock">
1245 <table><tr>
1246 <td class="icon">
1247 <div class="title">Note</div>
1248 </td>
1249 <td class="content">Here we outline the procedure using <code>format-patch</code> and
1250 <code>send-email</code>, but you can instead use GitGitGadget to send in your
1251 patches (see <a href="MyFirstContribution.html">MyFirstContribution</a>).</td>
1252 </tr></table>
1253 </div>
1254 <div class="paragraph"><p>People on the Git mailing list need to be able to read and
1255 comment on the changes you are submitting.  It is important for
1256 a developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard
1257 e-mail tools, so that they may comment on specific portions of
1258 your code.  For this reason, each patch should be submitted
1259 "inline" in a separate message.</p></div>
1260 <div class="paragraph"><p>Multiple related patches should be grouped into their own e-mail
1261 thread to help readers find all parts of the series.  To that end,
1262 send them as replies to either an additional "cover letter" message
1263 (see below), the first patch, or the respective preceding patch.</p></div>
1264 <div class="paragraph"><p>If your log message (including your name on the
1265 <code>Signed-off-by</code> trailer) is not writable in ASCII, make sure that
1266 you send off a message in the correct encoding.</p></div>
1267 <div class="admonitionblock">
1268 <table><tr>
1269 <td class="icon">
1270 <div class="title">Warning</div>
1271 </td>
1272 <td class="content">Be wary of your MUAs word-wrap
1273 corrupting your patch.  Do not cut-n-paste your patch; you can
1274 lose tabs that way if you are not careful.</td>
1275 </tr></table>
1276 </div>
1277 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is a common convention to prefix your subject line with
1278 [PATCH].  This lets people easily distinguish patches from other
1279 e-mail discussions.  Use of markers in addition to PATCH within
1280 the brackets to describe the nature of the patch is also
1281 encouraged.  E.g. [RFC PATCH] (where RFC stands for "request for
1282 comments") is often used to indicate a patch needs further
1283 discussion before being accepted, [PATCH v2], [PATCH v3] etc.
1284 are often seen when you are sending an update to what you have
1285 previously sent.</p></div>
1286 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>git format-patch</code> command follows the best current practice to
1287 format the body of an e-mail message.  At the beginning of the
1288 patch should come your commit message, ending with the
1289 <code>Signed-off-by</code> trailers, and a line that consists of three dashes,
1290 followed by the diffstat information and the patch itself.  If
1291 you are forwarding a patch from somebody else, optionally, at
1292 the beginning of the e-mail message just before the commit
1293 message starts, you can put a "From: " line to name that person.
1294 To change the default "[PATCH]" in the subject to "[&lt;text&gt;]", use
1295 <code>git format-patch --subject-prefix=&lt;text&gt;</code>.  As a shortcut, you
1296 can use <code>--rfc</code> instead of <code>--subject-prefix="RFC PATCH"</code>, or
1297 <code>-v &lt;n&gt;</code> instead of <code>--subject-prefix="PATCH v&lt;n&gt;"</code>.</p></div>
1298 <div class="paragraph"><p>You often want to add additional explanation about the patch,
1299 other than the commit message itself.  Place such "cover letter"
1300 material between the three-dash line and the diffstat.  For
1301 patches requiring multiple iterations of review and discussion,
1302 an explanation of changes between each iteration can be kept in
1303 Git-notes and inserted automatically following the three-dash
1304 line via <code>git format-patch --notes</code>.</p></div>
1305 <div class="paragraph" id="the-topic-summary"><p><strong>This is EXPERIMENTAL</strong>.</p></div>
1306 <div class="paragraph"><p>When sending a topic, you can propose a one-paragraph summary that
1307 should appear in the "What&#8217;s cooking" report when it is picked up to
1308 explain the topic.  If you choose to do so, please write a 2-5 line
1309 paragraph that will fit well in our release notes (see many bulleted
1310 entries in the Documentation/RelNotes/* files for examples), and make
1311 it the first paragraph of the cover letter.  For a single-patch
1312 series, use the space between the three-dash line and the diffstat, as
1313 described earlier.</p></div>
1314 <div class="paragraph" id="attachment"><p>Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not.
1315 Do not let your e-mail client send quoted-printable.  Do not let
1316 your e-mail client send format=flowed which would destroy
1317 whitespaces in your patches. Many
1318 popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME
1319 attachment as plain text, making it impossible to comment on
1320 your code.  A MIME attachment also takes a bit more time to
1321 process.  This does not decrease the likelihood of your
1322 MIME-attached change being accepted, but it makes it more likely
1323 that it will be postponed.</p></div>
1324 <div class="paragraph"><p>Exception:  If your mailer is mangling patches then someone may ask
1325 you to re-send them using MIME, that is OK.</p></div>
1326 <div class="paragraph" id="pgp-signature"><p>Do not PGP sign your patch. Most likely, your maintainer or other people on the
1327 list would not have your PGP key and would not bother obtaining it anyway.
1328 Your patch is not judged by who you are; a good patch from an unknown origin
1329 has a far better chance of being accepted than a patch from a known, respected
1330 origin that is done poorly or does incorrect things.</p></div>
1331 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you really really really really want to do a PGP signed
1332 patch, format it as "multipart/signed", not a text/plain message
1333 that starts with <code>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----</code>.  That is
1334 not a text/plain, it&#8217;s something else.</p></div>
1335 </div>
1336 </div>
1337 </div>
1338 </div>
1339 <div class="sect1">
1340 <h2 id="_subsystems_with_dedicated_maintainers">Subsystems with dedicated maintainers</h2>
1341 <div class="sectionbody">
1342 <div class="paragraph"><p>Some parts of the system have dedicated maintainers with their own
1343 repositories.</p></div>
1344 <div class="ulist"><ul>
1345 <li>
1346 <p>
1347 <code>git-gui/</code> comes from git-gui project, maintained by Pratyush Yadav:
1348 </p>
1349 <div class="literalblock">
1350 <div class="content">
1351 <pre><code>https://github.com/prati0100/git-gui.git</code></pre>
1352 </div></div>
1353 </li>
1354 <li>
1355 <p>
1356 <code>gitk-git/</code> comes from Paul Mackerras&#8217;s gitk project:
1357 </p>
1358 <div class="literalblock">
1359 <div class="content">
1360 <pre><code>git://git.ozlabs.org/~paulus/gitk</code></pre>
1361 </div></div>
1362 <div class="literalblock">
1363 <div class="content">
1364 <pre><code>Those who are interested in improving gitk can volunteer to help Paul
1365 maintain it, cf. &lt;YntxL/fTplFm8lr6@cleo&gt;.</code></pre>
1366 </div></div>
1367 </li>
1368 <li>
1369 <p>
1370 <code>po/</code> comes from the localization coordinator, Jiang Xin:
1371 </p>
1372 <div class="literalblock">
1373 <div class="content">
1374 <pre><code>https://github.com/git-l10n/git-po/</code></pre>
1375 </div></div>
1376 </li>
1377 </ul></div>
1378 <div class="paragraph"><p>Patches to these parts should be based on their trees.</p></div>
1379 </div>
1380 </div>
1381 <div class="sect1">
1382 <h2 id="patch-flow">An ideal patch flow</h2>
1383 <div class="sectionbody">
1384 <div class="paragraph"><p>Here is an ideal patch flow for this project the current maintainer
1385 suggests to the contributors:</p></div>
1386 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
1387 <li>
1388 <p>
1389 You come up with an itch.  You code it up.
1390 </p>
1391 </li>
1392 <li>
1393 <p>
1394 Send it to the list and cc people who may need to know about
1395   the change.
1396 </p>
1397 <div class="paragraph"><p>The people who may need to know are the ones whose code you
1398 are butchering.  These people happen to be the ones who are
1399 most likely to be knowledgeable enough to help you, but
1400 they have no obligation to help you (i.e. you ask for help,
1401 don&#8217;t demand).  <code>git log -p &#45;&#45; <em>$area_you_are_modifying</em></code> would
1402 help you find out who they are.</p></div>
1403 </li>
1404 <li>
1405 <p>
1406 You get comments and suggestions for improvements.  You may
1407   even get them in an "on top of your change" patch form.
1408 </p>
1409 </li>
1410 <li>
1411 <p>
1412 Polish, refine, and re-send to the list and the people who
1413   spend their time to improve your patch.  Go back to step (2).
1414 </p>
1415 </li>
1416 <li>
1417 <p>
1418 The list forms consensus that the last round of your patch is
1419   good.  Send it to the maintainer and cc the list.
1420 </p>
1421 </li>
1422 <li>
1423 <p>
1424 A topic branch is created with the patch and is merged to <code>next</code>,
1425   and cooked further and eventually graduates to <code>master</code>.
1426 </p>
1427 </li>
1428 </ol></div>
1429 <div class="paragraph"><p>In any time between the (2)-(3) cycle, the maintainer may pick it up
1430 from the list and queue it to <code>seen</code>, in order to make it easier for
1431 people to play with it without having to pick up and apply the patch to
1432 their trees themselves.</p></div>
1433 </div>
1434 </div>
1435 <div class="sect1">
1436 <h2 id="patch-status">Know the status of your patch after submission</h2>
1437 <div class="sectionbody">
1438 <div class="ulist"><ul>
1439 <li>
1440 <p>
1441 You can use Git itself to find out when your patch is merged in
1442   master. <code>git pull --rebase</code> will automatically skip already-applied
1443   patches, and will let you know. This works only if you rebase on top
1444   of the branch in which your patch has been merged (i.e. it will not
1445   tell you if your patch is merged in <code>seen</code> if you rebase on top of
1446   master).
1447 </p>
1448 </li>
1449 <li>
1450 <p>
1451 Read the Git mailing list, the maintainer regularly posts messages
1452   entitled "What&#8217;s cooking in git.git" giving
1453   the status of various proposed changes.
1454 </p>
1455 </li>
1456 </ul></div>
1457 </div>
1458 </div>
1459 <div class="sect1">
1460 <h2 id="_github_ci_a_id_ghci_a">GitHub CI<a id="GHCI"></a></h2>
1461 <div class="sectionbody">
1462 <div class="paragraph"><p>With an account at GitHub, you can use GitHub CI to test your changes
1463 on Linux, Mac and Windows. See
1464 <a href="https://github.com/git/git/actions/workflows/main.yml">https://github.com/git/git/actions/workflows/main.yml</a> for examples of
1465 recent CI runs.</p></div>
1466 <div class="paragraph"><p>Follow these steps for the initial setup:</p></div>
1467 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
1468 <li>
1469 <p>
1470 Fork <a href="https://github.com/git/git">https://github.com/git/git</a> to your GitHub account.
1471   You can find detailed instructions how to fork here:
1472   <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/">https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/</a>
1473 </p>
1474 </li>
1475 </ol></div>
1476 <div class="paragraph"><p>After the initial setup, CI will run whenever you push new changes
1477 to your fork of Git on GitHub.  You can monitor the test state of all your
1478 branches here: <code>https://github.com/&lt;Your GitHub handle&gt;/git/actions/workflows/main.yml</code></p></div>
1479 <div class="paragraph"><p>If a branch does not pass all test cases then it will be marked with a
1480 red <code>x</code>, instead of a green check. In that case, you can click on the
1481 failing job and navigate to "ci/run-build-and-tests.sh" and/or
1482 "ci/print-test-failures.sh". You can also download "Artifacts" which
1483 are zip archives containing tarred (or zipped) archives with test data
1484 relevant for debugging.</p></div>
1485 <div class="paragraph"><p>Then fix the problem and push your fix to your GitHub fork. This will
1486 trigger a new CI build to ensure all tests pass.</p></div>
1487 </div>
1488 </div>
1489 <div class="sect1">
1490 <h2 id="mua">MUA specific hints</h2>
1491 <div class="sectionbody">
1492 <div class="paragraph"><p>Some of the patches I receive or pick up from the list share common
1493 patterns of breakage.  Please make sure your MUA is set up
1494 properly not to corrupt whitespaces.</p></div>
1495 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the DISCUSSION section of <a href="git-format-patch.html">git-format-patch(1)</a> for hints on
1496 checking your patch by mailing it to yourself and applying with
1497 <a href="git-am.html">git-am(1)</a>.</p></div>
1498 <div class="paragraph"><p>While you are at it, check the resulting commit log message from
1499 a trial run of applying the patch.  If what is in the resulting
1500 commit is not exactly what you would want to see, it is very
1501 likely that your maintainer would end up hand editing the log
1502 message when he applies your patch.  Things like "Hi, this is my
1503 first patch.\n", if you really want to put in the patch e-mail,
1504 should come after the three-dash line that signals the end of the
1505 commit message.</p></div>
1506 <div class="sect2">
1507 <h3 id="_pine">Pine</h3>
1508 <div class="paragraph"><p>(Johannes Schindelin)</p></div>
1509 <div class="literalblock">
1510 <div class="content">
1511 <pre><code>I don't know how many people still use pine, but for those poor
1512 souls it may be good to mention that the quell-flowed-text is
1513 needed for recent versions.
1514
1515 ... the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, too. AFAIK it
1516 was introduced in 4.60.</code></pre>
1517 </div></div>
1518 <div class="paragraph"><p>(Linus Torvalds)</p></div>
1519 <div class="literalblock">
1520 <div class="content">
1521 <pre><code>And 4.58 needs at least this.
1522
1523 diff-tree 8326dd8350be64ac7fc805f6563a1d61ad10d32c (from e886a61f76edf5410573e92e38ce22974f9c40f1)
1524 Author: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@g5.osdl.org&gt;
1525 Date:   Mon Aug 15 17:23:51 2005 -0700
1526
1527     Fix pine whitespace-corruption bug
1528
1529     There's no excuse for unconditionally removing whitespace from
1530     the pico buffers on close.
1531
1532 diff --git a/pico/pico.c b/pico/pico.c
1533 --- a/pico/pico.c
1534 +++ b/pico/pico.c
1535 @@ -219,7 +219,9 @@ PICO *pm;
1536             switch(pico_all_done){      /* prepare for/handle final events */
1537               case COMP_EXIT :          /* already confirmed */
1538                 packheader();
1539 +#if 0
1540                 stripwhitespace();
1541 +#endif
1542                 c |= COMP_EXIT;
1543                 break;</code></pre>
1544 </div></div>
1545 <div class="paragraph"><p>(Daniel Barkalow)</p></div>
1546 <div class="literalblock">
1547 <div class="content">
1548 <pre><code>&gt; A patch to SubmittingPatches, MUA specific help section for
1549 &gt; users of Pine 4.63 would be very much appreciated.
1550
1551 Ah, it looks like a recent version changed the default behavior to do the
1552 right thing, and inverted the sense of the configuration option. (Either
1553 that or Gentoo did it.) So you need to set the
1554 "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option, unless the option you have is
1555 "strip-whitespace-before-send", in which case you should avoid checking
1556 it.</code></pre>
1557 </div></div>
1558 </div>
1559 <div class="sect2">
1560 <h3 id="_thunderbird_kmail_gmail">Thunderbird, KMail, GMail</h3>
1561 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS section of <a href="git-format-patch.html">git-format-patch(1)</a>.</p></div>
1562 </div>
1563 <div class="sect2">
1564 <h3 id="_gnus">Gnus</h3>
1565 <div class="paragraph"><p>"|" in the <code>*Summary*</code> buffer can be used to pipe the current
1566 message to an external program, and this is a handy way to drive
1567 <code>git am</code>.  However, if the message is MIME encoded, what is
1568 piped into the program is the representation you see in your
1569 <code>*Article*</code> buffer after unwrapping MIME.  This is often not what
1570 you would want for two reasons.  It tends to screw up non-ASCII
1571 characters (most notably in people&#8217;s names), and also
1572 whitespaces (fatal in patches).  Running "C-u g" to display the
1573 message in raw form before using "|" to run the pipe can work
1574 this problem around.</p></div>
1575 </div>
1576 </div>
1577 </div>
1578 </div>
1579 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
1580 <div id="footer">
1581 <div id="footer-text">
1582 Last updated
1583  2024-05-01 10:56:52 PDT
1584 </div>
1585 </div>
1586 </body>
1587 </html>