Development: How to submit patches

Patch Preparation

• The cvs tree at cvs.linuxtv.org is the master copy of the video4linux and dvb subsystems. It can be retrieved by using:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxtv.org:/cvs/video4linux login (use an empty password)

cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxtv.org:/cvs/video4linux co -P v4l-dvb

• Patches should be created against v4l-dvb cvs

• Cf. instructions on How to build from CVS

• For references about how to develop a driver, take a look at Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel

How to get your changes into the mainline tree

1. Post your patches to the video4linux mailing list for review and testing by other people.
2. Subscription to the list is not required, but asked. If you desire, you should use:

• V4l mailing list

1. Follow the guidelines in Documentation/SubmittingPatches (cf. jgarzik's version), including:
   1. Be sure, that your new code satisfy rules described in Documentation/CodingStyle
   2. Send the patch inline, not as an attachment
   3. Use [PATCH] in the subject line to make it easy to be seen
   4. Explain what the patch does and what hardware it applies to
   5. Document your work where appropriate, in the form of patches to Documentation/video4linux files
   6. Add a Signed-off-by: Your name <name@yoursite.com> as a Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
2. Fix any problems and repeat until everyone is happy ;)
3. One CVS maintainer will apply at v4l-dvb tree.
4. The V4L Maintainer will periodically submit changes to mainstream