docs: Document GitLab merge request process (email alternative)
[mesa.git] / docs / submittingpatches.html
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11 <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
12 </div>
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15 <div class="content">
16
17 <h1>Submitting patches</h1>
18
19
20 <ul>
21 <li><a href="#guidelines">Basic guidelines</a>
22 <li><a href="#formatting">Patch formatting</a>
23 <li><a href="#testing">Testing Patches</a>
24 <li><a href="#submit">Submitting Patches</a>
25 <li><a href="#reviewing">Reviewing Patches</a>
26 <li><a href="#nominations">Nominating a commit for a stable branch</a>
27 <li><a href="#criteria">Criteria for accepting patches to the stable branch</a>
28 <li><a href="#backports">Sending backports for the stable branch</a>
29 <li><a href="#gittips">Git tips</a>
30 </ul>
31
32 <h2 id="guidelines">Basic guidelines</h2>
33
34 <ul>
35 <li>Patches should not mix code changes with code formatting changes (except,
36 perhaps, in very trivial cases.)
37 <li>Code patches should follow Mesa
38 <a href="codingstyle.html" target="_parent">coding conventions</a>.
39 <li>Whenever possible, patches should only affect individual Mesa/Gallium
40 components.
41 <li>Patches should never introduce build breaks and should be bisectable (see
42 <code>git bisect</code>.)
43 <li>Patches should be properly <a href="#formatting">formatted</a>.
44 <li>Patches should be sufficiently <a href="#testing">tested</a> before submitting.
45 <li>Patches should be <a href="#submit">submitted</a>
46 to <a href="#mailing">mesa-dev</a> or with
47 a <a href="#merge-request">merge request</a>
48 for <a href="#reviewing">review</a>.
49
50 </ul>
51
52 <h2 id="formatting">Patch formatting</h2>
53
54 <ul>
55 <li>Lines should be limited to 75 characters or less so that git logs
56 displayed in 80-column terminals avoid line wrapping. Note that git
57 log uses 4 spaces of indentation (4 + 75 &lt; 80).
58 <li>The first line should be a short, concise summary of the change prefixed
59 with a module name. Examples:
60 <pre>
61 mesa: Add support for querying GL_VERTEX_ATTRIB_ARRAY_LONG
62
63 gallium: add PIPE_CAP_DEVICE_RESET_STATUS_QUERY
64
65 i965: Fix missing type in local variable declaration.
66 </pre>
67 <li>Subsequent patch comments should describe the change in more detail,
68 if needed. For example:
69 <pre>
70 i965: Remove end-of-thread SEND alignment code.
71
72 This was present in Eric's initial implementation of the compaction code
73 for Sandybridge (commit 077d01b6). There is no documentation saying this
74 is necessary, and removing it causes no regressions in piglit on any
75 platform.
76 </pre>
77 <li>A "Signed-off-by:" line is not required, but not discouraged either.
78 <li>If a patch addresses a bugzilla issue, that should be noted in the
79 patch comment. For example:
80 <pre>
81 Bugzilla: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=89689
82 </pre>
83 <li>If a patch addresses a issue introduced with earlier commit, that should be
84 noted in the patch comment. For example:
85 <pre>
86 Fixes: d7b3707c612 "util/disk_cache: use stat() to check if entry is a directory"
87 </pre>
88 <li>If there have been several revisions to a patch during the review
89 process, they should be noted such as in this example:
90 <pre>
91 st/mesa: add ARB_texture_stencil8 support (v4)
92
93 if we support stencil texturing, enable texture_stencil8
94 there is no requirement to support native S8 for this,
95 the texture can be converted to x24s8 fine.
96
97 v2: fold fixes from Marek in:
98 a) put S8 last in the list
99 b) fix renderable to always test for d/s renderable
100 fixup the texture case to use a stencil only format
101 for picking the format for the texture view.
102 v3: hit fallback for getteximage
103 v4: put s8 back in front, it shouldn't get picked now (Ilia)
104 </pre>
105 <li>If someone tested your patch, document it with a line like this:
106 <pre>
107 Tested-by: Joe Hacker &lt;jhacker@foo.com&gt;
108 </pre>
109 <li>If the patch was reviewed (usually the case) or acked by someone,
110 that should be documented with:
111 <pre>
112 Reviewed-by: Joe Hacker &lt;jhacker@foo.com&gt;
113 Acked-by: Joe Hacker &lt;jhacker@foo.com&gt;
114 </pre>
115 <li>If sending later revision of a patch, add all the tags - ack, r-b,
116 Cc: mesa-stable and/or other. This provides reviewers with quick feedback if the
117 patch has already been reviewed.
118 <li>In order for your patch to reach the prospective reviewer easier/faster,
119 use the script scripts/get_reviewer.pl to get a list of individuals and include
120 them in the CC list.
121 <br>
122 Please use common sense and do <strong>not</strong> blindly add everyone.
123 <br>
124 <pre>
125 $ scripts/get_reviewer.pl --help # to get the help screen
126 $ scripts/get_reviewer.pl -f src/egl/drivers/dri2/platform_android.c
127 Rob Herring &lt;robh@kernel.org&gt; (reviewer:ANDROID EGL SUPPORT,added_lines:188/700=27%,removed_lines:58/283=20%)
128 Tomasz Figa &lt;tfiga@chromium.org&gt; (reviewer:ANDROID EGL SUPPORT,authored:12/41=29%,added_lines:308/700=44%,removed_lines:115/283=41%)
129 Emil Velikov &lt;emil.l.velikov@gmail.com&gt; (authored:13/41=32%,removed_lines:76/283=27%)
130 </pre>
131 </ul>
132
133
134
135 <h2 id="testing">Testing Patches</h2>
136
137 <p>
138 It should go without saying that patches must be tested. In general,
139 do whatever testing is prudent.
140 </p>
141
142 <p>
143 You should always run the Mesa test suite before submitting patches.
144 The test suite can be run using the 'make check' command. All tests
145 must pass before patches will be accepted, this may mean you have
146 to update the tests themselves.
147 </p>
148
149 <p>
150 Whenever possible and applicable, test the patch with
151 <a href="https://piglit.freedesktop.org">Piglit</a> and/or
152 <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/deqp/">dEQP</a>
153 to check for regressions.
154 </p>
155
156 <p>
157 As mentioned at the begining, patches should be bisectable.
158 A good way to test this is to make use of the `git rebase` command,
159 to run your tests on each commit. Assuming your branch is based off
160 <code>origin/master</code>, you can run:
161 </p>
162 <pre>
163 $ git rebase --interactive --exec "make check" origin/master
164 </pre>
165 <p>
166 replacing <code>"make check"</code> with whatever other test you want to
167 run.
168 </p>
169
170
171 <h2 id="submit">Submitting Patches</h2>
172
173 <p>
174 Patches may be submitted to the Mesa project by
175 <a href="#mailing">email</a> or with a
176 GitLab <a href="#merge-request">merge request</a>. To prevent
177 duplicate code review, only use one method to submit your changes.
178 </p>
179
180 <h3 id="mailing">Mailing Patches</h3>
181
182 <p>
183 Patches may be sent to the mesa-dev mailing list for review:
184 <a href="https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev">
185 mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org</a>.
186 When submitting a patch make sure to use
187 <a href="https://git-scm.com/docs/git-send-email">git send-email</a>
188 rather than attaching patches to emails. Sending patches as
189 attachments prevents people from being able to provide in-line review
190 comments.
191 </p>
192
193 <p>
194 When submitting follow-up patches you can use --in-reply-to to make v2, v3,
195 etc patches show up as replies to the originals. This usually works well
196 when you're sending out updates to individual patches (as opposed to
197 re-sending the whole series). Using --in-reply-to makes
198 it harder for reviewers to accidentally review old patches.
199 </p>
200
201 <p>
202 When submitting follow-up patches you should also login to
203 <a href="https://patchwork.freedesktop.org">patchwork</a> and change the
204 state of your old patches to Superseded.
205 </p>
206
207 <p>
208 Some companies' mail server automatically append a legal disclaimer,
209 usually containing something along the lines of "The information in this
210 email is confidential" and "distribution is strictly prohibited".<br/>
211 These legal notices prevent us from being able to accept your patch,
212 rendering the whole process pointless. Please make sure these are
213 disabled before sending your patches. (Note that you may need to contact
214 your email administrator for this.)
215 </p>
216
217 <h3 id="merge-request">GitLab Merge Requests</h3>
218
219 <p>
220 <a href="https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa">GitLab</a> Merge
221 Requests (MR) can also be used to submit patches for Mesa.
222 </p>
223
224 <p>
225 If the MR may have interest for most of the Mesa community, you can
226 send an email to the mesa-dev email list including a link to the MR.
227 Don't send the patch to mesa-dev, just the MR link.
228 </p>
229 <p>
230 Add labels to your MR to help reviewers find it. For example:
231 <ul>
232 <li>Mesa changes affecting all drivers: mesa
233 <li>Hardware vendor specific code: amd, intel, nvidia, ...
234 <li>Driver specific code: anvil, freedreno, i965, iris, radeonsi,
235 radv, vc4, ...
236 <li>Other tag examples: gallium, util
237 </ul>
238 </p>
239 <p>
240 If you revise your patches based on code review and push an update
241 to your branch, you should maintain a <strong>clean</strong> history
242 in your patches. There should not be "fixup" patches in the history.
243 The series should be buildable and functional after every commit
244 whenever you push the branch.
245 </p>
246 <p>
247 It is your responsibility to keep the MR alive and making progress,
248 as there are no guarantees that a Mesa dev will independently take
249 interest in it.
250 </p>
251 <p>
252 Some other notes:
253 <ul>
254 <li>Make changes and update your branch based on feedback
255 <li>Old, stale MR may be closed, but you can reopen it if you
256 still want to pursue the changes
257 <li>You should periodically check to see if your MR needs to be
258 rebased
259 <li>Make sure your MR is closed if your patches get pushed outside
260 of GitLab
261 </ul>
262 </p>
263
264 <h2 id="reviewing">Reviewing Patches</h2>
265
266 <p>
267 To participate in code review, you should monitor the
268 <a href="https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev">
269 mesa-dev</a> email list and the GitLab
270 Mesa <a href="https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/merge_requests">Merge
271 Requests</a> page.
272 </p>
273
274 <p>
275 When you've reviewed a patch on the mailing list, please be unambiguous
276 about your review. That is, state either
277 </p>
278 <pre>
279 Reviewed-by: Joe Hacker &lt;jhacker@foo.com&gt;
280 </pre>
281 or
282 <pre>
283 Acked-by: Joe Hacker &lt;jhacker@foo.com&gt;
284 </pre>
285 <p>
286 Rather than saying just "LGTM" or "Seems OK".
287 </p>
288
289 <p>
290 If small changes are suggested, it's OK to say something like:
291 </p>
292 <pre>
293 With the above fixes, Reviewed-by: Joe Hacker &lt;jhacker@foo.com&gt;
294 </pre>
295 <p>
296 which tells the patch author that the patch can be committed, as long
297 as the issues are resolved first.
298 </p>
299
300
301 <h2 id="nominations">Nominating a commit for a stable branch</h2>
302
303 <p>
304 There are three ways to nominate a patch for inclusion in the stable branch and
305 release.
306 </p>
307 <ul>
308 <li> By adding the Cc: mesa-stable@ tag as described below.
309 <li> Sending the commit ID (as seen in master branch) to the mesa-stable@ mailing list.
310 <li> Forwarding the patch from the mesa-dev@ mailing list.
311 </li>
312 </ul>
313 <p>
314 Note: resending patch identical to one on mesa-dev@ or one that differs only
315 by the extra mesa-stable@ tag is <strong>not</strong> recommended.
316 </p>
317 <p>
318 If you are not the author of the original patch, please Cc: them in your
319 nomination request.
320 </p>
321
322 <p>
323 The current patch status can be observed in the <a href="releasing.html#stagingbranch">staging branch</a>.
324 </p>
325
326 <h3 id="thetag">The stable tag</h3>
327
328 <p>
329 If you want a commit to be applied to a stable branch,
330 you should add an appropriate note to the commit message.
331 </p>
332
333 <p>
334 Here are some examples of such a note:
335 </p>
336 <ul>
337 <li>CC: &lt;mesa-stable@lists.freedesktop.org&gt;</li>
338 </ul>
339
340 Simply adding the CC to the mesa-stable list address is adequate to nominate
341 the commit for all the active stable branches. If the commit is not applicable
342 for said branch the stable-release manager will reply stating so.
343
344 This "CC" syntax for patch nomination will cause patches to automatically be
345 copied to the mesa-stable@ mailing list when you use "git send-email" to send
346 patches to the mesa-dev@ mailing list. If you prefer using --suppress-cc that
347 won't have any negative effect on the patch nomination.
348
349 <p>
350 Note: by removing the tag [as the commit is pushed] the patch is
351 <strong>explicitly</strong> rejected from inclusion in the stable branch(es).
352 <br>
353 Thus, drop the line <strong>only</strong> if you want to cancel the nomination.
354 </p>
355
356 Alternatively, if one uses the "Fixes" tag as described in the "Patch formatting"
357 section, it nominates a commit for all active stable branches that include the
358 commit that is referred to.
359
360 <h2 id="criteria">Criteria for accepting patches to the stable branch</h2>
361
362 Mesa has a designated release manager for each stable branch, and the release
363 manager is the only developer that should be pushing changes to these branches.
364 Everyone else should nominate patches using the mechanism described above.
365
366 The following rules define which patches are accepted and which are not. The
367 stable-release manager is also given broad discretion in rejecting patches
368 that have been nominated.
369
370 <ul>
371 <li>Patch must conform with the <a href="#guidelines">Basic guidelines</a></li>
372
373 <li>Patch must have landed in master first. In case where the original
374 patch is too large and/or otherwise contradicts with the rules set within, a
375 backport is appropriate.</li>
376
377 <li>It must not introduce a regression - be that build or runtime wise.
378
379 Note: If the regression is due to faulty piglit/dEQP/CTS/other test the
380 latter must be fixed first. A reference to the offending test(s) and
381 respective fix(es) should be provided in the nominated patch.</li>
382
383 <li>Patch cannot be larger than 100 lines.</li>
384
385 <li>Patches that move code around with no functional change should be
386 rejected.</li>
387
388 <li>Patch must be a bug fix and not a new feature.
389
390 Note: An exception to this rule, are hardware-enabling "features". For
391 example, <a href="#backports">backports</a> of new code to support a
392 newly-developed hardware product can be accepted if they can be reasonably
393 determined not to have effects on other hardware.</li>
394
395 <li>Patch must be reviewed, For example, the commit message has Reviewed-by,
396 Signed-off-by, or Tested-by tags from someone but the author.</li>
397
398 <li>Performance patches are considered only if they provide information
399 about the hardware, program in question and observed improvement. Use numbers
400 to represent your measurements.</li>
401 </ul>
402
403 If the patch complies with the rules it will be
404 <a href="releasing.html#pickntest">cherry-picked</a>. Alternatively the release
405 manager will reply to the patch in question stating why the patch has been
406 rejected or would request a backport.
407
408 A summary of all the picked/rejected patches will be presented in the
409 <a href="releasing.html#prerelease">pre-release</a> announcement.
410
411 The stable-release manager may at times need to force-push changes to the
412 stable branches, for example, to drop a previously-picked patch that was later
413 identified as causing a regression). These force-pushes may cause changes to
414 be lost from the stable branch if developers push things directly. Consider
415 yourself warned.
416
417 <h2 id="backports">Sending backports for the stable branch</h2>
418 By default merge conflicts are resolved by the stable-release manager. In which
419 case he/she should provide a comment about the changes required, alongside the
420 <code>Conflicts</code> section. Summary of which will be provided in the
421 <a href="releasing.html#prerelease">pre-release</a> announcement.
422 <br>
423 Developers are interested in sending backports are recommended to use either a
424 <code>[BACKPORT #branch]</code> subject prefix or provides similar information
425 within the commit summary.
426
427 <h2 id="gittips">Git tips</h2>
428
429 <ul>
430 <li><code>git rebase -i ...</code> is your friend. Don't be afraid to use it.
431 <li>Apply a fixup to commit FOO.
432 <pre>
433 git add ...
434 git commit --fixup=FOO
435 git rebase -i --autosquash ...
436 </pre>
437 <li>Test for build breakage between patches e.g last 8 commits.
438 <pre>
439 git rebase -i --exec="make -j4" HEAD~8
440 </pre>
441 <li>Sets the default mailing address for your repo.
442 <pre>
443 git config --local sendemail.to mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org
444 </pre>
445 <li> Add version to subject line of patch series in this case for the last 8
446 commits before sending.
447 <pre>
448 git send-email --subject-prefix="PATCH v4" HEAD~8
449 git send-email -v4 @~8 # shorter version, inherited from git format-patch
450 </pre>
451 <li> Configure git to use the get_reviewer.pl script interactively. Thus you
452 can avoid adding the world to the CC list.
453 <pre>
454 git config sendemail.cccmd "./scripts/get_reviewer.pl -i"
455 </pre>
456 </ul>
457
458
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