= Sending Your First Patch
:page-parent: Tutorials

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Unikie
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later OR CC-BY-SA-4.0

== Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you already have basic
https://git-scm.com/[git] experience.

Before beginning, you'll need to have a local git checkout of the
https://spectrum-os.org/git/[Spectrum source tree].  You'll also need
to have configured `git send-email` — a guide for this can be found at
https://git-send-email.io/.

== Making your changes

If you've worked on any git repository before, the process for making
your changes will probably be very familiar.

1. Create a branch for your changes:
+
[source,shell]
----
git checkout -b fix-docs # for example
----
2. Make changes in your editor.
3. Stage and commit your changes:
+
[source,shell]
----
git add Documentation/first-patch.adoc # for example
git commit -s
----
+
TIP: The `-s` option adds a `Signed-off-by` line to the commit.  This
indicates your acceptance of the
https://spectrum-os.org/git/spectrum/tree/DCO-1.1.txt[Developer's
Certificate of Origin], which is mandatory for Spectrum patches.

== Submitting changes

Once you're happy with how the commits on your branch look, run:

[source,shell]
----
git send-email --to devel@spectrum-os.org --confirm=always origin/main
----

For each message, you will be prompted for confirmation, and then the
change will be submitted to the Spectrum development mailing list.
They will appear shortly on the
https://spectrum-os.org/lists/hyperkitty/list/devel@spectrum-os.org/[web
interface].

[#cover-letter]
TIP: If you're submitting multiple changes, and you'd like to provide
an overall description for the whole series, you can add the
`--compose` option, which will prompt you to compose a "cover letter"
message that will be sent before all of your patches.

== Feedback

Once your patch has been submitted, wait for it to be reviewed.
Feedback, if any, will be sent as email replies to your submitted
patch.  You can respond to feedback in your mail client.  Please use
the Reply All button to ensure that your messages are sent to the
mailing list as well as to the person who sent the feedback.

If you need to make changes to your patch, and submit a new version,
use https://git-rebase.io/[`git rebase`] to create a new version of
your patch(es), and submit it like this:

[source,shell]
----
git send-email -v2 --to devel@spectrum-os.org --confirm=always origin/main
----

The added `-v2` flag indicates that this is version two of your
patch set.  If your patches require more rounds of changes, submit
subsequent rounds with `-v3`, `-v4`, etc. as appropriate.

If you'd like to describe what has changed from the previous version
of your patches, you can do so in a xref:cover-letter[cover letter]
as described above.

== Acceptance

Once your patch has been accepted, it will be applied to the upstream
Spectrum git repository.  You will receive an automated email
confirmation when this happens.

== Questions

If you have any questions about the patch submission process, you can
ask them either on the
https://spectrum-os.org/participating.html#spectrum-devel[development
mailing list], or in the
https://spectrum-os.org/participating.html#irc[IRC/Matrix channel].