Creating patches

Overview

If you haven’t already configured git:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email you@yourdomain.example.com

Then, the workflow is the following:

# Get the repository if you don't have it
git clone git://github.com/astropy/astropy.git

# Make a branch for your patching
cd astropy
git branch the-fix-im-thinking-of
git checkout the-fix-im-thinking-of

# hack, hack, hack

# Tell git about any new files you've made
git add somewhere/tests/test_my_bug.py

# Commit work in progress as you go
git commit -am 'BF - added tests for Funny bug'

# hack hack, hack

# Commit work
git commit -am 'BF - added fix for Funny bug'

# Make the patch files
git format-patch -M -C master

Then, send the generated patch files to the astropy-dev mailing list — where we will thank you warmly.

In detail

  1. Tell git who you are so it can label the commits you’ve made:

    git config --global user.name "Your Name"
    git config --global user.email you@yourdomain.example.com

    This is only necessary if you haven’t already done this, and you haven’t followed Configuring git.

  2. If you don’t already have one, clone a copy of the Astropy repository:

    git clone git://github.com/astropy/astropy.git
    cd astropy
  3. Make a ‘feature branch’. This will be where you work on your bug fix. It’s nice and safe and leaves you with access to an unmodified copy of the code in the main branch:

    git branch the-fix-im-thinking-of
    git checkout the-fix-im-thinking-of
  4. Do some edits, and commit them as you go:

    # hack, hack, hack
    
    # Tell git about any new files you've made
    git add somewhere/tests/test_my_bug.py
    
    # Commit work in progress as you go
    git commit -am 'BF - added tests for Funny bug'
    
    # hack hack, hack
    
    # Commit work
    git commit -am 'BF - added fix for Funny bug'

    Note the -am options to commit. The m flag just signals that you’re going to type a message on the command line. The a flag — you can just take on faith — or see why the -a flag?.

  5. When you have finished, check you have committed all your changes:

    git status
  6. Finally, make your commits into patches. You want all the commits since you branched from the master branch:

    git format-patch -M -C master

    You will now have several files named for the commits:

    0001-BF-added-tests-for-Funny-bug.patch
    0002-BF-added-fix-for-Funny-bug.patch

    Send these files to the astropy-dev mailing list.

When you are done, to switch back to the main copy of the code, just return to the master branch:

git checkout master