CONTRIBUTING.md

   1 How to Submit Patches for Open vSwitch
   2 ======================================
   3
   4 Send changes to Open vSwitch as patches to dev@openvswitch.org.
   5 One patch per email, please.  More details are included below.
   6
   7 If you are using Git, then `git format-patch` takes care of most of
   8 the mechanics described below for you.
   9
  10 Before You Start
  11 ----------------
  12
  13 Before you send patches at all, make sure that each patch makes sense.
  14 In particular:
  15
  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.)
  20
  21   - A patch should make one logical change.  Don't make
  22     multiple, logically unconnected changes to disparate
  23     subsystems in a single patch.
  24
  25   - A patch that adds or removes user-visible features should
  26     also update the appropriate user documentation or manpages.
  27
  28 Testing is also important:
  29
  30   - A patch that adds or deletes files should be tested with
  31     `make distcheck` before submission.
  32
  33   - A patch that modifies Linux kernel code should be at least
  34     build-tested on various Linux kernel versions before
  35     submission.  I suggest versions 2.6.32 and whatever
  36     the current latest release version is at the time.
  37
  38   - A patch that modifies the ofproto or vswitchd code should be
  39     tested in at least simple cases before submission.
  40
  41   - A patch that modifies xenserver code should be tested on
  42     XenServer before submission.
  43
  44 If you are using GitHub, then you may utilize the travis-ci.org CI build
  45 system by linking your GitHub repository to it. This will run some of
  46 the above tests automatically when you push changes to your repository.
  47 See the "Continuous Integration with Travis-CI" in the [INSTALL.md] file
  48 for details on how to set it up.
  49
  50 Email Subject
  51 -------------
  52
  53 The subject line of your email should be in the following format:
  54 `[PATCH <n>/<m>] <area>: <summary>`
  55
  56   - `[PATCH <n>/<m>]` indicates that this is the nth of a series
  57     of m patches.  It helps reviewers to read patches in the
  58     correct order.  You may omit this prefix if you are sending
  59     only one patch.
  60
  61   - `<area>:` indicates the area of the Open vSwitch to which the
  62     change applies (often the name of a source file or a
  63     directory).  You may omit it if the change crosses multiple
  64     distinct pieces of code.
  65
  66   - `<summary>` briefly describes the change.
  67
  68 The subject, minus the `[PATCH <n>/<m>]` prefix, becomes the first line
  69 of the commit's change log message.
  70
  71 Description
  72 -----------
  73
  74 The body of the email should start with a more thorough description of
  75 the change.  This becomes the body of the commit message, following
  76 the subject.  There is no need to duplicate the summary given in the
  77 subject.
  78
  79 Please limit lines in the description to 79 characters in width.
  80
  81 The description should include:
  82
  83   - The rationale for the change.
  84
  85   - Design description and rationale (but this might be better
  86     added as code comments).
  87
  88   - Testing that you performed (or testing that should be done
  89     but you could not for whatever reason).
  90
  91   - Tags (see below).
  92
  93 There is no need to describe what the patch actually changed, if the
  94 reader can see it for himself.
  95
  96 If the patch refers to a commit already in the Open vSwitch
  97 repository, please include both the commit number and the subject of
  98 the patch, e.g. 'commit 632d136c (vswitch: Remove restriction on
  99 datapath names.)'.
 100
 101 If you, the person sending the patch, did not write the patch
 102 yourself, then the very first line of the body should take the form
 103 `From: <author name> <author email>`, followed by a blank line.  This
 104 will automatically cause the named author to be credited with
 105 authorship in the repository.
 106
 107 Tags
 108 ----
 109
 110 The description ends with a series of tags, written one to a line as
 111 the last paragraph of the email.  Each tag indicates some property of
 112 the patch in an easily machine-parseable manner.
 113
 114 Examples of common tags follow.
 115
 116     Signed-off-by: Author Name <author.name@email.address...>
 117
 118         Informally, this indicates that Author Name is the author or
 119         submitter of a patch and has the authority to submit it under
 120         the terms of the license.  The formal meaning is to agree to
 121         the Developer's Certificate of Origin (see below).
 122
 123         If the author and submitter are different, each must sign off.
 124         If the patch has more than one author, all must sign off.
 125
 126         Signed-off-by: Author Name <author.name@email.address...>
 127         Signed-off-by: Submitter Name <submitter.name@email.address...>
 128
 129     Co-authored-by: Author Name <author.name@email.address...>
 130
 131         Git can only record a single person as the author of a given
 132         patch.  In the rare event that a patch has multiple authors,
 133         one must be given the credit in Git and the others must be
 134         credited via Co-authored-by: tags.  (All co-authors must also
 135         sign off.)
 136
 137     Acked-by: Reviewer Name <reviewer.name@email.address...>
 138
 139         Reviewers will often give an Acked-by: tag to code of which
 140         they approve.  It is polite for the submitter to add the tag
 141         before posting the next version of the patch or applying the
 142         patch to the repository.  Quality reviewing is hard work, so
 143         this gives a small amount of credit to the reviewer.
 144
 145         Not all reviewers give Acked-by: tags when they provide
 146         positive reviews.  It's customary only to add tags from
 147         reviewers who actually provide them explicitly.
 148
 149     Tested-by: Tester Name <reviewer.name@email.address...>
 150
 151         When someone tests a patch, it is customary to add a
 152         Tested-by: tag indicating that.  It's rare for a tester to
 153         actually provide the tag; usually the patch submitter makes
 154         the tag himself in response to an email indicating successful
 155         testing results.
 156
 157     Reported-by: Reporter Name <reporter.name@email.address...>
 158
 159         When a patch fixes a bug reported by some person, please
 160         credit the reporter in the commit log in this fashion.  Please
 161         also add the reporter's name and email address to the list of
 162         people who provided helpful bug reports in the AUTHORS file at
 163         the top of the source tree.
 164
 165         Fairly often, the reporter of a bug also tests the fix.
 166         Occasionally one sees a combined "Reported-and-tested-by:" tag
 167         used to indicate this.  It is also acceptable, and more
 168         common, to include both tags separately.
 169
 170         (If a bug report is received privately, it might not always be
 171         appropriate to publicly credit the reporter.  If in doubt,
 172         please ask the reporter.)
 173
 174     Requested-by: Requester Name <requester.name@email.address...>
 175     Suggested-by: Suggester Name <suggester.name@email.address...>
 176
 177         When a patch implements a request or a suggestion made by some
 178         person, please credit that person in the commit log in this
 179         fashion.  For a helpful suggestion, please also add the
 180         person's name and email address to the list of people who
 181         provided suggestions in the AUTHORS file at the top of the
 182         source tree.
 183
 184         (If a suggestion or a request is received privately, it might
 185         not always be appropriate to publicly give credit.  If in
 186         doubt, please ask.)
 187
 188     Reported-at: <URL>
 189
 190         If a patch fixes or is otherwise related to a bug reported in
 191         a public bug tracker, please include a reference to the bug in
 192         the form of a URL to the specific bug, e.g.:
 193
 194         Reported-at: https://bugs.debian.org/743635
 195
 196         This is also an appropriate way to refer to bug report emails
 197         in public email archives, e.g.:
 198
 199         Reported-at: http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/dev/2014-June/040952.html
 200
 201     VMware-BZ: #1234567
 202     ONF-JIRA: EXT-12345
 203
 204         If a patch fixes or is otherwise related to a bug reported in
 205         a private bug tracker, you may include some tracking ID for
 206         the bug for your own reference.  Please include some
 207         identifier to make the origin clear, e.g. "VMware-BZ" refers
 208         to VMware's internal Bugzilla instance and "ONF-JIRA" refers
 209         to the Open Networking Foundation's JIRA bug tracker.
 210
 211     Bug #1234567.
 212     Issue: 1234567
 213
 214         These are obsolete forms of VMware-BZ: that can still be seen
 215         in old change log entries.  (They are obsolete because they do
 216         not tell the reader what bug tracker is referred to.)
 217
 218 Developer's Certificate of Origin
 219 ---------------------------------
 220
 221 To help track the author of a patch as well as the submission chain,
 222 and be clear that the developer has authority to submit a patch for
 223 inclusion in openvswitch please sign off your work.  The sign off
 224 certifies the following:
 225
 226     Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
 227
 228     By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
 229
 230     (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
 231         have the right to submit it under the open source license
 232         indicated in the file; or
 233
 234     (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
 235         of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
 236         license and I have the right under that license to submit that
 237         work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
 238         by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
 239         permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
 240         in the file; or
 241
 242     (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
 243         person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
 244         it.
 245
 246     (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
 247         are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
 248         personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
 249         maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
 250         this project or the open source license(s) involved.
 251
 252 Comments
 253 --------
 254
 255 If you want to include any comments in your email that should not be
 256 part of the commit's change log message, put them after the
 257 description, separated by a line that contains just `---`.  It may be
 258 helpful to include a diffstat here for changes that touch multiple
 259 files.
 260
 261 Patch
 262 -----
 263
 264 The patch should be in the body of the email following the description,
 265 separated by a blank line.
 266
 267 Patches should be in `diff -up` format.  We recommend that you use Git
 268 to produce your patches, in which case you should use the `-M -C`
 269 options to `git diff` (or other Git tools) if your patch renames or
 270 copies files.  Quilt (http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt) might
 271 be useful if you do not want to use Git.
 272
 273 Patches should be inline in the email message.  Some email clients
 274 corrupt white space or wrap lines in patches.  There are hints on how
 275 to configure many email clients to avoid this problem at:
 276         http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob_plain;f=Documentation/email-clients.txt
 277 If you cannot convince your email client not to mangle patches, then
 278 sending the patch as an attachment is a second choice.
 279
 280 Please follow the style used in the code that you are modifying.  The
 281 [CodingStyle.md] file describes the coding style used in most of Open
 282 vSwitch. Use Linux kernel coding style for Linux kernel code.
 283
 284 Example
 285 -------
 286
 287 ```
 288 From fa29a1c2c17682879e79a21bb0cdd5bbe67fa7c0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
 289 From: Jesse Gross <jesse@nicira.com>
 290 Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 13:17:24 -0800
 291 Subject: [PATCH] datapath: Alphabetize include/net/ipv6.h compat header.
 292
 293 Signed-off-by: Jesse Gross <jesse@nicira.com>
 294 ---
 295  datapath/linux/Modules.mk |    2 +-
 296  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
 297
 298 diff --git a/datapath/linux/Modules.mk b/datapath/linux/Modules.mk
 299 index fdd952e..f6cb88e 100644
 300 --- a/datapath/linux/Modules.mk
 301 +++ b/datapath/linux/Modules.mk
 302 @@ -56,11 +56,11 @@ openvswitch_headers += \
 303         linux/compat/include/net/dst.h \
 304         linux/compat/include/net/genetlink.h \
 305         linux/compat/include/net/ip.h \
 306 +       linux/compat/include/net/ipv6.h \
 307         linux/compat/include/net/net_namespace.h \
 308         linux/compat/include/net/netlink.h \
 309         linux/compat/include/net/protocol.h \
 310         linux/compat/include/net/route.h \
 311 -       linux/compat/include/net/ipv6.h \
 312         linux/compat/genetlink.inc
 313
 314  both_modules += brcompat
 315 --
 316 1.7.7.3
 317 ```
 318
 319 [INSTALL.md]:INSTALL.md
 320 [CodingStyle.md]:CodingStyle.md