docs: Add my notes on stable-branch patch criteria
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11 <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
12 </div>
13
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15 <div class="content">
16
17 <h1>Development Notes</h1>
18
19
20 <h2>Adding Extensions</h2>
21
22 <p>
23 To add a new GL extension to Mesa you have to do at least the following.
24
25 <ul>
26 <li>
27 If glext.h doesn't define the extension, edit include/GL/gl.h and add
28 code like this:
29 <pre>
30 #ifndef GL_EXT_the_extension_name
31 #define GL_EXT_the_extension_name 1
32 /* declare the new enum tokens */
33 /* prototype the new functions */
34 /* TYPEDEFS for the new functions */
35 #endif
36 </pre>
37 </li>
38 <li>
39 In the src/mapi/glapi/gen/ directory, add the new extension functions and
40 enums to the gl_API.xml file.
41 Then, a bunch of source files must be regenerated by executing the
42 corresponding Python scripts.
43 </li>
44 <li>
45 Add a new entry to the <code>gl_extensions</code> struct in mtypes.h
46 </li>
47 <li>
48 Update the <code>extensions.c</code> file.
49 </li>
50 <li>
51 From this point, the best way to proceed is to find another extension,
52 similar to the new one, that's already implemented in Mesa and use it
53 as an example.
54 </li>
55 <li>
56 If the new extension adds new GL state, the functions in get.c, enable.c
57 and attrib.c will most likely require new code.
58 </li>
59 <li>
60 The dispatch tests check_table.cpp and dispatch_sanity.cpp
61 should be updated with details about the new extensions functions. These
62 tests are run using 'make check'
63 </li>
64 </ul>
65
66
67
68 <h2>Coding Style</h2>
69
70 <p>
71 Mesa's code style has changed over the years. Here's the latest.
72 </p>
73
74 <p>
75 Comment your code! It's extremely important that open-source code be
76 well documented. Also, strive to write clean, easily understandable code.
77 </p>
78
79 <p>
80 3-space indentation
81 </p>
82
83 <p>
84 If you use tabs, set them to 8 columns
85 </p>
86
87 <p>
88 Line width: the preferred width to fill comments and code in Mesa is 78
89 columns. Exceptions are sometimes made for clarity (e.g. tabular data is
90 sometimes filled to a much larger width so that extraneous carriage returns
91 don't obscure the table).
92 </p>
93
94 <p>
95 Brace example:
96 </p>
97 <pre>
98 if (condition) {
99 foo;
100 }
101 else {
102 bar;
103 }
104
105 switch (condition) {
106 case 0:
107 foo();
108 break;
109
110 case 1: {
111 ...
112 break;
113 }
114
115 default:
116 ...
117 break;
118 }
119 </pre>
120
121 <p>
122 Here's the GNU indent command which will best approximate my preferred style:
123 (Note that it won't format switch statements in the preferred way)
124 </p>
125 <pre>
126 indent -br -i3 -npcs --no-tabs infile.c -o outfile.c
127 </pre>
128
129
130 <p>
131 Local variable name example: localVarName (no underscores)
132 </p>
133
134 <p>
135 Constants and macros are ALL_UPPERCASE, with _ between words
136 </p>
137
138 <p>
139 Global variables are not allowed.
140 </p>
141
142 <p>
143 Function name examples:
144 </p>
145 <pre>
146 glFooBar() - a public GL entry point (in glapi_dispatch.c)
147 _mesa_FooBar() - the internal immediate mode function
148 save_FooBar() - retained mode (display list) function in dlist.c
149 foo_bar() - a static (private) function
150 _mesa_foo_bar() - an internal non-static Mesa function
151 </pre>
152
153 <p>
154 Places that are not directly visible to the GL API should prefer the use
155 of <tt>bool</tt>, <tt>true</tt>, and
156 <tt>false</tt> over <tt>GLboolean</tt>, <tt>GL_TRUE</tt>, and
157 <tt>GL_FALSE</tt>. In C code, this may mean that
158 <tt>#include &lt;stdbool.h&gt;</tt> needs to be added. The
159 <tt>try_emit_</tt>* methods in src/mesa/program/ir_to_mesa.cpp and
160 src/mesa/state_tracker/st_glsl_to_tgsi.cpp can serve as examples.
161 </p>
162
163 <h2>Submitting patches</h2>
164
165 <p>
166 You should always run the Mesa Testsuite before submitting patches.
167 The Testsuite can be run using the 'make check' command. All tests
168 must pass before patches will be accepted, this may mean you have
169 to update the tests themselves.
170 </p>
171
172 <p>
173 Patches should be sent to the Mesa mailing list for review.
174 When submitting a patch make sure to use git send-email rather than attaching
175 patches to emails. Sending patches as attachments prevents people from being
176 able to provide in-line review comments.
177 </p>
178
179 <p>
180 When submitting follow-up patches you can use --in-reply-to to make v2, v3,
181 etc patches show up as replies to the originals. This usually works well
182 when you're sending out updates to individual patches (as opposed to
183 re-sending the whole series). Using --in-reply-to makes
184 it harder for reviewers to accidentally review old patches.
185 </p>
186
187 <h2>Marking a commit as a candidate for a stable branch</h2>
188
189 <p>
190 If you want a commit to be applied to a stable branch,
191 you should add an appropriate note to the commit message.
192 </p>
193
194 <p>
195 Here are some examples of such a note:
196 </p>
197 <ul>
198 <li>CC: &lt;mesa-stable@lists.freedesktop.org&gt;</li>
199 <li>CC: "9.2 10.0" &lt;mesa-stable@lists.freedesktop.org&gt;</li>
200 <li>CC: "10.0" &lt;mesa-stable@lists.freedesktop.org&gt;</li>
201 </ul>
202
203 Simply adding the CC to the mesa-stable list address is adequate to nominate
204 the commit for the most-recently-created stable branch. It is only necessary
205 to specify a specific branch name, (such as "9.2 10.0" or "10.0" in the
206 examples above), if you want to nominate the commit for an older stable
207 branch. And, as in these examples, you can nominate the commit for the older
208 branch in addition to the more recent branch, or nominate the commit
209 exclusively for the older branch.
210
211 This "CC" syntax for patch nomination will cause patches to automatically be
212 copied to the mesa-stable@ mailing list when you use "git send-email" to send
213 patches to the mesa-dev@ mailing list. Also, if you realize that a commit
214 should be nominated for the stable branch after it has already been committed,
215 you can send a note directly to the mesa-stable@lists.freedesktop.org where
216 the Mesa stable-branch maintainers will receive it. Be sure to mention the
217 commit ID of the commit of interest (as it appears in the mesa master branch).
218
219 The latest set of patches that have been nominated, accepted, or rejected for
220 the upcoming stable release can always be seen on the
221 <a href="http://cworth.org/~cworth/mesa-stable-queue/">Mesa Stable Queue</a>
222 page.
223
224 <h2>Criteria for accepting patches to the stable branch</h2>
225
226 Mesa has a designated release manager for each stable branch, and the release
227 manager is the only developer that should be pushing changes to these
228 branches. Everyone else should simply nominate patches using the mechanism
229 described above.
230
231 The stable-release manager will work with the list of nominated patches, and
232 for each patch that meets the crtieria below will cherry-pick the patch with:
233 <code>git cherry-pick -x &lt;commit&gt;</code>. The <code>-x</code> option is
234 important so that the picked patch references the comit ID of the original
235 patch.
236
237 The stable-release manager may at times need to force-push changes to the
238 stable branches, for example, to drop a previously-picked patch that was later
239 identified as causing a regression). These force-pushes may cause changes to
240 be lost from the stable branch if developers push things directly. Consider
241 yourself warned.
242
243 The stable-release manager is also given broad discretion in rejecting patches
244 that have been nominated for the stable branch. The most basic rule is that
245 the stable branch is for bug fixes only, (no new features, no
246 regressions). Here is a non-exhaustive list of some reasons that a patch may
247 be rejected:
248
249 <ul>
250 <li>Patch introduces a regression. Any reported build breakage or other
251 regression caused by a particular patch, (game no longer work, piglit test
252 changes from PASS to FAIL), is justification for rejecting a patch.</li>
253
254 <li>Patch is too large, (say, larger than 100 lines)</li>
255
256 <li>Patch is not a fix. For example, a commit that moves code around with no
257 functional change should be rejected.</li>
258
259 <li>Patch fix is not clearly described. For example, a commit message
260 of only a single line, no description of the bug, no mention of bugzilla,
261 etc.</li>
262
263 <li>Patch has not obviously been reviewed, For example, the commit message
264 has no Reviewed-by, Signed-off-by, nor Tested-by tags from anyone but the
265 author.</li>
266
267 <li>Patch has not already been merged to the master branch. As a rule, bug
268 fixes should never be applied first to a stable branch. Patches should land
269 first on the master branch and then be cherry-picked to a stable
270 branch. (This is to avoid future releases causing regressions if the patch
271 is not also applied to master.) The only things that might look like
272 exceptions would be backports of patches from master that happen to look
273 significantly different.</li>
274
275 <li>Patch depends on too many other patches. Ideally, all stable-branch
276 patches should be self-contained. It sometimes occurs that a single, logical
277 bug-fix occurs as two separate patches on master, (such as an original
278 patch, then a subsequent fix-up to that patch). In such a case, these two
279 patches should be squashed into a single, self-contained patch for the
280 stable branch. (Of course, if the squashing makes the patch too large, then
281 that could be a reason to reject the patch.)</li>
282
283 <li>Patch includes new feature development, not bug fixes. New OpenGL
284 features, extensions, etc. should be applied to Mesa master and included in
285 the next major release. Stable releases are intended only for bug fixes.
286
287 Note: As an exception to this rule, the stable-release manager may accept
288 hardware-enabling "features". For example, backports of new code to support
289 a newly-developed hardware product can be accepted if they can be reasonably
290 determined to not have effects on other hardware.</li>
291
292 <li>Patch is a performance optimization. As a rule, performance patches are
293 not candidates for the stable branch. The only exception might be a case
294 where an application's performance was recently severely impacted so as to
295 become unusable. The fix for this performance regression could then be
296 considered for a stable branch. The optimization must also be
297 non-controversial and the patches still need to meet the other criteria of
298 being simple and self-contained</li>
299
300 <li>Patch introduces a new failure mode (such as an assert). While the new
301 assert might technically be correct, for example to make Mesa more
302 conformant, this is not the kind of "bug fix" we want in a stable
303 release. The potential problem here is that an OpenGL program that was
304 previously working, (even if technically non-compliant with the
305 specification), could stop working after this patch. So that would be a
306 regression that is unaacceptable for the stable branch.</li>
307 </ul>
308
309 <h2>Making a New Mesa Release</h2>
310
311 <p>
312 These are the instructions for making a new Mesa release.
313 </p>
314
315 <h3>Get latest source files</h3>
316 <p>
317 Use git to get the latest Mesa files from the git repository, from whatever
318 branch is relevant.
319 </p>
320
321
322 <h3>Verify and update version info in VERSION</h3>
323
324 <p>
325 Create a docs/relnotes/x.y.z.html file.
326 The bin/bugzilla_mesa.sh and bin/shortlog_mesa.sh scripts can be used to
327 create the HTML-formatted lists of bugfixes and changes to include in the file.
328 Link the new docs/relnotes/x.y.z.html file into the main <a href="relnotes.html">relnotes.html</a> file.
329 </p>
330
331 <p>
332 Update <a href="index.html">docs/index.html</a>.
333 </p>
334
335 <p>
336 Tag the files with the release name (in the form <b>mesa-x.y</b>)
337 with: <code>git tag -s mesa-x.y -m "Mesa x.y Release"</code>
338 Then: <code>git push origin mesa-x.y</code>
339 </p>
340
341
342 <h3>Make the tarballs</h3>
343 <p>
344 Make the distribution files. From inside the Mesa directory:
345 <pre>
346 ./autogen.sh
347 make tarballs
348 </pre>
349
350 <p>
351 After the tarballs are created, the md5 checksums for the files will
352 be computed.
353 Add them to the docs/relnotes/x.y.html file.
354 </p>
355
356 <p>
357 Copy the distribution files to a temporary directory, unpack them,
358 compile everything, and run some demos to be sure everything works.
359 </p>
360
361 <h3>Update the website and announce the release</h3>
362 <p>
363 Make a new directory for the release on annarchy.freedesktop.org with:
364 <br>
365 <code>
366 mkdir /srv/ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/x.y
367 </code>
368 </p>
369
370 <p>
371 Basically, to upload the tarball files with:
372 <br>
373 <code>
374 rsync -avP -e ssh MesaLib-x.y.* USERNAME@annarchy.freedesktop.org:/srv/ftp.freedesktop.org/pub/mesa/x.y/
375 </code>
376 </p>
377
378 <p>
379 Update the web site by copying the docs/ directory's files to
380 /home/users/b/br/brianp/mesa-www/htdocs/ with:
381 <br>
382 <code>
383 sftp USERNAME,mesa3d@web.sourceforge.net
384 </code>
385 </p>
386
387 <p>
388 Make an announcement on the mailing lists:
389
390 <em>mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org</em>,
391 <em>mesa-users@lists.freedesktop.org</em>
392 and
393 <em>mesa-announce@lists.freedesktop.org</em>
394 </p>
395
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