Re: [PATCH] Document from line in patch format

From: Coywolf Qi Hunt
Date: Sun Oct 02 2005 - 02:42:44 EST


On 10/2/05, Paul Jackson <pj@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Document more details of patch format such as the "from" line
> used to specify the patch author, and provide more references
> for patch guidelines.
>
> Signed-off-by: Paul Jackson <pj@xxxxxxx>
>
> Index: 2.6.14-rc2-mm2/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> ===================================================================
> --- 2.6.14-rc2-mm2.orig/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> +++ 2.6.14-rc2-mm2/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> @@ -301,8 +301,47 @@ now, but you can do this to mark interna
> point out some special detail about the sign-off.
>
>
> +12) The canonical patch format
>
> -12) More references for submitting patches
> +The canonical patch subject line is:
> +
> + Subject: [PATCH 001/123] [<area>:] <explanation>
> +
> +The canonical patch message body contains the following:
> +
> + The first line of the body contains a "from" line specifying
> + the author of the patch:
> +
> + From: Original Author <author@xxxxxxxxx>
> +
> + If the "from" line is missing, then the author of the patch will
> + be recorded in the source code revision history as whomever is
> + listed in the last "Signed-off-by:" line in the message when Linus
> + receives it.
> +
> + The "from" line is followed by an empty line and then the body
> + of the explanation.
> +
> + After the body of the explanation comes the "Signed-off-by:"
> + lines, and then a simple "---" line, and below that comes the
> + diffstat of the patch and then the patch itself. The "---" line
> + and diffstat are optional, but helpful to readers of non-trivial
> + patches.
> +
> +The Subject line format makes it very easy to sort the emails
> +alphabetically by subject line - pretty much any email reader will
> +support that - since because the sequence number is zero-padded,
> +the numerical and alphabetic sort is the same.
> +
> +See further details on how to phrase the "<explanation>" in
> +the "Subject:" line in Andrew Morton's "The perfect patch",
> +referenced below.
> +
> +See more details on the proper patch format in the following
> +references.
> +
> +
> +13) More references for submitting patches
>
> Andrew Morton, "The perfect patch" (tpp).
> <http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt>
> @@ -310,6 +349,14 @@ Andrew Morton, "The perfect patch" (tpp)
> Jeff Garzik, "Linux kernel patch submission format."
> <http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html>
>
> +Jeff Garzik, "How to piss off a kernel subsystem maintainer"
> + <http://www.kroah.com/log/2005/03/31/>
> +
> +Kernel Documentation/CodingStyle
> + <http://lxr.linux.no/source/Documentation/CodingStyle>

There's another one more updated at http://sosdg.org/~coywolf/lxr/source/

> +
> +Linus Torvald's mail on the canonical patch format:
> + <http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/4/7/183>
>

--
Coywolf Qi Hunt
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