The Good Patch

Revision as of 13:49, 4 February 2010

A good patch should:

be in unified context format (diff -u)
only include related changes
not introduce any compile time warnings
have test code (if any) separate from the added/changed functionality
not add any extra debug printing, unless absolutely necessary
match the coding style of the existing source file, for example with regard to indentation and whitespaces

When attaching a patch to a bug at https://bugs.maemo.org, add the "patch" keyword to the bug report.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Characteristics of The Good Patch ==
+== Characteristics of a good patch ==
-A detailed and technical complement to the [[Maemo contribution guidelines]].
+A good patch should:
+* be in unified context format (diff -u)
+* only include related changes
+* not introduce any compile time warnings
+* have test code (if any) separate from the added/changed functionality
+* not add any extra debug printing, unless absolutely necessary
+* match the coding style of the existing source file, for example with regard to indentation and whitespaces
-* The Good Patch should be in unified context format (diff -u).
+When attaching a patch to a bug at https://bugs.maemo.org, add the "patch" keyword to the bug report.
-* The Good Patch should not include any unrelated changes.
-* The Good Patch should not generate any more compile time warnings than were already there.
+[[Category:Development]]
-* The Good Patch should have test code (if any) separate from the added/changed functionality.
-* The Good Patch should not add any extra debug printing unless absolutely necessary.
-* The Good Patch should match the Coding Style of the existing source file, e.g. with regard to indentation and whitespaces etc.
-* When attaching The Good Patch in bugs.maemo.org, add the "patch" keyword to the bug report.