Submitting patches

Submitting patches

[Martin Bonner]

I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
(principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
text email which is acceptable to `git am`.

Is it possible to fork u-boot on Git[HL][au]b or similar hosting site,
and then send an email to the list pointing at the commit?

Martin

Re: Submitting patches

[Ralph Siemsen]

Hi Martin,

On Wed, Aug 3, 2022 at 6:05 AM Martin Bonner <martingreybeard@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
> contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
> (principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
> to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
> text email which is acceptable to `git am`.

It is very common for port 25 to be blocked, however in many cases it
is possible to communicate over port 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS).

You can do a quick test using netcat or telnet:
$ nc smtp.gmail.com 587
If you are able to connect, then setting up git-send-email is
straightforward; see the example at the end of
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-send-email.

> Is it possible to fork u-boot on Git[HL][au]b or similar hosting site,
> and then send an email to the list pointing at the commit?

I have not used it myself, but git.sr.ht offers such functionality:
https://man.sr.ht/git.sr.ht/#sending-patches-upstream
https://spacepub.space/w/ad258d23-0ac6-488c-83fc-2bacf578de3a

Regards,
Ralph

Re: Submitting patches

[Simon Glass]

Hi Martin,

On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 04:05, Martin Bonner <martingreybeard@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
> contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
> (principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
> to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
> text email which is acceptable to `git am`.

The workaround here is perhaps to create a gmail address for
submissions. I think quite a few people do that. But a firewall that
blocks 'git send-email' is not really compatible with open source
collaboration, so I'd encourage you to get the problem resolved.

>
> Is it possible to fork u-boot on Git[HL][au]b or similar hosting site,
> and then send an email to the list pointing at the commit?

Regards,
Simon

Re: Submitting patches

[Martin Bonner]

On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 19:14, Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org> wrote:

> Hi Martin,
>
> On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 04:05, Martin Bonner <martingreybeard@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
> > contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
> > (principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
> > to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
> > text email which is acceptable to `git am`.
>
> The workaround here is perhaps to create a gmail address for
> submissions. I think quite a few people do that.

Interesting.  I am using gmail (because I assumed that the corporate email
would mangle stuff), but I can't get it to work.

Surprisingly, I think that Office365 email is actually _more_ compliant
with the way the u-boot process works.

But a firewall that
> blocks 'git send-email' is not really compatible with open source
> collaboration, so I'd encourage you to get the problem resolved.
>

That's completely impossible.  Corporate IT will let us push patches
upstream if we like, but they absolutely are not going to change their
policies and infrastructure to let that happen.

Be aware that plain text email is no longer something that it is safe to
assume everyone has access to.  Obviously everyone actively involved in the
development of u-boot has, but there are a number of potential developers
who don't, and my sense is that that number is growing.  It won't put off
people who are going to become core developers, but it will put off people
who want to suggest a small improvement here, or fix an obscure bug there.

>
> >
> > Is it possible to fork u-boot on Git[HL][au]b or similar hosting site,
> > and then send an email to the list pointing at the commit?
>
> Regards,
> Simon
>

Re: Submitting patches

[Tudor.Ambarus]

On 8/4/22 09:24, Martin Bonner wrote:
> EXTERNAL EMAIL: Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe
> 
> On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 19:14, Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Martin,
>>
>> On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 04:05, Martin Bonner <martingreybeard@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
>>> contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
>>> (principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
>>> to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
>>> text email which is acceptable to `git am`.
>>
>> The workaround here is perhaps to create a gmail address for
>> submissions. I think quite a few people do that.
> 
> Interesting.  I am using gmail (because I assumed that the corporate email
> would mangle stuff), but I can't get it to work.

bypass the company network as well if you can. Try disconnecting the VPN if
you're working from home, or use your phone as a personal hotspot.

> 
> Surprisingly, I think that Office365 email is actually _more_ compliant
> with the way the u-boot process works.
> 
> But a firewall that
>> blocks 'git send-email' is not really compatible with open source
>> collaboration, so I'd encourage you to get the problem resolved.
>>
> 
> That's completely impossible.  Corporate IT will let us push patches

:)

> upstream if we like, but they absolutely are not going to change their
> policies and infrastructure to let that happen.

If I got tired of fighting them, I would bypass the company's infrastructure.

Re: Submitting patches

[Simon Glass]

+Tom Rini

Hi Martin,

On Thu, 4 Aug 2022 at 00:22, Martin Bonner <martingreybeard@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 19:14, Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Martin,
>>
>> On Wed, 3 Aug 2022 at 04:05, Martin Bonner <martingreybeard@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
>> > contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
>> > (principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
>> > to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
>> > text email which is acceptable to `git am`.
>>
>> The workaround here is perhaps to create a gmail address for
>> submissions. I think quite a few people do that.
>
> Interesting.  I am using gmail (because I assumed that the corporate email would mangle stuff), but I can't get it to work.
>
> Surprisingly, I think that Office365 email is actually _more_ compliant with the way the u-boot process works.

That's good to hear!

In my .gitconfig I have:

[sendemail]
               smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
        smtpserverport = 587
        smtpencryption = tls
        smtpuser = sjg@chromium.org
        smtppass = xxxx
        confirm = always

where xxxx is the long 'application-specific password' generated here:

https://myaccount.google.com/security  (click on 'App passwords')

>
>> But a firewall that
>> blocks 'git send-email' is not really compatible with open source
>> collaboration, so I'd encourage you to get the problem resolved.
>
>
> That's completely impossible.  Corporate IT will let us push patches upstream if we like, but they absolutely are not going to change their policies and infrastructure to let that happen.

Perhaps create an internal web page describing the problem and its
workarounds. Make sure your boss and everyone else knows the problem
and its impact on your work and ability to collaborate. Be specific
about what is actually blocking you and see if there is a simple
solution that doesn't affect security too much. Point people to your
page when they want to do the same thing.

>
> Be aware that plain text email is no longer something that it is safe to assume everyone has access to.  Obviously everyone actively involved in the development of u-boot has, but there are a number of potential developers who don't, and my sense is that that number is growing.  It won't put off people who are going to become core developers, but it will put off people who want to suggest a small improvement here, or fix an obscure bug there.

I wasn't aware of that. I do recall years ago an email system where
you had to use MS Word to edit your emails though!

>>
>>
>> >

>> > Is it possible to fork u-boot on Git[HL][au]b or similar hosting site,
>> > and then send an email to the list pointing at the commit?

U-Boot is on github, but it is a mirror.

I have thought about setting up gerrit service as I think it would be
convenient for reviews, but so far as I know it doesn't support larger
projects like U-Boot with multiple maintainers. I believe people have
worked on email integration, but I'm not sure how well it works. How
much time and effort are you willing to put into this?

Regards,
Simon

Re: Submitting patches

[Tom Rini]

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On Wed, Aug 03, 2022 at 11:04:45AM +0100, Martin Bonner wrote:

> I and my colleagues have a number of patches we would like to
> contribute back to the community, however for various reasons
> (principally operating inside corporate firewalls), it isn't possible
> to use `git send-email`, and I haven't been able to create a plain
> text email which is acceptable to `git am`.
> 
> Is it possible to fork u-boot on Git[HL][au]b or similar hosting site,
> and then send an email to the list pointing at the commit?

Sorry for the delay. If you really cannot configure git send-email
(which is pretty flexible these days) to talk with your corporate mail
server, and IT policy has access to external email providers also
blocked, that's just a tricky spot. I don't want to promote further
centralization of software by telling users to start using github or
gitlab directly, and I'm not sure we can sustain the overhead of
allowing users to have access to a "contrib" repository. So, as long as
it's not against corporate policy (as that would in turn violate the
rules behind a Signed-off-by tag), taking the patches out of the
corporate environment and to a personal machine where in turn you can
configure git send-email and gmail (or what have you) is the best
general answer.

-- 
Tom

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Re: Submitting patches

[Randy Dunlap]

On 10/21/2012 07:09 PM, Jimster480 wrote:
> I recently joined this list (in the last few days) as I was told I
> needed to join it to submit kernel changes/patches/modifications. How do
> I go about doing so? I made some optimizations (mostly removing
> un-necessary calls, etc) in the autogroup scheduler, and cpuset and
> another. The website that manages the list is not very informative so I
> hope I am doing this right. Thanks in Advance!

You do not have to join this mailing list to submit patches, but you
may find it helpful.

We hope that what you need to know is covered in some documentation
files in the kernel source tree, primarily:

Documentation/SumbittingPatches
Documentation/SubmittingDrivers
Documentation/SubmitChecklist

If you still have questions after reading those, please let us know.

Submitting patches

[Jimster480]

I recently joined this list (in the last few days) as I was told I
needed to join it to submit kernel changes/patches/modifications. How do
I go about doing so? I made some optimizations (mostly removing
un-necessary calls, etc) in the autogroup scheduler, and cpuset and
another. The website that manages the list is not very informative so I
hope I am doing this right. Thanks in Advance!