Submitting patches via email
We strongly prefer to see patches via GitHub. Email should only be used when it is impossible to use GitHub.
1. diff -u
Use diff -u or diff -urN to create patches.
All changes to the source occur in the form of patches, as generated by
diff(1). When creating your patch, make sure to create it in unified
diff format, as supplied by the -u argument to diff(1). Patches
should be based in the root source directory, not in any lower
subdirectory.
- To create a patch for a single file, it is often sufficient to do
SRCTREE=/home/user/src/freeradiusd/
MYFILE=src/modules/rlm_foo/foo.c
cd $SRCTREE
cp $MYFILE $MYFILE.orig
vi $MYFILE # make your change
diff -u $MYFILE.orig $MYFILE > /tmp/patchTo create a patch for multiple files, you should unpack a vanilla,
or unmodified source tree, and generate a diff against your own source
tree. For example:
MYSRC=/home/user/src/freeradiusd-feature/
gunzip freeradiusd-version.tar.gz
tar xvf freeradiusd-version.tar
diff -urN freeradiusd-version $MYSRC > ~/feature-version.patch2. Select e-mail destination
If you are on the developers mailing list, send the patch there. freeradius-devel@lists.freeradius.org
Otherwise, send the patch to freeradius-users@freeradius.org
3. No MIME, no links, no compression, no attachments. Just plain text
The developers need to be able to read and comment on the changes you
are submitting. It is important for a developer to be able to quote
your changes, using standard e-mail tools, so that they may comment on
specific portions of your code.
For this reason, all patches should be submitting e-mail inline.
Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not. Many popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME attachment as plain text, making it impossible to comment on your code. A MIME attachment also takes a bit more time to process, decreasing the likelihood of your MIME-attached change being accepted.
Compressed patches are generally rejected outright. If the developer has to do additional work to read your patch, the odds are that it will be ignored completely.