X-Git-Url: http://plrg.eecs.uci.edu/git/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=docs%2FDeveloperPolicy.html;h=85b8aab2c1b23099eab5583623cb259c317dcf5e;hb=bcd10f162dd6b97bb6fbe05aa66bdcb02e33277d;hp=16238f2c084945a9c5c6b95c5a2582fc20bf7fca;hpb=01f56be4cfe327cd4de33d37642e6a6009f0b5c3;p=oota-llvm.git diff --git a/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html b/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html index 16238f2c084..85b8aab2c1b 100644 --- a/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html +++ b/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html @@ -6,45 +6,34 @@
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This document contains the LLVM Developer Policy which defines the @@ -53,15 +42,32 @@ might arise from the distributed nature of LLVM's development. By stating the policy in clear terms, we hope each developer can know ahead of time what to expect when making LLVM contributions. +This policy is also designed to accomplish the following objectives: +
This policy is aimed at frequent contributors to LLVM. People interested in + contributing one-off patches can do so in an informal way by sending them to + the + llvm-commits mailing list and engaging another developer to see it through + the process. +
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This section contains policies that pertain generally to LLVM developers. - LLVM Developers are expected to meet the following obligations in order - for LLVM to maintain a high standard of quality. + This section contains policies that pertain to frequent LLVM + developers. We always welcome one-off patches from + people who do not routinely contribute to LLVM, but we expect more from + frequent contributors to keep the system as efficient as possible for + everyone. + Frequent LLVM contributors are expected to meet the following requirements in + order for LLVM to maintain a high standard of quality.
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-When a developer begins a major new project with the aim of contributing - it back to LLVM, s/he should inform the community with an email to - the llvm-dev - email list, to the extent possible. The reason for this is to: -
The design of LLVM is carefully controlled to ensure that all the pieces - fit together well. If you plan to make a major change to the way LLVM works or - a major new extension, it is a good idea to get consensus with the development - community before you start working on it. + +When making a patch for review, the goal is to make it as easy for the + reviewer to read it as possible. As such, we recommend that you: +
When sending a patch to a mailing list, it is a good idea to send it as an + attachment to the message, not embedded into the text of the + message. This ensures that your mailer will not mangle the patch when it + sends it (e.g. by making whitespace changes or by wrapping lines). |
-
LLVM has a code review policy. Code review is an excellent way to ensure - high quality in the software. The following policies apply:
+LLVM has a code review policy. Code review is one way to increase the + quality of software. We generally follow these policies:
Developers should participate in code reviews as both reviewers and + reviewees. If someone is kind enough to review your code, you should + return the favor for someone else. Note that anyone is welcome to review + and give feedback on a patch, but only people with CVS write access can + approve it.
- - -LLVM uses an incremental development style and all developers are expected - to follow this practice. Incremental development is a big key to LLVM's - success and it is essential that developers submit incremental patches. The - following defines the incremental development approach:
-The minimum quality standards for any change to the main development - branch are:
-Additionally, the committer is responsible for addressing all of the - following items (preferably before submission):
-Developers are required to create test cases for regressions and new - features and include them with their changes. The following policies - apply:
+Developers are required to create test cases for any bugs fixed and any new + features added. Some tips for getting your testcase approved:
Note that llvm/test is designed for regression and small feature tests + only. More extensive test cases (e.g., entire applications, benchmarks, + etc) should be added to the llvm-test test suite. The llvm-test + suite is for coverage (correctness, performance, etc) testing, not feature + or regression testing.
This section contains policies that pertain to submitting patches - to LLVM and committing code to the repository
-When submitting a patch, developers must follow these rules:
-- cvs diff -Ntdup -5or with the utility utils/mkpatch.
Before a patch is submitted for review, it should be tested to ensure - that:
-When a patch is ready to be submitted, these policies apply:
+The minimum quality standards that any change must satisfy before being + committed to the main development branch are:
Additionally, the committer is responsible for addressing any problems + found in the future that the change is responsible for. For example:
+We prefer for this to be handled before submission but understand that it + isn't possible to test all of this for every submission. Our nightly + testing + infrastructure normally finds these problems. A good rule of thumb is to + check the nightly testers for regressions the day after your change.
+ +Commits that violate these quality standards (e.g. are very broken) may + be reverted. This is necessary when the change blocks other developers from + making progress. The developer is welcome to re-commit the change after + the problem has been fixed.
After a patch has been submitted, these policies apply:
-After a patch has been committed, these policies apply:
-+We grant commit access to contributors with a track record of submitting high +quality patches. If you would like commit access, please send an email to the +LLVM oversight group.
+ +If you have recently been granted commit access, these policies apply:
+In any case, your changes are still subject to code +review (either before or after they are committed, depending on the nature +of the change). You are encouraged to review other peoples' patches as well, +but you aren't required to.
+Commit access to the repository is granted according to this policy:
+When a developer begins a major new project with the aim of contributing + it back to LLVM, s/he should inform the community with an email to + the llvmdev + email list, to the extent possible. The reason for this is to:
Submitting patches to LLVM via the patch policy above will greatly - increase the chance that your request for commit access is granted. Getting - to know the members of the LLVM community (email, IRC, in person contact, - etc.) will also increase your chances.
+The design of LLVM is carefully controlled to ensure that all the pieces + fit together well and are as consistent as possible. If you plan to make a + major change to the way LLVM works or want to add a major new extension, it + is a good idea to get consensus with the development + community before you start working on it.
+ +Once the design of the new feature is finalized, the work itself should be + done as a series of incremental changes, not as + a long-term development branch.
+For those who have recently obtained commit access, the following policies - apply:
-We address here the issues of copyright and license for the LLVM project. - The object of the copyright and license is the LLVM source code and - documentation. - Currently, the University of Illinois is the LLVM copyright holder and the - terms of its license to LLVM users and developers is the - University of - Illinois/NCSA Open Source License. -
NOTE: This section deals with legal matters but does not provide legal - advice. It is intended only as a general guideline only.
+In the LLVM project, we do all significant changes as a series of + incremental patches. We have a strong dislike for huge changes or + long-term development branches. Long-term development branches have a + number of drawbacks:
+ ++ To address these problems, LLVM uses an incremental development style and we + require contributors to follow this practice when making a large/invasive + change. Some tips:
+ +If you are interested in making a large change, and this scares you, please + make sure to first discuss the change/gather + consensus then ask about the best way to go about making + the change.
The LLVM project believes in correct attribution of contributions to - their contributors, as follows:
+We believe in correct attribution of contributions to + their contributors. However, we do not want the source code to be littered + with random attributions (this is noisy/distracting and revision control + keeps a perfect history of this anyway). As such, we follow these rules:
This section addresses the issues of copyright, license and patents for + the LLVM project. + Currently, the University of Illinois is the LLVM copyright holder and the + terms of its license to LLVM users and developers is the + University of + Illinois/NCSA Open Source License.
+ +NOTE: This section deals with legal matters but does not provide + legal advice. We are not lawyers, please seek legal counsel from an + attorney.
+
For consistency and ease of management, the project requires the - copyright for all LLVM software to be held by a single copyright holder. - Although UIUC may assign the copyright of the software to another entity, - the intent for the project is to always have a single entity hold the copy - rights to LLVM at any given time. -
Having multiple copyright holders for various portions of LLVM is - problematic in the management of the software. Having a single copyright + copyright for all LLVM software to be held by a single copyright holder: + the University of Illinois (UIUC).
+ ++ Although UIUC may eventually reassign the copyright of the software to another + entity (e.g. a dedicated non-profit "LLVM Organization", or something) + the intent for the project is to always have a single entity hold the + copyrights to LLVM at any given time.
+ +We believe that having a single copyright holder is in the best interests of all developers and users as it greatly reduces the managerial burden for any kind of administrative or technical - decisions about LLVM.
+ decisions about LLVM. The goal of the LLVM project is to always keep the code + open and licensed under a very liberal license.LLVM licensing decisions will be made by the LLVM Oversight Group. Any - issues, comments or suggestions with the licensing should be sent to the - LLVM Oversight Group.
-The LLVM Oversight Group intends to keep LLVM perpetually open source - and to use liberal open source licenses. The current license is the +
We intend to keep LLVM perpetually open source + and to use a liberal open source license. The current license is the University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License, which boils down to this:
@@ -401,69 +434,59 @@We believe this fosters the widest adoption of LLVM because it allows - commercial products to be derived from LLVM with few restrictions and - without a requirement for making any derived works also open source. We - suggest that you read the - License if - further clarification is needed.
+ +We believe this fosters the widest adoption of LLVM because it allows + commercial products to be derived from LLVM with few restrictions and + without a requirement for making any derived works also open source (i.e. + LLVM's license is not a "copyleft" license like the GPL). We suggest that you + read the License + if further clarification is needed.
+ +Note that the LLVM Project does distribute llvm-gcc, which is GPL. + This means that anything "linked" into llvm-gcc must itself be compatible + with the GPL, and must be releasable under the terms of the GPL. This implies + that any code linked into llvm-gcc and distributed to others may be subject + to the viral aspects of the GPL (for example, a proprietary code generator + linked into llvm-gcc must be made available under the GPL). This is not a + problem for code already distributed under a more liberal license (like the + UIUC license), and does not affect code generated by llvm-gcc. It may be a + problem if you intend to base commercial development on llvm-gcc without + redistributing your source code.
+ +We have no plans to change the license of LLVM. If you have questions + or comments about the license, please contact the LLVM Oversight Group.
+With regards to the LLVM copyright and licensing, developers agree to:
-So that the policies defined in this document are clear, we define some - terms here.
-To the best of our knowledge, LLVM does not infringe on any patents (we have + actually removed code from LLVM in the past that was found to infringe). + Having code in LLVM that infringes on patents would violate an important + goal of the project by making it hard or impossible to reuse the code for + arbitrary purposes (including commercial use).
+ +When contributing code, we expect contributors to notify us of any potential + for patent-related trouble with their changes. If you own the rights to a + patent and would like to contribute code to LLVM that relies on it, we + require that you sign an agreement that allows any other user of LLVM to + freely use your patent. Please contact the oversight group for more + details.
This section contains some notes on policy topics that need to be - resolved and incorporated into the main body of the document above.
-With regards to the LLVM copyright and licensing, developers agree to + assign their copyrights to UIUC for any contribution made so that + the entire software base can be managed by a single copyright holder. This + implies that any contributions can be licensed under the license that the + project uses.