Ubuntu Wiki

This is to be the definitive guide to working with Patchworks as an Ubuntu kernel team member.

What

Patchworks is a web based application that helps track and process patches that have been submitted to the Ubuntu kernel team mailing list kernel-team@lists.ubuntu.com (UKML). By using this tool the kernel team hopes to reduced the amount of effort that goes into reviewing kernel patches, to handle the patches in a more consisten manner and to reduce the chance that a patch will be missed or forgotten.

Where

Patchworks is hosted by ozlabs.org. The url for Patchwork is http://patchwork.ozlabs.org. The list of patches for the Ubuntu kernels is shown at http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/ubuntu-kernel/list/. Anyone can look at the individual patch sumissions, who submitted the patch, who is reviewing the patch and the current state of the patch.

Access

The first step in gaining access to process the patches is to create an account. In the right hand corner of the web page title are links to "login", "register" and "about". Click on the "register" link and fill out the form that your presented with to get an account.

Once you have an account you can 1. create "bundles" of patches and 2. update the state of your own patches.

In order to process other peoples patches you need to be given "maintainer" access permission to the ubuntu-kernl project. To request "maintainer" access, send an email to "admin@patchwork.ozlabs.org" and ask to be added as a maintainer of the ubuntu-kernel project.

Processing Patches

We process patches by moving them into various states. Bugs start as New and progress to other states based on discussion on UKML. To change the state of a patch check the checkbox located left of the patch title that you wish to change. Then down in the Properties box below the patch list, pull down the Change state to the new state and click the Update button. We use a sub-set of the available states, those in use and their meaning are detailed below:

New

a patch which has not yet been processes or assigned

Under Review

a patch which has been identified as a genuine patch, generally it will be assigned to the owner for the release in question

Accepted

once a patch has the required acks and has been applied to the tree it is moved to Accepted, this removes it from the list

Rejected

if the result of the review is that the patch was not applied to the tree it is moved to Rejected, this removes it from the list.

Superceeded

when a patch is modified and a replacement submitted that new patch will appear as its own entry in the list, the old one is marked Superceeded, this removes it from the list.

The patch Delegate is the person responsible for managing the patch as it progresses through Patchwork. The Delegate is usually one of the reviewers of the patch. The Delegate is usually the person that commits the patch to the official source tree once it has had the required number of ACKs.

Patch List View

The patch list can have filters applied to it so that you see the patches that you are interested in. In the blue bar above the column titles is a Filters link. Clicking on that will expand the blue area and allow you to select what to filter on.