Hi Manos,
Nice, I use a lot b4 and I think many QEMU devs use it as well :)
On 7/17/25 10:53, Manos Pitsidianakis wrote:
Add a section about b4, an actively maintained and widely packaged CLI
tool for contributing to patch-based development projects.
Signed-off-by: Manos Pitsidianakis <manos.pitsidiana...@linaro.org>
---
docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
b/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
index
f7917b899f6892ef74908fe8f1399b6ae5a30324..5160813ca8cf12c0547b88586059487d1e90fe18
100644
--- a/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
+++ b/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
@@ -235,6 +235,38 @@ to another list.) ``git send-email`` (`step-by-step setup
guide
works best for delivering the patch without mangling it, but
attachments can be used as a last resort on a first-time submission.
+.. _use_b4:
+
+Use B4
+~~~~~~
+
+The `b4`_ tool, used for Linux kernel development, can also be used for QEMU
+development. It is packaged in most distros and PyPi. The QEMU source tree
+includes a ``b4`` project configuration file at the root: ``.b4-config``.
+
+Example workflow to prepare a patch series:
+
+1. Start with a clean checkout of the ``master`` branch.
+2. Create a new series with a topical branch name using ``b4 prep -n
descriptive-name``.
+ ``b4`` will create a ``b4/descriptive-name`` branch and switch to it.
+3. Commit your changes, following this page's guidelines about proper commit
messages etc.
+4. Write a descriptive cover later with ``b4 prep --edit-cover``.
Nit: You meant "cover letter" here maybe?
Otherwise:
Reviewed-by: Gustavo Romero <gustavo.rom...@linaro.org>
Cheers,
Gustavo
+5. Add maintainer and reviewer CCs with ``b4 prep --auto-to-cc``. You can make
+ changes to Cc: and To: recipients by editing the cover letter.
+6. Run patch checks with ``b4 prep --check``.
+7. Optionally review the patches with ``b4 send --dry-run`` which will print
the
+ raw patches in standard output.
+
+To send the patches, you can:
+
+- Setup ``git-send-email`` and use ``b4 send``, or
+- Export the patches to files using ``b4 send -o OUTPUT_DIR`` and send them
manually.
+
+For more details, consult the `b4 documentation`_.
+
+.. _b4 documentation: https://b4.docs.kernel.org/
+.. _b4: https://github.com/mricon/b4/
+
.. _use_git_publish:
Use git-publish
@@ -418,7 +450,7 @@ Retrieve an existing series
---------------------------
If you want to apply an existing series on top of your tree, you can simply use
-`b4 <https://github.com/mricon/b4>`__.
+`b4`_.
::
@@ -533,7 +565,11 @@ summary belongs. The `git-publish
<https://github.com/stefanha/git-publish>`__ script can help with
tracking a good summary across versions. Also, the `git-backport-diff
<https://github.com/codyprime/git-scripts>`__ script can help focus
-reviewers on what changed between revisions.
+reviewers on what changed between revisions. The ``b4`` tool automatically
+generates a version history section in the cover letter, including links to the
+previous versions on `Lore`_.
+
+.. _Lore: https://lore.kernel.org/
.. _tips_and_tricks:
---
base-commit: f96b157ebb93f94cd56ebbc99bc20982b8fd86ef
change-id: 20250717-docs_add_b4_section-fc37e538b20b
--
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