The Good Patch

Characteristics of a good patch

A good patch should:

  • be in unified context format (diff -u)
    • alternatively, be generated with
      git format-patch
  • 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 whitespace

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