Documentation/SubmittingPatches: describe the Fixes: tag

Update the SubmittingPatches process to include howto about the new
'Fixes:' tag to be used when a patch fixes an issue in a previous commit
(found by git-bisect for example).

Signed-off-by: Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@intel.com>
Tested-by: Aaron Brown <aaron.f.brown@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Jeff Kirsher <jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com>
Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 21 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index 2a8e89e13e45..7e9abb8a276b 100644
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -132,6 +132,20 @@ Example:
         platform_set_drvdata(), but left the variable "dev" unused,
         delete it.
 
+If your patch fixes a bug in a specific commit, e.g. you found an issue using
+git-bisect, please use the 'Fixes:' tag with the first 12 characters of the
+SHA-1 ID, and the one line summary.
+Example:
+
+        Fixes: e21d2170f366 ("video: remove unnecessary platform_set_drvdata()")
+
+The following git-config settings can be used to add a pretty format for
+outputting the above style in the git log or git show commands
+
+        [core]
+                abbrev = 12
+        [pretty]
+                fixes = Fixes: %h (\"%s\")
 
 3) Separate your changes.
 
@@ -443,7 +457,7 @@ person it names.  This tag documents that potentially interested parties
 have been included in the discussion
 
 
-14) Using Reported-by:, Tested-by:, Reviewed-by: and Suggested-by:
+14) Using Reported-by:, Tested-by:, Reviewed-by:, Suggested-by: and Fixes:
 
 If this patch fixes a problem reported by somebody else, consider adding a
 Reported-by: tag to credit the reporter for their contribution.  Please
@@ -498,6 +512,12 @@ idea was not posted in a public forum. That said, if we diligently credit our
 idea reporters, they will, hopefully, be inspired to help us again in the
 future.
 
+A Fixes: tag indicates that the patch fixes an issue in a previous commit. It
+is used to make it easy to determine where a bug originated, which can help
+review a bug fix. This tag also assists the stable kernel team in determining
+which stable kernel versions should receive your fix. This is the preferred
+method for indicating a bug fixed by the patch. See #2 above for more details.
+
 
 15) The canonical patch format