Development: How to submit patches

This article provides an overview for submitting patches against V4L-DVB kernel driver modules and/or documentation. For general references in regards as to how to develop support for a particular device or in writing a new device driver, see here.

Patch Preparation

Patches should be created against the master V4L-DVB mercurial tree; for instructions on obtaining these sources, see How to build from Mercurial.

Post your patches to the linux-media mailing list for review and testing. Subscription to the mailing list is recommended, though it is not required.

Follow the guidelines in Submitting Patches (cf. jgarzik's version), including:

• Verify best-practice kernel coding style
• Use [PATCH] in the subject line to get attention
• Explain what the patch does and to what hardware it applies
• Document your work where appropriate (i.e. in the form of patches to the Documentation/video4linux or Documentation/dvb files)
• Add a Signed-off-by: Your name <name@yoursite.com> as a Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
• Fix any problems and repeat until everyone is happy ;)
• Send the patch inline, not as an attachment (unless asked to do so otherwise)

Hint: There is also a checklist for patch submission

When your patch is initially accepted, it will first be applied to the main V4L-DVB mercurial tree. Once tested and integrated, patches are merged into a git tree by the V4L-DVB maintainer and periodically pulled by Linus.