From 65184f180c64c20423ffcc881e39fc645d8a3afd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:03:11 -0300 Subject: README.patches Add a new practice accepted on kernel From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab On Jun 3, kernel commit adbd5886da5f467148b26cca3728ab0e672b3fcc added a new rule to help patch merging from maintainers, at Documentation/SubmittingPatches: "If you are a subsystem or branch maintainer, sometimes you need to slightly modify patches you receive in order to merge them, because the code is not exactly the same in your tree and the submitters'. If you stick strictly to rule (c), you should ask the submitter to rediff, but this is a totally counter-productive waste of time and energy. Rule (b) allows you to adjust the code, but then it is very impolite to change one submitter's code and make him endorse your bugs. To solve this problem, it is recommended that you add a line between the last Signed-off-by header and yours, indicating the nature of your changes. While there is nothing mandatory about this, it seems like prepending the description with your mail and/or name, all enclosed in square brackets, is noticeable enough to make it obvious that you are responsible for last-minute changes. Example : Signed-off-by: Random J Developer [lucky@maintainer.example.org: struct foo moved from foo.c to foo.h] Signed-off-by: Lucky K Maintainer This practise is particularly helpful if you maintain a stable branch and want at the same time to credit the author, track changes, merge the fix, and protect the submitter from complaints. Note that under no circumstances can you change the author's identity (the From header), as it is the one which appears in the changelog." This patch adds a quick description at this rule under README.patches. This is particularly important when merging mercurial tree with -git one. Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab --- README.patches | 12 +++++++++++- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'README.patches') diff --git a/README.patches b/README.patches index 3ee55ff29..b6742b62c 100644 --- a/README.patches +++ b/README.patches @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ Mauro Carvalho Chehab - Updated on 2008 February, 14 + Updated on 2008 June, 29 This file describes the general procedures used by the LinuxTV team (*) and by the v4l-dvb community. @@ -356,6 +356,16 @@ m) "Commit earlier and commit often". This is a common used rule at changeset should ideally address just one issue. So, mixing different things at the same patch should be avoided. +n) Sometimes, the maintainer may need to slightly modify patches you receive + in order to merge them, because the code is not exactly the same in your + tree and the submitters'. In order to save time, it may do the changes and + add a line before his SOB, as stated on Documentation/SubmittingPatches, + describing what he did to merge it. Something like: + + Signed-off-by: Random J Developer + [lucky@maintainer.example.org: struct foo moved from foo.c to foo.h] + Signed-off-by: Lucky K Maintainer + 5. Knowing about newer patches committed at master hg repository ============================================================= -- cgit v1.2.3