# Copyright (c) 2011 The Chromium OS Authors.
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#
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# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
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#
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What is this?
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=============
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This tool is a Python script which:
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- Creates patch directly from your branch
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- Cleans them up by removing unwanted tags
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- Inserts a cover letter with change lists
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- Runs the patches through checkpatch.pl and its own checks
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- Optionally emails them out to selected people
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It is intended to automate patch creation and make it a less
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error-prone process. It is useful for U-Boot and Linux work so far,
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since it uses the checkpatch.pl script.
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It is configured almost entirely by tags it finds in your commits.
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This means that you can work on a number of different branches at
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once, and keep the settings with each branch rather than having to
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git format-patch, git send-email, etc. with the correct parameters
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each time. So for example if you put:
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Series-to: fred.blogs@napier.co.nz
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in one of your commits, the series will be sent there.
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In Linux and U-Boot this will also call get_maintainer.pl on each of your
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patches automatically (unless you use -m to disable this).
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How to use this tool
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====================
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This tool requires a certain way of working:
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- Maintain a number of branches, one for each patch series you are
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working on
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- Add tags into the commits within each branch to indicate where the
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series should be sent, cover letter, version, etc. Most of these are
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normally in the top commit so it is easy to change them with 'git
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commit --amend'
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- Each branch tracks the upstream branch, so that this script can
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automatically determine the number of commits in it (optional)
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- Check out a branch, and run this script to create and send out your
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patches. Weeks later, change the patches and repeat, knowing that you
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will get a consistent result each time.
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How to configure it
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===================
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For most cases of using patman for U-Boot development, patman can use the
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file 'doc/git-mailrc' in your U-Boot directory to supply the email aliases
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you need. To make this work, tell git where to find the file by typing
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this once:
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git config sendemail.aliasesfile doc/git-mailrc
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For both Linux and U-Boot the 'scripts/get_maintainer.pl' handles figuring
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out where to send patches pretty well.
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During the first run patman creates a config file for you by taking the default
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user name and email address from the global .gitconfig file.
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To add your own, create a file ~/.patman like this:
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>>>>
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# patman alias file
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[alias]
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me: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
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u-boot: U-Boot Mailing List <u-boot@lists.denx.de>
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wolfgang: Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de>
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others: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>, Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
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<<<<
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Aliases are recursive.
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The checkpatch.pl in the U-Boot tools/ subdirectory will be located and
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used. Failing that you can put it into your path or ~/bin/checkpatch.pl
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If you want to avoid sending patches to email addresses that are picked up
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by patman but are known to bounce you can add a [bounces] section to your
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.patman file. Unlike the [alias] section these are simple key: value pairs
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that are not recursive.
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>>>
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[bounces]
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gonefishing: Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
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<<<
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If you want to change the defaults for patman's command-line arguments,
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you can add a [settings] section to your .patman file. This can be used
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for any command line option by referring to the "dest" for the option in
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patman.py. For reference, the useful ones (at the moment) shown below
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(all with the non-default setting):
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>>>
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[settings]
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ignore_errors: True
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process_tags: False
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verbose: True
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<<<
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If you want to adjust settings (or aliases) that affect just a single
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project you can add a section that looks like [project_settings] or
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[project_alias]. If you want to use tags for your linux work, you could
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do:
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>>>
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[linux_settings]
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process_tags: True
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<<<
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How to run it
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=============
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First do a dry run:
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$ ./tools/patman/patman -n
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If it can't detect the upstream branch, try telling it how many patches
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there are in your series:
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$ ./tools/patman/patman -n -c5
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This will create patch files in your current directory and tell you who
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it is thinking of sending them to. Take a look at the patch files.
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$ ./tools/patman/patman -n -c5 -s1
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Similar to the above, but skip the first commit and take the next 5. This
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is useful if your top commit is for setting up testing.
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How to install it
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=================
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The most up to date version of patman can be found in the U-Boot sources.
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However to use it on other projects it may be more convenient to install it as
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a standalone application. A distutils installer is included, this can be used
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to install patman:
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$ cd tools/patman && python setup.py install
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How to add tags
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===============
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To make this script useful you must add tags like the following into any
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commit. Most can only appear once in the whole series.
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Series-to: email / alias
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Email address / alias to send patch series to (you can add this
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multiple times)
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Series-cc: email / alias, ...
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Email address / alias to Cc patch series to (you can add this
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multiple times)
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Series-version: n
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Sets the version number of this patch series
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Series-prefix: prefix
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Sets the subject prefix. Normally empty but it can be RFC for
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RFC patches, or RESEND if you are being ignored. The patch subject
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is like [RFC PATCH] or [RESEND PATCH].
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In the meantime, git format.subjectprefix option will be added as
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well. If your format.subjectprefix is set to InternalProject, then
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the patch shows like: [InternalProject][RFC/RESEND PATCH]
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Series-name: name
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Sets the name of the series. You don't need to have a name, and
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patman does not yet use it, but it is convenient to put the branch
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name here to help you keep track of multiple upstreaming efforts.
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Cover-letter:
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This is the patch set title
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blah blah
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more blah blah
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END
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Sets the cover letter contents for the series. The first line
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will become the subject of the cover letter
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Cover-letter-cc: email / alias
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Additional email addresses / aliases to send cover letter to (you
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can add this multiple times)
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Series-notes:
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blah blah
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blah blah
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more blah blah
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END
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Sets some notes for the patch series, which you don't want in
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the commit messages, but do want to send, The notes are joined
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together and put after the cover letter. Can appear multiple
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times.
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Commit-notes:
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blah blah
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blah blah
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more blah blah
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END
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Similar, but for a single commit (patch). These notes will appear
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immediately below the --- cut in the patch file.
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Signed-off-by: Their Name <email>
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A sign-off is added automatically to your patches (this is
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probably a bug). If you put this tag in your patches, it will
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override the default signoff that patman automatically adds.
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Multiple duplicate signoffs will be removed.
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Tested-by: Their Name <email>
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Reviewed-by: Their Name <email>
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Acked-by: Their Name <email>
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These indicate that someone has tested/reviewed/acked your patch.
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When you get this reply on the mailing list, you can add this
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tag to the relevant commit and the script will include it when
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you send out the next version. If 'Tested-by:' is set to
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yourself, it will be removed. No one will believe you.
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Series-changes: n
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- Guinea pig moved into its cage
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- Other changes ending with a blank line
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<blank line>
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This can appear in any commit. It lists the changes for a
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particular version n of that commit. The change list is
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created based on this information. Each commit gets its own
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change list and also the whole thing is repeated in the cover
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letter (where duplicate change lines are merged).
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By adding your change lists into your commits it is easier to
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keep track of what happened. When you amend a commit, remember
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to update the log there and then, knowing that the script will
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do the rest.
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Patch-cc: Their Name <email>
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This copies a single patch to another email address. Note that the
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Cc: used by git send-email is ignored by patman, but will be
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interpreted by git send-email if you use it.
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Series-process-log: sort, uniq
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This tells patman to sort and/or uniq the change logs. It is
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assumed that each change log entry is only a single line long.
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Use 'sort' to sort the entries, and 'uniq' to include only
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unique entries. If omitted, no change log processing is done.
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Separate each tag with a comma.
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Various other tags are silently removed, like these Chrome OS and
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Gerrit tags:
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BUG=...
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TEST=...
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Change-Id:
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Review URL:
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Reviewed-on:
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Commit-xxxx: (except Commit-notes)
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Exercise for the reader: Try adding some tags to one of your current
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patch series and see how the patches turn out.
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Where Patches Are Sent
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======================
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Once the patches are created, patman sends them using git send-email. The
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whole series is sent to the recipients in Series-to: and Series-cc.
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You can Cc individual patches to other people with the Patch-cc: tag. Tags
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in the subject are also picked up to Cc patches. For example, a commit like
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this:
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>>>>
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commit 10212537b85ff9b6e09c82045127522c0f0db981
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Author: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
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Date: Mon Nov 7 23:18:44 2011 -0500
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x86: arm: add a git mailrc file for maintainers
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This should make sending out e-mails to the right people easier.
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Patch-cc: sandbox, mikef, ag
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Patch-cc: afleming
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<<<<
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will create a patch which is copied to x86, arm, sandbox, mikef, ag and
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afleming.
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If you have a cover letter it will get sent to the union of the Patch-cc
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lists of all of the other patches. If you want to sent it to additional
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people you can add a tag:
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Cover-letter-cc: <list of addresses>
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These people will get the cover letter even if they are not on the To/Cc
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list for any of the patches.
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Example Work Flow
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=================
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The basic workflow is to create your commits, add some tags to the top
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commit, and type 'patman' to check and send them.
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Here is an example workflow for a series of 4 patches. Let's say you have
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these rather contrived patches in the following order in branch us-cmd in
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your tree where 'us' means your upstreaming activity (newest to oldest as
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output by git log --oneline):
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7c7909c wip
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89234f5 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
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8d640a7 mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
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0c859a9 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
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a74443f sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
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The first patch is some test things that enable your code to be compiled,
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but that you don't want to submit because there is an existing patch for it
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on the list. So you can tell patman to create and check some patches
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(skipping the first patch) with:
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patman -s1 -n
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If you want to do all of them including the work-in-progress one, then
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(if you are tracking an upstream branch):
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patman -n
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Let's say that patman reports an error in the second patch. Then:
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git rebase -i HEAD~6
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<change 'pick' to 'edit' in 89234f5>
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<use editor to make code changes>
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git add -u
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git rebase --continue
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Now you have an updated patch series. To check it:
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patman -s1 -n
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Let's say it is now clean and you want to send it. Now you need to set up
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the destination. So amend the top commit with:
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git commit --amend
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Use your editor to add some tags, so that the whole commit message is:
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The current run_command() is really only one of the options, with
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hush providing the other. It really shouldn't be called directly
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in case the hush parser is bring used, so rename this function to
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better explain its purpose.
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Series-to: u-boot
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Series-cc: bfin, marex
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Series-prefix: RFC
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Cover-letter:
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Unified command execution in one place
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At present two parsers have similar code to execute commands. Also
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cmd_usage() is called all over the place. This series adds a single
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function which processes commands called cmd_process().
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END
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Change-Id: Ica71a14c1f0ecb5650f771a32fecb8d2eb9d8a17
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You want this to be an RFC and Cc the whole series to the bfin alias and
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to Marek. Two of the patches have tags (those are the bits at the front of
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the subject that say mmc: sparc: and sandbox:), so 8d640a7 will be Cc'd to
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mmc and sparc, and the last one to sandbox.
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Now to send the patches, take off the -n flag:
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patman -s1
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The patches will be created, shown in your editor, and then sent along with
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the cover letter. Note that patman's tags are automatically removed so that
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people on the list don't see your secret info.
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Of course patches often attract comments and you need to make some updates.
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Let's say one person sent comments and you get an Acked-by: on one patch.
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Also, the patch on the list that you were waiting for has been merged,
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so you can drop your wip commit. So you resync with upstream:
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git fetch origin (or whatever upstream is called)
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git rebase origin/master
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and use git rebase -i to edit the commits, dropping the wip one. You add
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the ack tag to one commit:
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Acked-by: Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
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update the Series-cc: in the top commit:
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Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
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and remove the Series-prefix: tag since it it isn't an RFC any more. The
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series is now version two, so the series info in the top commit looks like
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this:
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Series-to: u-boot
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Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
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Series-version: 2
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Cover-letter:
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...
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Finally, you need to add a change log to the two commits you changed. You
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add change logs to each individual commit where the changes happened, like
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this:
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Series-changes: 2
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- Updated the command decoder to reduce code size
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- Wound the torque propounder up a little more
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(note the blank line at the end of the list)
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When you run patman it will collect all the change logs from the different
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commits and combine them into the cover letter, if you have one. So finally
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you have a new series of commits:
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faeb973 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
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1b2f2fe mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
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cfbe330 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
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0682677 sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
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so to send them:
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patman
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and it will create and send the version 2 series.
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General points:
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1. When you change back to the us-cmd branch days or weeks later all your
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information is still there, safely stored in the commits. You don't need
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to remember what version you are up to, who you sent the last lot of patches
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to, or anything about the change logs.
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2. If you put tags in the subject, patman will Cc the maintainers
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automatically in many cases.
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3. If you want to keep the commits from each series you sent so that you can
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compare change and see what you did, you can either create a new branch for
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each version, or just tag the branch before you start changing it:
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git tag sent/us-cmd-rfc
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...later...
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git tag sent/us-cmd-v2
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4. If you want to modify the patches a little before sending, you can do
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this in your editor, but be careful!
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5. If you want to run git send-email yourself, use the -n flag which will
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print out the command line patman would have used.
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6. It is a good idea to add the change log info as you change the commit,
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not later when you can't remember which patch you changed. You can always
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go back and change or remove logs from commits.
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Other thoughts
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==============
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This script has been split into sensible files but still needs work.
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Most of these are indicated by a TODO in the code.
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It would be nice if this could handle the In-reply-to side of things.
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The tests are incomplete, as is customary. Use the --test flag to run them,
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and make sure you are in the tools/patman directory first:
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$ cd /path/to/u-boot
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$ cd tools/patman
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$ ./patman --test
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Error handling doesn't always produce friendly error messages - e.g.
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putting an incorrect tag in a commit may provide a confusing message.
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There might be a few other features not mentioned in this README. They
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might be bugs. In particular, tags are case sensitive which is probably
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a bad thing.
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Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
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v1, v2, 19-Oct-11
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revised v3 24-Nov-11
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