I completely botched up the merged[0] rST conversion of this document by
accidentally dropping entire hunks (!) of text. :-(  I made it very hard
for reviewers to spot it, as the omitted text was buried deep in the
document.  To fix my hatchet job, I reconverted the "SubmitAPatch"
wiki[1] page from scratch and replaced the existing rST with it, while
making sure I incorporated previous feedback.
In summary, in this reconverted edition:
- I did a careful (to the extent my eyes allowed) para-by-para
  comparison of the wiki and the rST to make sure I didn't omit
  anything accidentally.
- I made sure to work in the cosmetic feedback[2] that Thomas Huth
  pointed out in the merged (and botched) edition:
   - fix the hyperlinks in "Split up long patches"
   - replace ".". with "does not end with a dot" (in "Write a meaningful
     commit message" section)
   - replace "---" with ``---`` so that it doesn't render as an em-dash
     (there were two other occurrences; I fixed those too)
- Use "QEMU" spelling consistently in prose usage
- Add a consistent "refer to git-config" link where appropriate
Thanks to Thomas Huth and Alex Bennée for noticing it on IRC.  And sorry
for my sloppiness.
Fixes: 9f73de8df033 ("docs: rSTify the "SubmitAPatch" wiki")
[0] https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/commit/9f73de8df033
[1] https://wiki.qemu.org/index.php?title=Contribute/SubmitAPatch&oldid=10387
[2] https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2021-11/msg03600.html
Signed-off-by: Kashyap Chamarthy <kchamart@redhat.com>
Message-Id: <20211119193118.949698-2-kchamart@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
[thuth: Some more cosmetical changes, fixed links from external to internal]
Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
		
	
			
		
			
				
	
	
		
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.. _stable-process:
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QEMU and the stable process
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===========================
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QEMU stable releases
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--------------------
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QEMU stable releases are based upon the last released QEMU version
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and marked by an additional version number, e.g. 2.10.1. Occasionally,
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a four-number version is released, if a single urgent fix needs to go
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on top.
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Usually, stable releases are only provided for the last major QEMU
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release. For example, when QEMU 2.11.0 is released, 2.11.x or 2.11.x.y
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stable releases are produced only until QEMU 2.12.0 is released, at
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which point the stable process moves to producing 2.12.x/2.12.x.y releases.
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What should go into a stable release?
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-------------------------------------
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Generally, the following patches are considered stable material:
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* Patches that fix severe issues, like fixes for CVEs
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* Patches that fix regressions
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If you think the patch would be important for users of the current release
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(or for a distribution picking fixes), it is usually a good candidate
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for stable.
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How to get a patch into QEMU stable
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-----------------------------------
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There are various ways to get a patch into stable:
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* Preferred: Make sure that the stable maintainers are on copy when you send
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  the patch by adding
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  .. code::
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     Cc: qemu-stable@nongnu.org
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  to the patch description. By default, this will send a copy of the patch
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  to ``qemu-stable@nongnu.org`` if you use git send-email, which is where
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  patches that are stable candidates are tracked by the maintainers.
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* You can also reply to a patch and put ``qemu-stable@nongnu.org`` on copy
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  directly in your mail client if you think a previously submitted patch
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  should be considered for a stable release.
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* If a maintainer judges the patch appropriate for stable later on (or you
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  notify them), they will add the same line to the patch, meaning that
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  the stable maintainers will be on copy on the maintainer's pull request.
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* If you judge an already merged patch suitable for stable, send a mail
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  (preferably as a reply to the most recent patch submission) to
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  ``qemu-stable@nongnu.org`` along with ``qemu-devel@nongnu.org`` and
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  appropriate other people (like the patch author or the relevant maintainer)
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  on copy.
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Stable release process
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----------------------
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When the stable maintainers prepare a new stable release, they will prepare
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a git branch with a release candidate and send the patches out to
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``qemu-devel@nongnu.org`` for review. If any of your patches are included,
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please verify that they look fine, especially if the maintainer had to tweak
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the patch as part of back-porting things across branches. You may also
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nominate other patches that you think are suitable for inclusion. After
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review is complete (may involve more release candidates), a new stable release
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is made available.
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