/** @page primerpatches Patch Primer

This page provides an introduction to patching that may be useful
for OpenOCD contributors who are unfamiliar with the process.

@section primerpatchintro Introduction to Patching

The standard method for creating patches requires developers to:
- checkout the git repository (or bring a copy up-to-date),
- make the necessary modifications to a working copy,
- check with 'git status' to see which files will be modified/added, and
- use 'git diff' to review the changes and produce a patch.

It is important to minimize the changes to only those lines that contain
important differences; do not allow stray whitespace changes into your
patches, and keep the focus to a single logical change.

@section primerpatchcreate Creating Patches

You can create a patch (from the root of your working copy) with a
command like the following example: @par
@verbatim
git diff > patch-name.patch
@endverbatim

where @a patch-name should be something that is descriptive and unique.

The above command will create a patch containing all of the changes in
the working copy; if you want to obtain a subset, simply provide the
list of files to the command: @par
@verbatim
git diff doc > <patch-name>-doc.patch
git diff src > <patch-name>-src.patch
@endverbatim

This will create two patches, each containing only those changes present
in the subdirectory specified.

@subsection primerpatchcreate Naming Patches

One developer has evolved an informal standard for naming his patches: @par
@verbatim
<project>-<lod>-<action>-<task>.patch
@endverbatim

where @a project is @c openocd, @a lod (line-of-development) could be a
subsystem (e.g. @c jtag, @c jlink, etc.) or other group identifier,
@a action is @c add, @c change, @c fix, @c update, etc., and @a task is
whatever the patch will accomplish (in 2-4 words).

This scheme does not need to be followed, but it is helpful for
maintainers that receive many patches.  You do not want your own
@c openocd.patch file to be accidentally overwritten by another
submission, sending your patch to the bit bucket on accident.

@section primerpatchpreflight Developer Review

Before sending in patches, please make sure you have updated to the
latest version of the trunk (using git pull) before creating
your patch.  This helps to increase the chances that it will apply
cleanly to the trunk.  However, the content matters most.

When creating a patch using "git diff", git will
produce a patch that contains all of the changes in your working copy.
To manage multiple changes at once, you either need one working copy per
patch, or you can specified specific files and directories when using
git diff.  Overlapping patches will be discussed in the
next section.

@todo Does git's treatment of line-endings behave sanely?
Basically, the repository should use newlines internally,
and convert to/from CRLF on Windows etc.

@section primerpatchseries Patch Series

As was mentioned above, each patch should contain one logical @c task,
and multiple logical tasks should be split into a series of patches.
There are no hard guidelines for how that is to be done; it's an art
form.  Many simple changes should not have to worry about being split,
as they will naturally represent a single task.

When working on several different non-intersecting lines of development,
a combination of multiple working copies and patch series management
techniques can become critical to efficiently managing change.  This
again is an area where developers have favorite methodologies that are
simply a matter of taste or familiarity; your mileage may vary.

Packages such as @c patchutils, @c diffutils, and @c quilt are among
those that have proved themselves invaluable for these type of tasks.
Others take their patch management a step further, using stkgit or
some other framework on top of git.

@subsection primerpatchseriesinterdiff Using @c interdiff

The @c patchutils package includes the @c interdiff command, which
produces a patch that contains the changes made between two other
patches.  This command can be used to manage the creation of trivial
patch series.  For example, the following sequence of commands will
produce three patches: @par
@verbatim
$ cd openocd/
$ git pull
...
$ <<<start changes for patch #1>>>
...
$ <<<finish changes for patch #1>>>
$ git diff > series-1.patch                         # patch #1 is easy
$ <<<start changes for patch #2>>>
...
$ <<<finish changes for patch #2>>>
$ git diff > series-1+2.patch                       # create patch 1+2
$ interdiff series-1{,+2}.patch > series-2.patch    #   1 ~  1+2  => #2
$ <<<start changes for patch #3>>>
...
$ <<<finish changes for patch #3>>>
$ git diff > series-1+2+3.patch                     # create patch 1+2+3
$ interdiff series-1+2{,+3}.patch > series-3.patch  # 1+2 ~ 1+2+3 => 3
@endverbatim

This technique falls apart when the repository changes, but this may be
suitable for small series of patches.

@subsection primerpatchseriesquilt Using @c quilt

The @c quilt package provides scripts to manage series of patches more
efficiently than can be managed by hand.  For out-of-tree work projects
that require such patch management, @c quilt provides an indispensable
tool for solving the problem.

@section primerpatchsubmit Submitting Patches

Write access to the OpenOCD git repository is limited to
contributors that have demonstrated the ability to produce clear,
consistent, and frequent patches.  These individuals are responsible
for maintaining the integrity of the repository for the community.

Thus, commits to the git repository must be handled by one of
these maintainers.

Patches must be sent to the OpenOCD developer mailing list:
@par
	openocd-development@lists.berlios.de

They will be reviewed and committed if the changes are found to be
acceptable.  If there are problems, you will receive feedback via the
mailing list; in general, the maintainers prefer all communication to go
through the list, as the entire community needs to judge contributions
for possible merits and mistakes.

Contributors may be asked to address certain issues and submit a new
patch.  In the event that it gets overlooked, you may need to resubmit
it or prompt for feedback.  Please have patience, as many maintainers
work on the project voluntarily and without compensation for the time
that they spend doing these tasks.

@section primerpatchguide Guidelines for Submitting Patches

- Each patch file should contain:
  - A commit description that describes all of the changes.
  - A separator line that contains three hyphens: ---
  - A summary of the changes produced by diffstat (optional)
  - Another separator line (optional)
  - The actual patch contents, containing a single change.

- Each patch series should include:
  - A summary of the patches in the series.
  - Logically-related patches that contain incremental changes.

 */
/** @file
This file contains the @ref primerpatches page.
*/
