you get there. DON'T PANIC.
The headlines below act as a checklist. Not all of them apply in all
-situations; use common sense.
+situations. Use your best judgment, and the Notmuch community will
+help out as needed.
[[!toc levels=2]]
build and the tests should pass after each commit. Changes to lib,
cli, emacs, tests, man pages, or news are usually best kept
separate. Also separate cleanups from functional changes. See the
-Notmuch source history (`git log`) for examples.
+Notmuch source history (**`git log`**) for examples.
For in-depth discussion on the subject, see
[Software Release Practice HOWTO](http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO/) by Eric S. Raymond.
on commit guidelines, including commit messages.
It is customary to prefix the subject line with "lib:", "cli:", "emacs:",
-etc. depending on which part of Notmuch the commit is changing. See `git log`
-for examples.
+etc. depending on which part of Notmuch the commit is changing. See
+**`git log`** for examples.
Wrap the lines to about 72 characters.
## Update the documentation
If you modify or add new features to the Notmuch command-line tools,
-you should update the manual pages under the `man` directory of the
+you should update the manual pages under the `doc` directory of the
Notmuch source.
If you modify or add new features to the Notmuch Emacs UI, you should
If you make user visible changes, you should add an entry to the
[`NEWS`](http://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch/blob/HEAD:/NEWS) file.
+## Update command-line completion
+
+If you modify or add new features to the Notmuch command-line tools, it
+would be a nice bonus if you also updated the Notmuch command-line
+completion scripts under the `completion` directory of the Notmuch
+source. Not required, but nice to have, and definitely can be done
+afterwards.
+
## Subscribe to the Notmuch mailing list
While strictly not required, it is advisable to subscribe to the
current master.
Once you have the updated series ready, send it to the mailing list
-again. It will be helpful for others to use the
-`--subject-prefix="PATCH vN"` option of `git format-patch` or
-`git send-email` to add a version number of the patch series to the
-subject (replacing vN with v2, v3, etc.) Use a cover letter (or, in
-the case of a single patch, the notes after a "---" at the end of the
-commit message) to summarize the main changes since the previous
-version of the patch series. Also include the message-id reference of
-the previous version.
+again. It will be helpful for others to use the `-vN` option of `git
+format-patch` or `git send-email` to add a version number of the patch
+series to the subject (replacing vN with v2, v3, etc.) Use a cover
+letter (or, in the case of a single patch, the notes after a "---" at
+the end of the commit message) to summarize the main changes since the
+previous version of the patch series. Also include the message-id
+reference of the previous version.
Using the `--in-reply-to` option of `git format-patch` or
`git send-email` to send the patch series as a reply to the earlier
Even better, send a patch adding a "known broken" test to the test suite
highlighting the issue.
+## Update the Notmuch website
+
+Update the Notmuch website, especially if you've landed a commit that
+changes or obsoletes information on the site. It's a wiki; see the
+[[instructions on how to edit the wiki|wikiwriteaccess]].
+
## Join the Notmuch IRC channel
Patch review happens on the Notmuch mailing list, but there is plenty of