From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932171AbVJCH3c (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 Oct 2005 03:29:32 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932172AbVJCH3c (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 Oct 2005 03:29:32 -0400 Received: from omx2-ext.sgi.com ([192.48.171.19]:57827 "EHLO omx2.sgi.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932171AbVJCH3b (ORCPT ); Mon, 3 Oct 2005 03:29:31 -0400 Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 00:29:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Paul Jackson To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Andrew Morton , Jeff Garzik , "Randy.Dunlap" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Pete Zaitcev , Coywolf Qi Hunt , Greg KH , Paul Jackson Message-Id: <20051003072910.14726.10100.sendpatchset@jackhammer.engr.sgi.com> Subject: [PATCH] Document patch subject line better Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Improve explanation of the Subject line fields in Documentation/SubmittingPatches Canonical Patch Format. Signed-off-by: Paul Jackson 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] [:] + 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 "" 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 1.650.933.1373