lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2005]   [Oct]   [3]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
Patch in this message
/
Date
From
Subject[PATCH] Document patch subject line better
Improve explanation of the Subject line fields in
Documentation/SubmittingPatches Canonical Patch Format.

Signed-off-by: Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com>

Index: 2.6.14-rc2-mm2/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
===================================================================
--- 2.6.14-rc2-mm2.orig/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ 2.6.14-rc2-mm2/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -305,7 +305,7 @@ point out some special detail about the

The canonical patch subject line is:

- Subject: [PATCH 001/123] [<area>:] <explanation>
+ Subject: [PATCH 001/123] subsystem: summary phrase

The canonical patch message body contains the following:

@@ -330,9 +330,25 @@ alphabetically by subject line - pretty
support that - since because the sequence number is zero-padded,
the numerical and alphabetic sort is the same.

-See further details on how to phrase the "<explanation>" in the
-"Subject:" line in Andrew Morton's "The perfect patch", referenced
-below.
+The "subsystem" in the email's Subject should identify which
+area or subsystem of the kernel is being patched.
+
+The "summary phrase" in the email's Subject should concisely
+describe the patch which that email contains. The "summary
+phrase" should not be a filename. Do not use the same "summary
+phrase" for every patch in a whole patch series.
+
+Bear in mind that the "summary phrase" of your email becomes
+a globally-unique identifier for that patch. It propagates
+all the way into the git changelog. The "summary phrase" may
+later be used in developer discussions which refer to the patch.
+People will want to google for the "summary phrase" to read
+discussion regarding that patch.
+
+A couple of example Subjects:
+
+ Subject: [patch 2/5] ext2: improve scalability of bitmap searching
+ Subject: [PATCHv2 001/207] x86: fix eflags tracking

The "from" line must be the very first line in the message body,
and has the form:
--
I won't rest till it's the best ...
Programmer, Linux Scalability
Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com> 1.650.933.1373
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-10-03 09:32    [W:0.059 / U:0.200 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site