1 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
2 # Copyright (c) 2011 The Chromium OS Authors.
7 This tool is a Python script which:
8 - Creates patch directly from your branch
9 - Cleans them up by removing unwanted tags
10 - Inserts a cover letter with change lists
11 - Runs the patches through checkpatch.pl and its own checks
12 - Optionally emails them out to selected people
14 It also has some Patchwork features:
15 - shows review tags from Patchwork so you can update your local patches
16 - pulls these down into a new branch on request
17 - lists comments received on a series
19 It is intended to automate patch creation and make it a less
20 error-prone process. It is useful for U-Boot and Linux work so far,
21 since they use the checkpatch.pl script.
23 It is configured almost entirely by tags it finds in your commits.
24 This means that you can work on a number of different branches at
25 once, and keep the settings with each branch rather than having to
26 git format-patch, git send-email, etc. with the correct parameters
27 each time. So for example if you put:
29 Series-to: fred.blogs@napier.co.nz
31 in one of your commits, the series will be sent there.
33 In Linux and U-Boot this will also call get_maintainer.pl on each of your
34 patches automatically (unless you use -m to disable this).
40 This tool requires a certain way of working:
42 - Maintain a number of branches, one for each patch series you are
44 - Add tags into the commits within each branch to indicate where the
45 series should be sent, cover letter, version, etc. Most of these are
46 normally in the top commit so it is easy to change them with 'git
48 - Each branch tracks the upstream branch, so that this script can
49 automatically determine the number of commits in it (optional)
50 - Check out a branch, and run this script to create and send out your
51 patches. Weeks later, change the patches and repeat, knowing that you
52 will get a consistent result each time.
58 For most cases of using patman for U-Boot development, patman can use the
59 file 'doc/git-mailrc' in your U-Boot directory to supply the email aliases
60 you need. To make this work, tell git where to find the file by typing
63 git config sendemail.aliasesfile doc/git-mailrc
65 For both Linux and U-Boot the 'scripts/get_maintainer.pl' handles figuring
66 out where to send patches pretty well.
68 During the first run patman creates a config file for you by taking the default
69 user name and email address from the global .gitconfig file.
71 To add your own, create a file ~/.patman like this:
77 me: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
79 u-boot: U-Boot Mailing List <u-boot@lists.denx.de>
80 wolfgang: Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de>
81 others: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>, Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
85 Aliases are recursive.
87 The checkpatch.pl in the U-Boot tools/ subdirectory will be located and
88 used. Failing that you can put it into your path or ~/bin/checkpatch.pl
90 If you want to avoid sending patches to email addresses that are picked up
91 by patman but are known to bounce you can add a [bounces] section to your
92 .patman file. Unlike the [alias] section these are simple key: value pairs
93 that are not recursive.
98 gonefishing: Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
103 If you want to change the defaults for patman's command-line arguments,
104 you can add a [settings] section to your .patman file. This can be used
105 for any command line option by referring to the "dest" for the option in
106 patman.py. For reference, the useful ones (at the moment) shown below
107 (all with the non-default setting):
115 smtp_server: /path/to/sendmail
120 If you want to adjust settings (or aliases) that affect just a single
121 project you can add a section that looks like [project_settings] or
122 [project_alias]. If you want to use tags for your linux work, you could
138 $ ./tools/patman/patman -n
140 If it can't detect the upstream branch, try telling it how many patches
141 there are in your series:
143 $ ./tools/patman/patman -n -c5
145 This will create patch files in your current directory and tell you who
146 it is thinking of sending them to. Take a look at the patch files.
148 $ ./tools/patman/patman -n -c5 -s1
150 Similar to the above, but skip the first commit and take the next 5. This
151 is useful if your top commit is for setting up testing.
157 The most up to date version of patman can be found in the U-Boot sources.
158 However to use it on other projects it may be more convenient to install it as
159 a standalone application. A distutils installer is included, this can be used
162 $ cd tools/patman && python setup.py install
168 To make this script useful you must add tags like the following into any
169 commit. Most can only appear once in the whole series.
171 Series-to: email / alias
172 Email address / alias to send patch series to (you can add this
175 Series-cc: email / alias, ...
176 Email address / alias to Cc patch series to (you can add this
180 Sets the version number of this patch series
182 Series-prefix: prefix
183 Sets the subject prefix. Normally empty but it can be RFC for
184 RFC patches, or RESEND if you are being ignored. The patch subject
185 is like [RFC PATCH] or [RESEND PATCH].
186 In the meantime, git format.subjectprefix option will be added as
187 well. If your format.subjectprefix is set to InternalProject, then
188 the patch shows like: [InternalProject][RFC/RESEND PATCH]
191 Sets the name of the series. You don't need to have a name, and
192 patman does not yet use it, but it is convenient to put the branch
193 name here to help you keep track of multiple upstreaming efforts.
195 Series-links: [id | version:id]...
196 Set the ID of the series in patchwork. You can set this after you send
197 out the series and look in patchwork for the resulting series. The
198 URL you want is the one for the series itself, not any particular patch.
199 E.g. for http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
200 the series ID is 187331. This property can have a list of series IDs,
201 one for each version of the series, e.g.
203 Series-links: 1:187331 2:188434 189372
205 Patman always uses the one without a version, since it assumes this is
206 the latest one. When this tag is provided, patman can compare your local
207 branch against patchwork to see what new reviews your series has
208 collected ('patman status').
211 This is the patch set title
215 Sets the cover letter contents for the series. The first line
216 will become the subject of the cover letter
218 Cover-letter-cc: email / alias
219 Additional email addresses / aliases to send cover letter to (you
220 can add this multiple times)
227 Sets some notes for the patch series, which you don't want in
228 the commit messages, but do want to send, The notes are joined
229 together and put after the cover letter. Can appear multiple
237 Similar, but for a single commit (patch). These notes will appear
238 immediately below the --- cut in the patch file.
240 Signed-off-by: Their Name <email>
241 A sign-off is added automatically to your patches (this is
242 probably a bug). If you put this tag in your patches, it will
243 override the default signoff that patman automatically adds.
244 Multiple duplicate signoffs will be removed.
246 Tested-by: Their Name <email>
247 Reviewed-by: Their Name <email>
248 Acked-by: Their Name <email>
249 These indicate that someone has tested/reviewed/acked your patch.
250 When you get this reply on the mailing list, you can add this
251 tag to the relevant commit and the script will include it when
252 you send out the next version. If 'Tested-by:' is set to
253 yourself, it will be removed. No one will believe you.
256 - Guinea pig moved into its cage
257 - Other changes ending with a blank line
259 This can appear in any commit. It lists the changes for a
260 particular version n of that commit. The change list is
261 created based on this information. Each commit gets its own
262 change list and also the whole thing is repeated in the cover
263 letter (where duplicate change lines are merged).
265 By adding your change lists into your commits it is easier to
266 keep track of what happened. When you amend a commit, remember
267 to update the log there and then, knowing that the script will
271 - This line will not appear in the cover-letter changelog
273 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
274 only appear in the changelog of the commit this tag is in. This is
275 useful when you want to add notes which may not make sense in the cover
276 letter. For example, you can have short changes such as "New" or
280 - This line will only appear in the cover letter
282 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
283 only appear in the cover-letter changelog. This is useful to summarize
284 changes made with Commit-changes, or to add additional context to
287 Patch-cc: Their Name <email>
288 This copies a single patch to another email address. Note that the
289 Cc: used by git send-email is ignored by patman, but will be
290 interpreted by git send-email if you use it.
292 Series-process-log: sort, uniq
293 This tells patman to sort and/or uniq the change logs. Changes may be
294 multiple lines long, as long as each subsequent line of a change begins
295 with a whitespace character. For example,
298 continues onto the next line
299 - But this change is separate
301 Use 'sort' to sort the entries, and 'uniq' to include only
302 unique entries. If omitted, no change log processing is done.
303 Separate each tag with a comma.
306 This tag is stripped out but is used to generate the Message-Id
307 of the emails that will be sent. When you keep the Change-Id the
308 same you are asserting that this is a slightly different version
309 (but logically the same patch) as other patches that have been
310 sent out with the same Change-Id.
312 Various other tags are silently removed, like these Chrome OS and
319 Commit-xxxx: (except Commit-notes)
321 Exercise for the reader: Try adding some tags to one of your current
322 patch series and see how the patches turn out.
325 Where Patches Are Sent
326 ======================
328 Once the patches are created, patman sends them using git send-email. The
329 whole series is sent to the recipients in Series-to: and Series-cc.
330 You can Cc individual patches to other people with the Patch-cc: tag. Tags
331 in the subject are also picked up to Cc patches. For example, a commit like
335 commit 10212537b85ff9b6e09c82045127522c0f0db981
336 Author: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
337 Date: Mon Nov 7 23:18:44 2011 -0500
339 x86: arm: add a git mailrc file for maintainers
341 This should make sending out e-mails to the right people easier.
343 Patch-cc: sandbox, mikef, ag
347 will create a patch which is copied to x86, arm, sandbox, mikef, ag and
350 If you have a cover letter it will get sent to the union of the Patch-cc
351 lists of all of the other patches. If you want to sent it to additional
352 people you can add a tag:
354 Cover-letter-cc: <list of addresses>
356 These people will get the cover letter even if they are not on the To/Cc
357 list for any of the patches.
360 Patchwork Integration
361 =====================
363 Patman has a very basic integration with Patchwork. If you point patman to
364 your series on patchwork it can show you what new reviews have appears since
365 you sent your series.
367 To set this up, add a Series-link tag to one of the commits in your series
374 and patman will show you each patch and what review tags have been collected,
378 21 x86: mtrr: Update the command to use the new mtrr
379 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
380 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
381 22 x86: mtrr: Restructure so command execution is in
382 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
383 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
386 This shows that patch 21 and 22 were sent out with one review but have since
387 attracted another review each. If the series needs changes, you can update
388 these commits with the new review tag before sending the next version of the
391 To automatically pull into these tags into a new branch, use the -d option:
393 patman status -d mtrr4
395 This will create a new 'mtrr4' branch which is the same as your current branch
396 but has the new review tags in it. The tags are added in alphabetic order and
397 are placed immediately after any existing ack/review/test/fixes tags, or at the
398 end. You can check that this worked with:
400 patman -b mtrr4 status
402 which should show that there are no new responses compared to this new branch.
404 There is also a -C option to list the comments received for each patch.
410 The basic workflow is to create your commits, add some tags to the top
411 commit, and type 'patman' to check and send them.
413 Here is an example workflow for a series of 4 patches. Let's say you have
414 these rather contrived patches in the following order in branch us-cmd in
415 your tree where 'us' means your upstreaming activity (newest to oldest as
416 output by git log --oneline):
419 89234f5 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
420 8d640a7 mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
421 0c859a9 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
422 a74443f sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
424 The first patch is some test things that enable your code to be compiled,
425 but that you don't want to submit because there is an existing patch for it
426 on the list. So you can tell patman to create and check some patches
427 (skipping the first patch) with:
431 If you want to do all of them including the work-in-progress one, then
432 (if you are tracking an upstream branch):
436 Let's say that patman reports an error in the second patch. Then:
439 <change 'pick' to 'edit' in 89234f5>
440 <use editor to make code changes>
442 git rebase --continue
444 Now you have an updated patch series. To check it:
448 Let's say it is now clean and you want to send it. Now you need to set up
449 the destination. So amend the top commit with:
453 Use your editor to add some tags, so that the whole commit message is:
455 The current run_command() is really only one of the options, with
456 hush providing the other. It really shouldn't be called directly
457 in case the hush parser is bring used, so rename this function to
458 better explain its purpose.
461 Series-cc: bfin, marex
464 Unified command execution in one place
466 At present two parsers have similar code to execute commands. Also
467 cmd_usage() is called all over the place. This series adds a single
468 function which processes commands called cmd_process().
471 Change-Id: Ica71a14c1f0ecb5650f771a32fecb8d2eb9d8a17
474 You want this to be an RFC and Cc the whole series to the bfin alias and
475 to Marek. Two of the patches have tags (those are the bits at the front of
476 the subject that say mmc: sparc: and sandbox:), so 8d640a7 will be Cc'd to
477 mmc and sparc, and the last one to sandbox.
479 Now to send the patches, take off the -n flag:
483 The patches will be created, shown in your editor, and then sent along with
484 the cover letter. Note that patman's tags are automatically removed so that
485 people on the list don't see your secret info.
487 Of course patches often attract comments and you need to make some updates.
488 Let's say one person sent comments and you get an Acked-by: on one patch.
489 Also, the patch on the list that you were waiting for has been merged,
490 so you can drop your wip commit.
492 Take a look on patchwork and find out the URL of the series. This will be
493 something like http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
494 Add this to a tag in your top commit:
496 Series-link: http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
498 You can use then patman to collect the Acked-by tag to the correct commit,
499 creating a new 'version 2' branch for us-cmd:
501 patman status -d us-cmd2
504 You can look at the comments in Patchwork or with:
508 Then you can resync with upstream:
510 git fetch origin (or whatever upstream is called)
511 git rebase origin/master
513 and use git rebase -i to edit the commits, dropping the wip one.
515 Then update the Series-cc: in the top commit to add the person who reviewed
518 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
520 and remove the Series-prefix: tag since it it isn't an RFC any more. The
521 series is now version two, so the series info in the top commit looks like
525 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
530 Finally, you need to add a change log to the two commits you changed. You
531 add change logs to each individual commit where the changes happened, like
535 - Updated the command decoder to reduce code size
536 - Wound the torque propounder up a little more
538 (note the blank line at the end of the list)
540 When you run patman it will collect all the change logs from the different
541 commits and combine them into the cover letter, if you have one. So finally
542 you have a new series of commits:
544 faeb973 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
545 1b2f2fe mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
546 cfbe330 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
547 0682677 sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
553 and it will create and send the version 2 series.
559 1. When you change back to the us-cmd branch days or weeks later all your
560 information is still there, safely stored in the commits. You don't need
561 to remember what version you are up to, who you sent the last lot of patches
562 to, or anything about the change logs.
564 2. If you put tags in the subject, patman will Cc the maintainers
565 automatically in many cases.
567 3. If you want to keep the commits from each series you sent so that you can
568 compare change and see what you did, you can either create a new branch for
569 each version, or just tag the branch before you start changing it:
571 git tag sent/us-cmd-rfc
573 git tag sent/us-cmd-v2
575 4. If you want to modify the patches a little before sending, you can do
576 this in your editor, but be careful!
578 5. If you want to run git send-email yourself, use the -n flag which will
579 print out the command line patman would have used.
581 6. It is a good idea to add the change log info as you change the commit,
582 not later when you can't remember which patch you changed. You can always
583 go back and change or remove logs from commits.
585 7. Some mailing lists have size limits and when we add binary contents to
586 our patches it's easy to exceed the size limits. Use "--no-binary" to
587 generate patches without any binary contents. You are supposed to include
588 a link to a git repository in your "Commit-notes", "Series-notes" or
589 "Cover-letter" for maintainers to fetch the original commit.
591 8. Patches will have no changelog entries for revisions where they did not
592 change. For clarity, if there are no changes for this patch in the most
593 recent revision of the series, a note will be added. For example, a patch
594 with the following tags in the commit
603 would have a changelog of
605 (no changes since v4)
616 This script has been split into sensible files but still needs work.
617 Most of these are indicated by a TODO in the code.
619 It would be nice if this could handle the In-reply-to side of things.
621 The tests are incomplete, as is customary. Use the 'test' subcommand to run
624 $ tools/patman/patman test
626 Error handling doesn't always produce friendly error messages - e.g.
627 putting an incorrect tag in a commit may provide a confusing message.
629 There might be a few other features not mentioned in this README. They
630 might be bugs. In particular, tags are case sensitive which is probably
634 Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
637 revised v4 Independence Day 2020, with Patchwork integration