1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
2 .. Copyright (c) 2011 The Chromium OS Authors
3 .. Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
5 .. revised v3 24-Nov-11
6 .. revised v4 Independence Day 2020, with Patchwork integration
11 This tool is a Python script which:
13 - Creates patch directly from your branch
14 - Cleans them up by removing unwanted tags
15 - Inserts a cover letter with change lists
16 - Runs the patches through checkpatch.pl and its own checks
17 - Optionally emails them out to selected people
19 It also has some Patchwork features:
21 - shows review tags from Patchwork so you can update your local patches
22 - pulls these down into a new branch on request
23 - lists comments received on a series
25 It is intended to automate patch creation and make it a less
26 error-prone process. It is useful for U-Boot and Linux work so far,
27 since they use the checkpatch.pl script.
29 It is configured almost entirely by tags it finds in your commits.
30 This means that you can work on a number of different branches at
31 once, and keep the settings with each branch rather than having to
32 git format-patch, git send-email, etc. with the correct parameters
33 each time. So for example if you put::
35 Series-to: fred.blogs@napier.co.nz
37 in one of your commits, the series will be sent there.
39 In Linux and U-Boot this will also call get_maintainer.pl on each of your
40 patches automatically (unless you use -m to disable this).
46 This tool requires a certain way of working:
48 - Maintain a number of branches, one for each patch series you are
50 - Add tags into the commits within each branch to indicate where the
51 series should be sent, cover letter, version, etc. Most of these are
52 normally in the top commit so it is easy to change them with 'git
54 - Each branch tracks the upstream branch, so that this script can
55 automatically determine the number of commits in it (optional)
56 - Check out a branch, and run this script to create and send out your
57 patches. Weeks later, change the patches and repeat, knowing that you
58 will get a consistent result each time.
64 For most cases of using patman for U-Boot development, patman can use the
65 file 'doc/git-mailrc' in your U-Boot directory to supply the email aliases
66 you need. To make this work, tell git where to find the file by typing
69 git config sendemail.aliasesfile doc/git-mailrc
71 For both Linux and U-Boot the 'scripts/get_maintainer.pl' handles figuring
72 out where to send patches pretty well.
74 During the first run patman creates a config file for you by taking the default
75 user name and email address from the global .gitconfig file.
77 To add your own, create a file ~/.patman like this::
82 me: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
84 u-boot: U-Boot Mailing List <u-boot@lists.denx.de>
85 wolfgang: Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de>
86 others: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>, Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
88 Aliases are recursive.
90 The checkpatch.pl in the U-Boot tools/ subdirectory will be located and
91 used. Failing that you can put it into your path or ~/bin/checkpatch.pl
93 If you want to avoid sending patches to email addresses that are picked up
94 by patman but are known to bounce you can add a [bounces] section to your
95 .patman file. Unlike the [alias] section these are simple key: value pairs
96 that are not recursive::
99 gonefishing: Fred Bloggs <f.bloggs@napier.net>
102 If you want to change the defaults for patman's command-line arguments,
103 you can add a [settings] section to your .patman file. This can be used
104 for any command line option by referring to the "dest" for the option in
105 patman.py. For reference, the useful ones (at the moment) shown below
106 (all with the non-default setting)::
112 smtp_server: /path/to/sendmail
113 patchwork_server: https://patchwork.ozlabs.org
115 If you want to adjust settings (or aliases) that affect just a single
116 project you can add a section that looks like [project_settings] or
117 [project_alias]. If you want to use tags for your linux work, you could do::
130 ./tools/patman/patman send -n
132 If it can't detect the upstream branch, try telling it how many patches
133 there are in your series
137 ./tools/patman/patman -c5 send -n
139 This will create patch files in your current directory and tell you who
140 it is thinking of sending them to. Take a look at the patch files:
144 ./tools/patman/patman -c5 -s1 send -n
146 Similar to the above, but skip the first commit and take the next 5. This
147 is useful if your top commit is for setting up testing.
153 The most up to date version of patman can be found in the U-Boot sources.
154 However to use it on other projects it may be more convenient to install it as
155 a standalone application. A distutils installer is included, this can be used
160 cd tools/patman && python setup.py install
166 To make this script useful you must add tags like the following into any
167 commit. Most can only appear once in the whole series.
169 Series-to: email / alias
170 Email address / alias to send patch series to (you can add this
173 Series-cc: email / alias, ...
174 Email address / alias to Cc patch series to (you can add this
178 Sets the version number of this patch series
180 Series-prefix: prefix
181 Sets the subject prefix. Normally empty but it can be RFC for
182 RFC patches, or RESEND if you are being ignored. The patch subject
183 is like [RFC PATCH] or [RESEND PATCH].
184 In the meantime, git format.subjectprefix option will be added as
185 well. If your format.subjectprefix is set to InternalProject, then
186 the patch shows like: [InternalProject][RFC/RESEND PATCH]
188 Series-postfix: postfix
189 Sets the subject "postfix". Normally empty, but can be the name of a
190 tree such as net or net-next if that needs to be specified. The patch
191 subject is like [PATCH net] or [PATCH net-next].
194 Sets the name of the series. You don't need to have a name, and
195 patman does not yet use it, but it is convenient to put the branch
196 name here to help you keep track of multiple upstreaming efforts.
198 Series-links: [id | version:id]...
199 Set the ID of the series in patchwork. You can set this after you send
200 out the series and look in patchwork for the resulting series. The
201 URL you want is the one for the series itself, not any particular patch.
202 E.g. for http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331
203 the series ID is 187331. This property can have a list of series IDs,
204 one for each version of the series, e.g.
208 Series-links: 1:187331 2:188434 189372
210 Patman always uses the one without a version, since it assumes this is
211 the latest one. When this tag is provided, patman can compare your local
212 branch against patchwork to see what new reviews your series has
213 collected ('patman status').
215 Series-patchwork-url: url
216 This allows specifying the Patchwork URL for a branch. This overrides
217 both the setting files and the command-line argument. The URL should
218 include the protocol and web site, with no trailing slash, for example
219 'https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project'
222 Sets the cover letter contents for the series. The first line
223 will become the subject of the cover letter::
226 This is the patch set title
231 Cover-letter-cc: email / alias
232 Additional email addresses / aliases to send cover letter to (you
233 can add this multiple times)
236 Sets some notes for the patch series, which you don't want in
237 the commit messages, but do want to send, The notes are joined
238 together and put after the cover letter. Can appear multiple
248 Similar, but for a single commit (patch). These notes will appear
249 immediately below the --- cut in the patch file::
256 Signed-off-by: Their Name <email>
257 A sign-off is added automatically to your patches (this is
258 probably a bug). If you put this tag in your patches, it will
259 override the default signoff that patman automatically adds.
260 Multiple duplicate signoffs will be removed.
262 Tested-by / Reviewed-by / Acked-by
263 These indicate that someone has tested/reviewed/acked your patch.
264 When you get this reply on the mailing list, you can add this
265 tag to the relevant commit and the script will include it when
266 you send out the next version. If 'Tested-by:' is set to
267 yourself, it will be removed. No one will believe you.
271 Tested-by: Their Name <fred@bloggs.com>
272 Reviewed-by: Their Name <email>
273 Acked-by: Their Name <email>
276 This can appear in any commit. It lists the changes for a
277 particular version n of that commit. The change list is
278 created based on this information. Each commit gets its own
279 change list and also the whole thing is repeated in the cover
280 letter (where duplicate change lines are merged).
282 By adding your change lists into your commits it is easier to
283 keep track of what happened. When you amend a commit, remember
284 to update the log there and then, knowing that the script will
290 - Guinea pig moved into its cage
291 - Other changes ending with a blank line
295 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
296 only appear in the changelog of the commit this tag is in. This is
297 useful when you want to add notes which may not make sense in the cover
298 letter. For example, you can have short changes such as "New" or
304 - This line will not appear in the cover-letter changelog
308 This tag is like Series-changes, except changes in this changelog will
309 only appear in the cover-letter changelog. This is useful to summarize
310 changes made with Commit-changes, or to add additional context to
316 - This line will only appear in the cover letter
319 Patch-cc: Their Name <email>
320 This copies a single patch to another email address. Note that the
321 Cc: used by git send-email is ignored by patman, but will be
322 interpreted by git send-email if you use it.
324 Series-process-log: sort, uniq
325 This tells patman to sort and/or uniq the change logs. Changes may be
326 multiple lines long, as long as each subsequent line of a change begins
327 with a whitespace character. For example,
332 continues onto the next line
333 - But this change is separate
335 Use 'sort' to sort the entries, and 'uniq' to include only
336 unique entries. If omitted, no change log processing is done.
337 Separate each tag with a comma.
340 This tag is stripped out but is used to generate the Message-Id
341 of the emails that will be sent. When you keep the Change-Id the
342 same you are asserting that this is a slightly different version
343 (but logically the same patch) as other patches that have been
344 sent out with the same Change-Id.
346 Various other tags are silently removed, like these Chrome OS and
353 Commit-xxxx: (except Commit-notes)
355 Exercise for the reader: Try adding some tags to one of your current
356 patch series and see how the patches turn out.
359 Where Patches Are Sent
360 ----------------------
362 Once the patches are created, patman sends them using git send-email. The
363 whole series is sent to the recipients in Series-to: and Series-cc.
364 You can Cc individual patches to other people with the Patch-cc: tag. Tags
365 in the subject are also picked up to Cc patches. For example, a commit like
368 commit 10212537b85ff9b6e09c82045127522c0f0db981
369 Author: Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
370 Date: Mon Nov 7 23:18:44 2011 -0500
372 x86: arm: add a git mailrc file for maintainers
374 This should make sending out e-mails to the right people easier.
376 Patch-cc: sandbox, mikef, ag
379 will create a patch which is copied to x86, arm, sandbox, mikef, ag and
382 If you have a cover letter it will get sent to the union of the Patch-cc
383 lists of all of the other patches. If you want to sent it to additional
384 people you can add a tag::
386 Cover-letter-cc: <list of addresses>
388 These people will get the cover letter even if they are not on the To/Cc
389 list for any of the patches.
392 Patchwork Integration
393 ---------------------
395 Patman has a very basic integration with Patchwork. If you point patman to
396 your series on patchwork it can show you what new reviews have appeared since
397 you sent your series.
399 To set this up, add a Series-link tag to one of the commits in your series
408 and patman will show you each patch and what review tags have been collected,
412 21 x86: mtrr: Update the command to use the new mtrr
413 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
414 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
415 22 x86: mtrr: Restructure so command execution is in
416 Reviewed-by: Wolfgang Wallner <wolfgang.wallner@br-automation.com>
417 + Reviewed-by: Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
420 This shows that patch 21 and 22 were sent out with one review but have since
421 attracted another review each. If the series needs changes, you can update
422 these commits with the new review tag before sending the next version of the
425 To automatically pull into these tags into a new branch, use the -d option:
429 patman status -d mtrr4
431 This will create a new 'mtrr4' branch which is the same as your current branch
432 but has the new review tags in it. The tags are added in alphabetic order and
433 are placed immediately after any existing ack/review/test/fixes tags, or at the
434 end. You can check that this worked with:
438 patman -b mtrr4 status
440 which should show that there are no new responses compared to this new branch.
442 There is also a -C option to list the comments received for each patch.
448 The basic workflow is to create your commits, add some tags to the top
449 commit, and type 'patman' to check and send them.
451 Here is an example workflow for a series of 4 patches. Let's say you have
452 these rather contrived patches in the following order in branch us-cmd in
453 your tree where 'us' means your upstreaming activity (newest to oldest as
454 output by git log --oneline)::
457 89234f5 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
458 8d640a7 mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
459 0c859a9 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
460 a74443f sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
462 The first patch is some test things that enable your code to be compiled,
463 but that you don't want to submit because there is an existing patch for it
464 on the list. So you can tell patman to create and check some patches
465 (skipping the first patch) with:
471 If you want to do all of them including the work-in-progress one, then
472 (if you are tracking an upstream branch):
478 Let's say that patman reports an error in the second patch. Then:
483 # change 'pick' to 'edit' in 89234f5
484 # use editor to make code changes
486 git rebase --continue
488 Now you have an updated patch series. To check it:
494 Let's say it is now clean and you want to send it. Now you need to set up
495 the destination. So amend the top commit with:
501 Use your editor to add some tags, so that the whole commit message is::
503 The current run_command() is really only one of the options, with
504 hush providing the other. It really shouldn't be called directly
505 in case the hush parser is bring used, so rename this function to
506 better explain its purpose::
509 Series-cc: bfin, marex
512 Unified command execution in one place
514 At present two parsers have similar code to execute commands. Also
515 cmd_usage() is called all over the place. This series adds a single
516 function which processes commands called cmd_process().
519 Change-Id: Ica71a14c1f0ecb5650f771a32fecb8d2eb9d8a17
522 You want this to be an RFC and Cc the whole series to the bfin alias and
523 to Marek. Two of the patches have tags (those are the bits at the front of
524 the subject that say mmc: sparc: and sandbox:), so 8d640a7 will be Cc'd to
525 mmc and sparc, and the last one to sandbox.
527 Now to send the patches, take off the -n flag:
533 The patches will be created, shown in your editor, and then sent along with
534 the cover letter. Note that patman's tags are automatically removed so that
535 people on the list don't see your secret info.
537 Of course patches often attract comments and you need to make some updates.
538 Let's say one person sent comments and you get an Acked-by: on one patch.
539 Also, the patch on the list that you were waiting for has been merged,
540 so you can drop your wip commit.
542 Take a look on patchwork and find out the URL of the series. This will be
543 something like `http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/uboot/list/?series=187331`
544 Add this to a tag in your top commit::
548 You can use then patman to collect the Acked-by tag to the correct commit,
549 creating a new 'version 2' branch for us-cmd:
553 patman status -d us-cmd2
556 You can look at the comments in Patchwork or with:
562 Then you can resync with upstream:
566 git fetch origin # or whatever upstream is called
567 git rebase origin/master
569 and use git rebase -i to edit the commits, dropping the wip one.
571 Then update the `Series-cc:` in the top commit to add the person who reviewed
574 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
576 and remove the Series-prefix: tag since it it isn't an RFC any more. The
577 series is now version two, so the series info in the top commit looks like
581 Series-cc: bfin, marex, Heiko Schocher <hs@denx.de>
586 Finally, you need to add a change log to the two commits you changed. You
587 add change logs to each individual commit where the changes happened, like
591 - Updated the command decoder to reduce code size
592 - Wound the torque propounder up a little more
594 (note the blank line at the end of the list)
596 When you run patman it will collect all the change logs from the different
597 commits and combine them into the cover letter, if you have one. So finally
598 you have a new series of commits::
600 faeb973 Don't include standard parser if hush is used
601 1b2f2fe mmc: sparc: Stop using builtin_run_command()
602 cfbe330 Rename run_command2() to run_command()
603 0682677 sandbox: Rename run_command() to builtin_run_command()
611 and it will create and send the version 2 series.
617 #. When you change back to the us-cmd branch days or weeks later all your
618 information is still there, safely stored in the commits. You don't need
619 to remember what version you are up to, who you sent the last lot of patches
620 to, or anything about the change logs.
621 #. If you put tags in the subject, patman will Cc the maintainers
622 automatically in many cases.
623 #. If you want to keep the commits from each series you sent so that you can
624 compare change and see what you did, you can either create a new branch for
625 each version, or just tag the branch before you start changing it:
629 git tag sent/us-cmd-rfc
631 git tag sent/us-cmd-v2
633 #. If you want to modify the patches a little before sending, you can do
634 this in your editor, but be careful!
635 #. If you want to run git send-email yourself, use the -n flag which will
636 print out the command line patman would have used.
637 #. It is a good idea to add the change log info as you change the commit,
638 not later when you can't remember which patch you changed. You can always
639 go back and change or remove logs from commits.
640 #. Some mailing lists have size limits and when we add binary contents to
641 our patches it's easy to exceed the size limits. Use "--no-binary" to
642 generate patches without any binary contents. You are supposed to include
643 a link to a git repository in your "Commit-notes", "Series-notes" or
644 "Cover-letter" for maintainers to fetch the original commit.
645 #. Patches will have no changelog entries for revisions where they did not
646 change. For clarity, if there are no changes for this patch in the most
647 recent revision of the series, a note will be added. For example, a patch
648 with the following tags in the commit::
657 would have a changelog of:::
659 (no changes since v4)
671 This script has been split into sensible files but still needs work.
672 Most of these are indicated by a TODO in the code.
674 It would be nice if this could handle the In-reply-to side of things.
676 The tests are incomplete, as is customary. Use the 'test' subcommand to run
681 $ tools/patman/patman test
683 Note that since the test suite depends on data files only available in
684 the git checkout, the `test` command is hidden unless `patman` is
685 invoked from the U-Boot git repository.
687 Alternatively, you can run the test suite via Pytest:
691 $ cd tools/patman && pytest
693 Error handling doesn't always produce friendly error messages - e.g.
694 putting an incorrect tag in a commit may provide a confusing message.
696 There might be a few other features not mentioned in this README. They
697 might be bugs. In particular, tags are case sensitive which is probably