On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 8:08 AM, Adam Dinwoodie <a...@dinwoodie.org> wrote:
> The examples and common practice for adding markers such as "RFC" or
> "v2" to the subject of patch emails is to have them within the same
> brackets as the "PATCH" text, not after the closing bracket. Further,
> the practice of `git format-patch` and the like, as well as what appears
> to be the more common pratice on the mailing list, is to use "[RFC
> PATCH]", not "[PATCH/RFC]".
>
> Update the SubmittingPatches article to match, and to reference the
> `format-patch` helper arguments.
>
> Signed-off-by: Adam Dinwoodie <a...@dinwoodie.org>
> ---
> diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> @@ -184,21 +184,25 @@ lose tabs that way if you are not careful.
> It is a common convention to prefix your subject line with
> [PATCH]. This lets people easily distinguish patches from other
> -e-mail discussions. Use of additional markers after PATCH and
> -the closing bracket to mark the nature of the patch is also
> -encouraged. E.g. [PATCH/RFC] is often used when the patch is
> +e-mail discussions. Use of markers in addition to PATCH within
> +the brackets to describe the nature of the patch is also
> +encouraged. E.g. [RFC PATCH] is often used when the patch is
> not ready to be applied but it is for discussion, [PATCH v2],
Not a new problem, but since you're here cleaning this up, the "not
ready to be applied but it is for discussion" makes for a clunky read.
Perhaps something roughly like:
E.g. [RFC PATCH] is often used to indicate that a patch needs
further discussion ("request for comments") before being
accepted.
> [PATCH v3] etc. are often seen when you are sending an update to
> what you have previously sent.
>
> -"git format-patch" command follows the best current practice to
> +The "git format-patch" command follows the best current practice to
> format the body of an e-mail message. At the beginning of the
> patch should come your commit message, ending with the
> Signed-off-by: lines, and a line that consists of three dashes,
> followed by the diffstat information and the patch itself. If
> you are forwarding a patch from somebody else, optionally, at
> the beginning of the e-mail message just before the commit
> message starts, you can put a "From: " line to name that person.
> +To change the bracketed text at the start of the subject, use
> +`git format-patch --subject-prefix=<text>`. As a shortcut, you
This may be nit-picky, but it took a bit of thought for me to work out
what "bracketed text at the start of the subject" meant. I wonder if
it would be clearer just to spell it out:
To change the default "[PATCH]" in the subject to "[<text>]", use
`git format-patch --subject-prefix=<text>`.
> +can use `--rfc` instead of `--subject-prefix="RFC PATCH"`, or
> +`-v <n>` instead of `--subject-prefix="PATCH v<n>"`.
Overall, this is much easier to digest than the run-on sentence in v2. Thanks.
