README

Since the number of patches for U-Boot is growing, we need to
establish some rules. Submissions which do not conform to these rules
may be rejected, even when they contain important and valuable stuff.

Please see http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/Patches for details.

Patches shall be sent to the u-boot mailing list <u-boot@lists.denx.de>;
see http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot

When you send a patch, please include the following information with
it:

* For bug fixes: a description of the bug and how your patch fixes
  this bug. Please try to include a way of demonstrating that the
  patch actually fixes something.

* For new features: a description of the feature and your
  implementation.

* A CHANGELOG entry as plaintext (separate from the patch)

* For major contributions, your entry to the CREDITS file

* When you add support for a new board, don't forget to add a
  maintainer e-mail address to the boards.cfg file, too.

* If your patch adds new configuration options, don't forget to
  document these in the README file.

* The patch itself. If you are using git (which is *strongly*
  recommended) you can easily generate the patch using the
  "git format-patch". If you then use "git send-email" to send it to
  the U-Boot mailing list, you will avoid most of the common problems
  with some other mail clients.

  If you cannot use git, use "diff -purN OLD NEW". If your version of
  diff does not support these options, then get the latest version of
  GNU diff.

  The current directory when running this command shall be the parent
  directory of the U-Boot source tree (i. e. please make sure that
  your patch includes sufficient directory information for the
  affected files).

  We prefer patches as plain text. MIME attachments are discouraged,
  and compressed attachments must not be used.

* If one logical set of modifications affects or creates several
  files, all these changes shall be submitted in a SINGLE patch file.

* Changesets that contain different, unrelated modifications shall be
  submitted as SEPARATE patches, one patch per changeset.


Notes:

* Before sending the patch, run the MAKEALL script on your patched
  source tree and make sure that no errors or warnings are reported
  for any of the boards.

* Keep your modifications to the necessary minimum: A patch
  containing several unrelated changes or arbitrary reformats will be
  returned with a request to re-formatting / split it.

* If you modify existing code, make sure that your new code does not
  add to the memory footprint of the code ;-) Small is beautiful!
  When adding new features, these should compile conditionally only
  (using #ifdef), and the resulting code with the new feature
  disabled must not need more memory than the old code without your
  modification.

* Remember that there is a size limit of 100 kB per message on the
  u-boot mailing list. Bigger patches will be moderated. If they are
  reasonable and not too big, they will be acknowledged. But patches
  bigger than the size limit should be avoided.