]> git.proxmox.com Git - mirror_ovs.git/blame - CONTRIBUTING.md
datapath-windows: Fix IP fragmentation
[mirror_ovs.git] / CONTRIBUTING.md
CommitLineData
55fa0147
BP
1How to Submit Patches for Open vSwitch
2======================================
3
d7564331 4Send changes to Open vSwitch as patches to dev@openvswitch.org.
55fa0147
BP
5One patch per email, please. More details are included below.
6
542cc9bb 7If you are using Git, then `git format-patch` takes care of most of
55fa0147
BP
8the mechanics described below for you.
9
10Before You Start
11----------------
12
13Before you send patches at all, make sure that each patch makes sense.
14In particular:
15
542cc9bb
TG
16 - A given patch should not break anything, even if later
17 patches fix the problems that it causes. The source tree
18 should still build and work after each patch is applied.
19 (This enables `git bisect` to work best.)
55fa0147 20
542cc9bb
TG
21 - A patch should make one logical change. Don't make
22 multiple, logically unconnected changes to disparate
23 subsystems in a single patch.
55fa0147 24
542cc9bb
TG
25 - A patch that adds or removes user-visible features should
26 also update the appropriate user documentation or manpages.
121daded
AA
27 Check "Feature Deprecation Guidelines" section in this document
28 if you intend to remove user-visible feature.
55fa0147
BP
29
30Testing is also important:
31
93e83e8b
MK
32 - A patch that modifies existing code should be tested with
33 `make check` before submission.
34
35 - A patch that adds or deletes files should also be tested with
542cc9bb 36 `make distcheck` before submission.
55fa0147 37
542cc9bb
TG
38 - A patch that modifies Linux kernel code should be at least
39 build-tested on various Linux kernel versions before
40 submission. I suggest versions 2.6.32 and whatever
41 the current latest release version is at the time.
55fa0147 42
542cc9bb
TG
43 - A patch that modifies the ofproto or vswitchd code should be
44 tested in at least simple cases before submission.
55fa0147 45
542cc9bb
TG
46 - A patch that modifies xenserver code should be tested on
47 XenServer before submission.
55fa0147 48
cccf7e9d
TG
49If you are using GitHub, then you may utilize the travis-ci.org CI build
50system by linking your GitHub repository to it. This will run some of
51the above tests automatically when you push changes to your repository.
9feb1017
TG
52See the "Continuous Integration with Travis-CI" in the [INSTALL.md] file
53for details on how to set it up.
cccf7e9d 54
55fa0147
BP
55Email Subject
56-------------
57
58The subject line of your email should be in the following format:
542cc9bb 59`[PATCH <n>/<m>] <area>: <summary>`
55fa0147 60
542cc9bb
TG
61 - `[PATCH <n>/<m>]` indicates that this is the nth of a series
62 of m patches. It helps reviewers to read patches in the
63 correct order. You may omit this prefix if you are sending
64 only one patch.
55fa0147 65
542cc9bb
TG
66 - `<area>:` indicates the area of the Open vSwitch to which the
67 change applies (often the name of a source file or a
68 directory). You may omit it if the change crosses multiple
69 distinct pieces of code.
55fa0147 70
542cc9bb 71 - `<summary>` briefly describes the change.
55fa0147 72
542cc9bb 73The subject, minus the `[PATCH <n>/<m>]` prefix, becomes the first line
55fa0147
BP
74of the commit's change log message.
75
76Description
77-----------
78
79The body of the email should start with a more thorough description of
80the change. This becomes the body of the commit message, following
81the subject. There is no need to duplicate the summary given in the
82subject.
83
84Please limit lines in the description to 79 characters in width.
85
86The description should include:
87
542cc9bb 88 - The rationale for the change.
55fa0147 89
542cc9bb
TG
90 - Design description and rationale (but this might be better
91 added as code comments).
55fa0147 92
542cc9bb
TG
93 - Testing that you performed (or testing that should be done
94 but you could not for whatever reason).
55fa0147 95
542cc9bb 96 - Tags (see below).
80eb2acf 97
55fa0147
BP
98There is no need to describe what the patch actually changed, if the
99reader can see it for himself.
100
101If the patch refers to a commit already in the Open vSwitch
102repository, please include both the commit number and the subject of
8d62e151
BP
103the patch, e.g. 'commit 632d136c (vswitch: Remove restriction on
104datapath names.)'.
55fa0147
BP
105
106If you, the person sending the patch, did not write the patch
107yourself, then the very first line of the body should take the form
542cc9bb 108`From: <author name> <author email>`, followed by a blank line. This
55fa0147 109will automatically cause the named author to be credited with
80eb2acf
BP
110authorship in the repository.
111
112Tags
113----
114
115The description ends with a series of tags, written one to a line as
116the last paragraph of the email. Each tag indicates some property of
117the patch in an easily machine-parseable manner.
118
119Examples of common tags follow.
120
121 Signed-off-by: Author Name <author.name@email.address...>
122
123 Informally, this indicates that Author Name is the author or
124 submitter of a patch and has the authority to submit it under
125 the terms of the license. The formal meaning is to agree to
126 the Developer's Certificate of Origin (see below).
127
128 If the author and submitter are different, each must sign off.
129 If the patch has more than one author, all must sign off.
130
131 Signed-off-by: Author Name <author.name@email.address...>
132 Signed-off-by: Submitter Name <submitter.name@email.address...>
133
134 Co-authored-by: Author Name <author.name@email.address...>
135
136 Git can only record a single person as the author of a given
137 patch. In the rare event that a patch has multiple authors,
138 one must be given the credit in Git and the others must be
139 credited via Co-authored-by: tags. (All co-authors must also
140 sign off.)
141
142 Acked-by: Reviewer Name <reviewer.name@email.address...>
143
144 Reviewers will often give an Acked-by: tag to code of which
145 they approve. It is polite for the submitter to add the tag
146 before posting the next version of the patch or applying the
147 patch to the repository. Quality reviewing is hard work, so
148 this gives a small amount of credit to the reviewer.
149
150 Not all reviewers give Acked-by: tags when they provide
151 positive reviews. It's customary only to add tags from
152 reviewers who actually provide them explicitly.
153
154 Tested-by: Tester Name <reviewer.name@email.address...>
155
156 When someone tests a patch, it is customary to add a
157 Tested-by: tag indicating that. It's rare for a tester to
158 actually provide the tag; usually the patch submitter makes
159 the tag himself in response to an email indicating successful
160 testing results.
161
1b17f053
BP
162 Tested-at: <URL>
163
164 When a test report is publicly available, this provides a way
165 to reference it. Typical <URL>s would be build logs from
166 autobuilders or references to mailing list archives.
167
168 Some autobuilders only retain their logs for a limited amount
169 of time. It is less useful to cite these because they may be
170 dead links for a developer reading the commit message months
171 or years later.
172
80eb2acf
BP
173 Reported-by: Reporter Name <reporter.name@email.address...>
174
175 When a patch fixes a bug reported by some person, please
176 credit the reporter in the commit log in this fashion. Please
177 also add the reporter's name and email address to the list of
178 people who provided helpful bug reports in the AUTHORS file at
179 the top of the source tree.
180
181 Fairly often, the reporter of a bug also tests the fix.
182 Occasionally one sees a combined "Reported-and-tested-by:" tag
183 used to indicate this. It is also acceptable, and more
184 common, to include both tags separately.
185
186 (If a bug report is received privately, it might not always be
187 appropriate to publicly credit the reporter. If in doubt,
188 please ask the reporter.)
189
190 Requested-by: Requester Name <requester.name@email.address...>
191 Suggested-by: Suggester Name <suggester.name@email.address...>
192
193 When a patch implements a request or a suggestion made by some
194 person, please credit that person in the commit log in this
195 fashion. For a helpful suggestion, please also add the
196 person's name and email address to the list of people who
197 provided suggestions in the AUTHORS file at the top of the
198 source tree.
199
200 (If a suggestion or a request is received privately, it might
201 not always be appropriate to publicly give credit. If in
202 doubt, please ask.)
203
204 Reported-at: <URL>
205
206 If a patch fixes or is otherwise related to a bug reported in
207 a public bug tracker, please include a reference to the bug in
208 the form of a URL to the specific bug, e.g.:
209
210 Reported-at: https://bugs.debian.org/743635
211
212 This is also an appropriate way to refer to bug report emails
213 in public email archives, e.g.:
214
215 Reported-at: http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/dev/2014-June/040952.html
55fa0147 216
80eb2acf 217 VMware-BZ: #1234567
af822017 218 ONF-JIRA: EXT-12345
d60a2b53 219
80eb2acf
BP
220 If a patch fixes or is otherwise related to a bug reported in
221 a private bug tracker, you may include some tracking ID for
222 the bug for your own reference. Please include some
af822017
BP
223 identifier to make the origin clear, e.g. "VMware-BZ" refers
224 to VMware's internal Bugzilla instance and "ONF-JIRA" refers
225 to the Open Networking Foundation's JIRA bug tracker.
d60a2b53 226
80eb2acf
BP
227 Bug #1234567.
228 Issue: 1234567
d60a2b53 229
80eb2acf
BP
230 These are obsolete forms of VMware-BZ: that can still be seen
231 in old change log entries. (They are obsolete because they do
232 not tell the reader what bug tracker is referred to.)
d60a2b53
CW
233
234Developer's Certificate of Origin
235---------------------------------
236
237To help track the author of a patch as well as the submission chain,
238and be clear that the developer has authority to submit a patch for
239inclusion in openvswitch please sign off your work. The sign off
240certifies the following:
241
242 Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
243
244 By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
245
246 (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
247 have the right to submit it under the open source license
248 indicated in the file; or
249
250 (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
251 of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
252 license and I have the right under that license to submit that
253 work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
254 by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
255 permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
256 in the file; or
257
258 (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
259 person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
260 it.
261
262 (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
263 are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
264 personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
265 maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
266 this project or the open source license(s) involved.
267
121daded
AA
268Feature Deprecation Guidelines
269------------------------------
270
271Open vSwitch is intended to be user friendly. This means that under
272normal circumstances we don't abruptly remove features from OVS that
273some users might still be using. Otherwise, if we would, then we would
274possibly break our user setup when they upgrade and would receive bug
275reports.
276
277Typical process to deprecate a feature in Open vSwitch is to:
278
279 (a) Mention deprecation of a feature in the NEWS file. Also, mention
280 expected release or absolute time when this feature would be removed
281 from OVS altogether. Don't use relative time (e.g. "in 6 months")
282 because that is not clearly interpretable.
283
284 (b) If Open vSwitch is configured to use deprecated feature it should print
285 a warning message to the log files clearly indicating that feature is
286 deprecated and that use of it should be avoided.
287
288 (c) If this feature is mentioned in man pages, then add "Deprecated" keyword
289 to it.
290
291Also, if there is alternative feature to the one that is about to be marked
292as deprecated, then mention it in (a), (b) and (c) as well.
293
294Remember to followup and actually remove the feature from OVS codebase
295once deprecation grace period has expired and users had opportunity to
296use at least one OVS release that would have informed them about feature
297deprecation!
298
55fa0147
BP
299Comments
300--------
301
302If you want to include any comments in your email that should not be
303part of the commit's change log message, put them after the
542cc9bb 304description, separated by a line that contains just `---`. It may be
55fa0147
BP
305helpful to include a diffstat here for changes that touch multiple
306files.
307
308Patch
309-----
310
566b8c8d 311The patch should be in the body of the email following the description,
55fa0147
BP
312separated by a blank line.
313
542cc9bb
TG
314Patches should be in `diff -up` format. We recommend that you use Git
315to produce your patches, in which case you should use the `-M -C`
316options to `git diff` (or other Git tools) if your patch renames or
55fa0147
BP
317copies files. Quilt (http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt) might
318be useful if you do not want to use Git.
319
320Patches should be inline in the email message. Some email clients
321corrupt white space or wrap lines in patches. There are hints on how
322to configure many email clients to avoid this problem at:
323 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob_plain;f=Documentation/email-clients.txt
324If you cannot convince your email client not to mangle patches, then
325sending the patch as an attachment is a second choice.
326
327Please follow the style used in the code that you are modifying. The
9feb1017
TG
328[CodingStyle.md] file describes the coding style used in most of Open
329vSwitch. Use Linux kernel coding style for Linux kernel code.
55fa0147
BP
330
331Example
332-------
333
542cc9bb 334```
d60a2b53
CW
335From fa29a1c2c17682879e79a21bb0cdd5bbe67fa7c0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
336From: Jesse Gross <jesse@nicira.com>
337Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 13:17:24 -0800
338Subject: [PATCH] datapath: Alphabetize include/net/ipv6.h compat header.
55fa0147 339
d60a2b53 340Signed-off-by: Jesse Gross <jesse@nicira.com>
55fa0147 341---
d60a2b53
CW
342 datapath/linux/Modules.mk | 2 +-
343 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
344
345diff --git a/datapath/linux/Modules.mk b/datapath/linux/Modules.mk
346index fdd952e..f6cb88e 100644
347--- a/datapath/linux/Modules.mk
348+++ b/datapath/linux/Modules.mk
349@@ -56,11 +56,11 @@ openvswitch_headers += \
350 linux/compat/include/net/dst.h \
351 linux/compat/include/net/genetlink.h \
352 linux/compat/include/net/ip.h \
353+ linux/compat/include/net/ipv6.h \
354 linux/compat/include/net/net_namespace.h \
355 linux/compat/include/net/netlink.h \
356 linux/compat/include/net/protocol.h \
357 linux/compat/include/net/route.h \
358- linux/compat/include/net/ipv6.h \
359 linux/compat/genetlink.inc
55fa0147 360
d60a2b53 361 both_modules += brcompat
55fa0147 362--
d60a2b53 3631.7.7.3
542cc9bb 364```
55fa0147 365
9feb1017
TG
366[INSTALL.md]:INSTALL.md
367[CodingStyle.md]:CodingStyle.md