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
116 patchwork_server: https://patchwork.ozlabs.org
121 If you want to adjust settings (or aliases) that affect just a single
122 project you can add a section that looks like [project_settings] or
123 [project_alias]. If you want to use tags for your linux work, you could
139 $ ./tools/patman/patman -n
141 If it can't detect the upstream branch, try telling it how many patches
142 there are in your series:
144 $ ./tools/patman/patman -n -c5
146 This will create patch files in your current directory and tell you who
147 it is thinking of sending them to. Take a look at the patch files.
149 $ ./tools/patman/patman -n -c5 -s1
151 Similar to the above, but skip the first commit and take the next 5. This
152 is useful if your top commit is for setting up testing.
158 The most up to date version of patman can be found in the U-Boot sources.
159 However to use it on other projects it may be more convenient to install it as
160 a standalone application. A distutils installer is included, this can be used
163 $ cd tools/patman && python setup.py install
169 To make this script useful you must add tags like the following into any
170 commit. Most can only appear once in the whole series.
172 Series-to: email / alias
173 Email address / alias to send patch series to (you can add this
176 Series-cc: email / alias, ...
177 Email address / alias to Cc patch series to (you can add this
181 Sets the version number of this patch series
183 Series-prefix: prefix
184 Sets the subject prefix. Normally empty but it can be RFC for
185 RFC patches, or RESEND if you are being ignored. The patch subject
186 is like [RFC PATCH] or [RESEND PATCH].
187 In the meantime, git format.subjectprefix option will be added as
188 well. If your format.subjectprefix is set to InternalProject, then
189 the patch shows like: [InternalProject][RFC/RESEND PATCH]
192 Sets the name of the series. You don't need to have a name, and
193 patman does not yet use it, but it is convenient to put the branch
194 name here to help you keep track of multiple upstreaming efforts.
196 Series-links: [id | version:id]...
197 Set the ID of the series in patchwork. You can set this after you send
198 out the series and look in patchwork for the resulting series. The
199 URL you want is the one for the series itself, not any particular patch.
200 E.g. for http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
201 the series ID is 187331. This property can have a list of series IDs,
202 one for each version of the series, e.g.
204 Series-links: 1:187331 2:188434 189372
206 Patman always uses the one without a version, since it assumes this is
207 the latest one. When this tag is provided, patman can compare your local
208 branch against patchwork to see what new reviews your series has
209 collected ('patman status').
212 This is the patch set title
216 Sets the cover letter contents for the series. The first line
217 will become the subject of the cover letter
219 Cover-letter-cc: email / alias
220 Additional email addresses / aliases to send cover letter to (you
221 can add this multiple times)
228 Sets some notes for the patch series, which you don't want in
229 the commit messages, but do want to send, The notes are joined
230 together and put after the cover letter. Can appear multiple
238 Similar, but for a single commit (patch). These notes will appear
239 immediately below the --- cut in the patch file.
241 Signed-off-by: Their Name <email>
242 A sign-off is added automatically to your patches (this is
243 probably a bug). If you put this tag in your patches, it will
244 override the default signoff that patman automatically adds.
245 Multiple duplicate signoffs will be removed.
247 Tested-by: Their Name <email>
248 Reviewed-by: Their Name <email>
249 Acked-by: Their Name <email>
250 These indicate that someone has tested/reviewed/acked your patch.
251 When you get this reply on the mailing list, you can add this
252 tag to the relevant commit and the script will include it when
253 you send out the next version. If 'Tested-by:' is set to
254 yourself, it will be removed. No one will believe you.
257 - Guinea pig moved into its cage
258 - Other changes ending with a blank line
260 This can appear in any commit. It lists the changes for a
261 particular version n of that commit. The change list is
262 created based on this information. Each commit gets its own
263 change list and also the whole thing is repeated in the cover
264 letter (where duplicate change lines are merged).
266 By adding your change lists into your commits it is easier to
267 keep track of what happened. When you amend a commit, remember
268 to update the log there and then, knowing that the script will
272 - This line will not appear in the cover-letter changelog
274 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
275 only appear in the changelog of the commit this tag is in. This is
276 useful when you want to add notes which may not make sense in the cover
277 letter. For example, you can have short changes such as "New" or
281 - This line will only appear in the cover letter
283 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
284 only appear in the cover-letter changelog. This is useful to summarize
285 changes made with Commit-changes, or to add additional context to
288 Patch-cc: Their Name <email>
289 This copies a single patch to another email address. Note that the
290 Cc: used by git send-email is ignored by patman, but will be
291 interpreted by git send-email if you use it.
293 Series-process-log: sort, uniq
294 This tells patman to sort and/or uniq the change logs. Changes may be
295 multiple lines long, as long as each subsequent line of a change begins
296 with a whitespace character. For example,
299 continues onto the next line
300 - But this change is separate
302 Use 'sort' to sort the entries, and 'uniq' to include only
303 unique entries. If omitted, no change log processing is done.
304 Separate each tag with a comma.
307 This tag is stripped out but is used to generate the Message-Id
308 of the emails that will be sent. When you keep the Change-Id the
309 same you are asserting that this is a slightly different version
310 (but logically the same patch) as other patches that have been
311 sent out with the same Change-Id.
313 Various other tags are silently removed, like these Chrome OS and
320 Commit-xxxx: (except Commit-notes)
322 Exercise for the reader: Try adding some tags to one of your current
323 patch series and see how the patches turn out.
326 Where Patches Are Sent
327 ======================
329 Once the patches are created, patman sends them using git send-email. The
330 whole series is sent to the recipients in Series-to: and Series-cc.
331 You can Cc individual patches to other people with the Patch-cc: tag. Tags
332 in the subject are also picked up to Cc patches. For example, a commit like
336 commit 10212537b85ff9b6e09c82045127522c0f0db981
337 Author: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
338 Date: Mon Nov 7 23:18:44 2011 -0500
340 x86: arm: add a git mailrc file for maintainers
342 This should make sending out e-mails to the right people easier.
344 Patch-cc: sandbox, mikef, ag
348 will create a patch which is copied to x86, arm, sandbox, mikef, ag and
351 If you have a cover letter it will get sent to the union of the Patch-cc
352 lists of all of the other patches. If you want to sent it to additional
353 people you can add a tag:
355 Cover-letter-cc: <list of addresses>
357 These people will get the cover letter even if they are not on the To/Cc
358 list for any of the patches.
361 Patchwork Integration
362 =====================
364 Patman has a very basic integration with Patchwork. If you point patman to
365 your series on patchwork it can show you what new reviews have appears since
366 you sent your series.
368 To set this up, add a Series-link tag to one of the commits in your series
375 and patman will show you each patch and what review tags have been collected,
379 21 x86: mtrr: Update the command to use the new mtrr
380 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
381 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
382 22 x86: mtrr: Restructure so command execution is in
383 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
384 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
387 This shows that patch 21 and 22 were sent out with one review but have since
388 attracted another review each. If the series needs changes, you can update
389 these commits with the new review tag before sending the next version of the
392 To automatically pull into these tags into a new branch, use the -d option:
394 patman status -d mtrr4
396 This will create a new 'mtrr4' branch which is the same as your current branch
397 but has the new review tags in it. The tags are added in alphabetic order and
398 are placed immediately after any existing ack/review/test/fixes tags, or at the
399 end. You can check that this worked with:
401 patman -b mtrr4 status
403 which should show that there are no new responses compared to this new branch.
405 There is also a -C option to list the comments received for each patch.
411 The basic workflow is to create your commits, add some tags to the top
412 commit, and type 'patman' to check and send them.
414 Here is an example workflow for a series of 4 patches. Let's say you have
415 these rather contrived patches in the following order in branch us-cmd in
416 your tree where 'us' means your upstreaming activity (newest to oldest as
417 output by git log --oneline):
420 89234f5 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
421 8d640a7 mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
422 0c859a9 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
423 a74443f sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
425 The first patch is some test things that enable your code to be compiled,
426 but that you don't want to submit because there is an existing patch for it
427 on the list. So you can tell patman to create and check some patches
428 (skipping the first patch) with:
432 If you want to do all of them including the work-in-progress one, then
433 (if you are tracking an upstream branch):
437 Let's say that patman reports an error in the second patch. Then:
440 <change 'pick' to 'edit' in 89234f5>
441 <use editor to make code changes>
443 git rebase --continue
445 Now you have an updated patch series. To check it:
449 Let's say it is now clean and you want to send it. Now you need to set up
450 the destination. So amend the top commit with:
454 Use your editor to add some tags, so that the whole commit message is:
456 The current run_command() is really only one of the options, with
457 hush providing the other. It really shouldn't be called directly
458 in case the hush parser is bring used, so rename this function to
459 better explain its purpose.
462 Series-cc: bfin, marex
465 Unified command execution in one place
467 At present two parsers have similar code to execute commands. Also
468 cmd_usage() is called all over the place. This series adds a single
469 function which processes commands called cmd_process().
472 Change-Id: Ica71a14c1f0ecb5650f771a32fecb8d2eb9d8a17
475 You want this to be an RFC and Cc the whole series to the bfin alias and
476 to Marek. Two of the patches have tags (those are the bits at the front of
477 the subject that say mmc: sparc: and sandbox:), so 8d640a7 will be Cc'd to
478 mmc and sparc, and the last one to sandbox.
480 Now to send the patches, take off the -n flag:
484 The patches will be created, shown in your editor, and then sent along with
485 the cover letter. Note that patman's tags are automatically removed so that
486 people on the list don't see your secret info.
488 Of course patches often attract comments and you need to make some updates.
489 Let's say one person sent comments and you get an Acked-by: on one patch.
490 Also, the patch on the list that you were waiting for has been merged,
491 so you can drop your wip commit.
493 Take a look on patchwork and find out the URL of the series. This will be
494 something like http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
495 Add this to a tag in your top commit:
497 Series-link: http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
499 You can use then patman to collect the Acked-by tag to the correct commit,
500 creating a new 'version 2' branch for us-cmd:
502 patman status -d us-cmd2
505 You can look at the comments in Patchwork or with:
509 Then you can resync with upstream:
511 git fetch origin (or whatever upstream is called)
512 git rebase origin/master
514 and use git rebase -i to edit the commits, dropping the wip one.
516 Then update the Series-cc: in the top commit to add the person who reviewed
519 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
521 and remove the Series-prefix: tag since it it isn't an RFC any more. The
522 series is now version two, so the series info in the top commit looks like
526 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
531 Finally, you need to add a change log to the two commits you changed. You
532 add change logs to each individual commit where the changes happened, like
536 - Updated the command decoder to reduce code size
537 - Wound the torque propounder up a little more
539 (note the blank line at the end of the list)
541 When you run patman it will collect all the change logs from the different
542 commits and combine them into the cover letter, if you have one. So finally
543 you have a new series of commits:
545 faeb973 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
546 1b2f2fe mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
547 cfbe330 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
548 0682677 sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
554 and it will create and send the version 2 series.
560 1. When you change back to the us-cmd branch days or weeks later all your
561 information is still there, safely stored in the commits. You don't need
562 to remember what version you are up to, who you sent the last lot of patches
563 to, or anything about the change logs.
565 2. If you put tags in the subject, patman will Cc the maintainers
566 automatically in many cases.
568 3. If you want to keep the commits from each series you sent so that you can
569 compare change and see what you did, you can either create a new branch for
570 each version, or just tag the branch before you start changing it:
572 git tag sent/us-cmd-rfc
574 git tag sent/us-cmd-v2
576 4. If you want to modify the patches a little before sending, you can do
577 this in your editor, but be careful!
579 5. If you want to run git send-email yourself, use the -n flag which will
580 print out the command line patman would have used.
582 6. It is a good idea to add the change log info as you change the commit,
583 not later when you can't remember which patch you changed. You can always
584 go back and change or remove logs from commits.
586 7. Some mailing lists have size limits and when we add binary contents to
587 our patches it's easy to exceed the size limits. Use "--no-binary" to
588 generate patches without any binary contents. You are supposed to include
589 a link to a git repository in your "Commit-notes", "Series-notes" or
590 "Cover-letter" for maintainers to fetch the original commit.
592 8. Patches will have no changelog entries for revisions where they did not
593 change. For clarity, if there are no changes for this patch in the most
594 recent revision of the series, a note will be added. For example, a patch
595 with the following tags in the commit
604 would have a changelog of
606 (no changes since v4)
617 This script has been split into sensible files but still needs work.
618 Most of these are indicated by a TODO in the code.
620 It would be nice if this could handle the In-reply-to side of things.
622 The tests are incomplete, as is customary. Use the 'test' subcommand to run
625 $ tools/patman/patman test
627 Error handling doesn't always produce friendly error messages - e.g.
628 putting an incorrect tag in a commit may provide a confusing message.
630 There might be a few other features not mentioned in this README. They
631 might be bugs. In particular, tags are case sensitive which is probably
635 Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
638 revised v4 Independence Day 2020, with Patchwork integration