To create a patch for a single file, it is often sufficient to do:
- SRCTREE= linux-2.4
+ SRCTREE= linux-2.6
MYFILE= drivers/net/mydriver.c
cd $SRCTREE
or unmodified kernel source tree, and generate a diff against your
own source tree. For example:
- MYSRC= /devel/linux-2.4
+ MYSRC= /devel/linux-2.6
- tar xvfz linux-2.4.0-test11.tar.gz
- mv linux linux-vanilla
- wget http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/dontdiff
- diff -uprN -X dontdiff linux-vanilla $MYSRC > /tmp/patch
- rm -f dontdiff
+ tar xvfz linux-2.6.12.tar.gz
+ mv linux-2.6.12 linux-2.6.12-vanilla
+ diff -uprN -X linux-2.6.12-vanilla/Documentation/dontdiff \
+ linux-2.6.12-vanilla $MYSRC > /tmp/patch
"dontdiff" is a list of files which are generated by the kernel during
the build process, and should be ignored in any diff(1)-generated
-patch. dontdiff is maintained by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>
+patch. The "dontdiff" file is included in the kernel tree in
+2.6.12 and later. For earlier kernel versions, you can get it
+from <http://www.xenotime.net/linux/doc/dontdiff>.
Make sure your patch does not include any extra files which do not
belong in a patch submission. Make sure to review your patch -after-
If your changes produce a lot of deltas, you may want to look into
splitting them into individual patches which modify things in
-logical stages, this will facilitate easier reviewing by other
+logical stages. This will facilitate easier reviewing by other
kernel developers, very important if you want your patch accepted.
-There are a number of scripts which can aid in this;
+There are a number of scripts which can aid in this:
Quilt:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt
Randy Dunlap's patch scripts:
-http://developer.osdl.org/rddunlap/scripts/patching-scripts.tgz
+http://www.xenotime.net/linux/scripts/patching-scripts-002.tar.gz
Andrew Morton's patch scripts:
-http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/patch-scripts-0.16
+http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/patch-scripts-0.20
+
+
2) Describe your changes.
usually be sent first to linux-kernel. Only after the patch is
discussed should the patch then be submitted to Linus.
-For small patches you may want to CC the Trivial Patch Monkey
-trivial@rustcorp.com.au set up by Rusty Russell; which collects "trivial"
-patches. Trivial patches must qualify for one of the following rules:
- Spelling fixes in documentation
- Spelling fixes which could break grep(1).
- Warning fixes (cluttering with useless warnings is bad)
- Compilation fixes (only if they are actually correct)
- Runtime fixes (only if they actually fix things)
- Removing use of deprecated functions/macros (eg. check_region).
- Contact detail and documentation fixes
- Non-portable code replaced by portable code (even in arch-specific,
- since people copy, as long as it's trivial)
- Any fix by the author/maintainer of the file. (ie. patch monkey
- in re-transmission mode)
-
5) Select your CC (e-mail carbon copy) list.
MAINTAINERS file for a mailing list that relates specifically to
your change.
+If changes affect userland-kernel interfaces, please send
+the MAN-PAGES maintainer (as listed in the MAINTAINERS file)
+a man-pages patch, or at least a notification of the change,
+so that some information makes its way into the manual pages.
+
Even if the maintainer did not respond in step #4, make sure to ALWAYS
copy the maintainer when you change their code.
since people copy, as long as it's trivial)
Any fix by the author/maintainer of the file. (ie. patch monkey
in re-transmission mode)
+URL: <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/trivial/>
+
then you just add a line saying
- Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.org>
+ Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
Some people also put extra tags at the end. They'll just be ignored for
now, but you can do this to mark internal company procedures or just
point out some special detail about the sign-off.
+
+12) More references for submitting patches
+
+Andrew Morton, "The perfect patch" (tpp).
+ <http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt>
+
+Jeff Garzik, "Linux kernel patch submission format."
+ <http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html>
+
+
+
-----------------------------------
SECTION 2 - HINTS, TIPS, AND TRICKS
-----------------------------------
4) Don't over-design.
Don't try to anticipate nebulous future cases which may or may not
-be useful: "Make it as simple as you can, and no simpler"
-
-
+be useful: "Make it as simple as you can, and no simpler."
git.openpandora.org / pandora-kernel.git / blobdiff