Development: How to submit patches

The master copy of the video4linux kernel subsystem is now maintained at http://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/video4linux/

Video4linux snapshots available from linuxtv.org

Announcement from Mauro Carvalho Chehab

10 June 2005

We are now publishing periodic snapshots (about once a month) at linuxtv.org. The main idea is to have "stable" snapshots on Linuxtv. You can check it at:

http://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/video4linux/

The ChangeLog is also maintained at linuxtv.org. Our intention is to have one snapshot generated at the same time it is being submited to -mm series.

I intend to send a first series of synchronizing patches to -mm this weekend. There is already a working first patch at the site.

• The cvs tree at cvs.linuxtv.org is now the "master copy" of the video4linux subsystem.

• Patches should be built against video4linux cvs.

How to get your changes into the mainline tree?

1. Post your patches to the video4linux mailing list[1] for review and testing by other people.

1. Using [PATCH] at subject will help CVS maintainers to better handing it.

1. Please edit also ChangeLog, including some comments about it.

1. Every patch should have a line like Signed-off-by: Your name <name@yoursite.com> with name of people envolving on making it.

1. Fix problems and repeat until everyone is happy ;)

Mauro

Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab at brturbo dot com dot br>

Gerd Knorr steps down as kernel maintainer of video4linux

April 2005

Hi folks,

As you may have noticed on lkml and the v4l mailing list, I've stopped maintaining video4linux in the linux kernels. That means for submitting patches:

• The cvs tree at cvs.bytesex.org is not the "master copy" of the video4linux subsystem any more. For the time being it is the 2.6 standard kernel. This may change if someone else decides to take over maintainance and handle it differently ...

• Patches should be built against the latest 2.6 kernel, not against video4linux cvs.

• I've accumulated a number of v4l patches in my inbox last month, didn't manage to process a single one of them so far due to limited time, and I suspect this isn't going to change in the future ...

How to get your changes into the mainline tree?

1. Post your patches to the video4linux mailing list[1] for review and testing by other people. Fix problems and repeat until everyone is happy ;)
2. Create a nice patch with changelog and everything, have a look at the Documentation/SubmittingPatches guidelines for the details. Make sure the patch applies fine against the latest kernel (preferably the latest -mm kernel).
3. Submit the patch. Mail it to the kernel mailing list[2] and Andrew Morton[3] (the guy maintaining the -mm tree). It's fine to Cc: me here, that probably makes it easier to get the changes accepted because I can comment in case there are questions or objections from Andrew or other guys on the kernel list.

cheers,

Gerd

[1] V4l mailing list

[2] Linux kernel mailing list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>

[3] Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>