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Reid Spencerbb15b1c2007-02-13 09:09:20 +00009 <div class="doc_warning">DRAFT Only. DRAFT Only. DRAFT Only. DRAFT Only.</div>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000010
11<div class="doc_title">LLVM Developer Policy</div>
12<table class="layout"><tr class="layout"><td class="layout">
13<h2>Contents</h2>
14<ol>
Reid Spencer78bade22007-02-14 07:22:19 +000015 <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000016 <li><a href="#terms">Terminology</a></li>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000017 <li><a href="#general">General Policies</a>
18 <ol>
19 <li><a href="#informed">Stay Informed</a> </li>
20 <li><a href="#newwork">Starting New Work</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#reviews">Code Reviews</a></li>
22 <li><a href="#incremental">Incremental Development</a></li>
23 <li><a href="#quality">Quality</a></li>
24 <li><a href="#testcases">Test Cases</a></li>
25 </ol></li>
26 <li><a href="#patches">Patch Policies</a>
27 <ol>
28 <li><a href="#p_form">Patch Form</a></li>
29 <li><a href="#p_testing">Patch Testing</a></li>
30 <li><a href="#p_submission">Patch Submission</a></li>
31 <li><a href="#p_after">After Submission</a></li>
32 <li><a href="#c_access">Obtaining Commit Access</a></li>
33 <li><a href="#c_new">New Committers</a></li>
34 </ol></li>
Reid Spencer78bade22007-02-14 07:22:19 +000035 <li><a href="#candl">Copyright and License</a>
36 <ol>
37 <li><a href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
38 <li><a href="#license">License</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#devagree">Developer Agreements</a></li>
40 </ol></li>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000041</ol>
42<div class="doc_author">Written by LLVM Oversight Team</div>
43</td><td class="layout">
44
45<!--=========================================================================-->
46<div class="doc_section"><a name="overview">Overview</a></div>
47<!--=========================================================================-->
48<div class="doc_text">
49 <p>This document contains the LLVM Developer Policy which defines the
Reid Spencerbed92532007-02-13 17:04:09 +000050 project's policy towards developers and their contributions. The intent of
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000051 this policy is to eliminate mis-communication, rework, and confusion that
52 might arise from the distributed nature of LLVM's development. By stating
53 the policy in clear terms, we hope each developer can know ahead of time
54 what to expect when making LLVM contributions.</p>
55</div>
56<!--=========================================================================-->
57<div class="doc_section"><a name="terms">Terminology</a></div>
58<!--=========================================================================-->
59<div class="doc_text">
60 <p>So that the policies defined in the next sections are clear, we first
61 define some terms here.</p>
62 <dl>
63 <dt><a name="t_change">Change</a></dt>
64 <dd>Any modification to LLVM including documentation, tests, build system,
65 etc. either in <a href="#t_patch">patch</a> or
66 <a href="#t_commit">commit</a> form.</dd>
67 <dt><a name="t_commit">Commit</a><dt>
68 <dd>A <a href="t_change">change</a> submitted directly to LLVM software
Reid Spencer80483bb2007-02-13 09:20:14 +000069 repository via the <tt>cvs commit</tt> command.</dd>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000070 <dt><a name="t_developer">Developer</a></dt>
71 <dd>Anyone who submits a <a href="#t_change">change</a> to LLVM.</dd>
72 <dt><a name="t_inrement">Increment</a></dt>
73 <dd>A <a href="#t_change">change</a> or set of changes, whether by
74 <a href="#t_patch">patch</a> or <a href="#t_commit">commit</a>, that are
75 related by a single common purpose. Increments are atomic as they
76 leave LLVM in a stable state (both compiling and working properly).</dd>
77 <dt><a name="t_must">Must</a></dt>
78 <dd>When used in a policy statement, the term <i>must</i> implies a
79 non-optional requirement on the developer.</dd>
80 <dt><a name="t_patch">Patch</a></dt>
81 <dd>A <a href="#t_change">change</a> submitted by email in patch (diff)
82 format generated by the <tt>cvs diff</tt> command.</dd>
83 <dt><a name="t_should">Should</a></dt>
84 <dd>When used in a policy statement, the term <i>should</i> implies a
85 recommended but optional requirement on the developer.</dd>
86 </dl>
87</div>
88
89</td></tr></table>
90
91<!--=========================================================================-->
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +000092<div class="doc_section"><a name="general">General Policies</a></div>
93<!--=========================================================================-->
94<div class="doc_text">
95 <p>This section contains policies that pertain generally to LLVM developers.
96 <p>LLVM Developers are expected to meet the following obligations in order
97 for LLVM to maintain a high standard of quality<p>
98</div>
99
100<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
101<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="informed">Stay Informed</a> </div>
102<div class="doc_text">
103 <p>Developers should stay informed by reading at least the
104 <a href="mailto:llvmdev@llvm.org">llvmdev</a> email list. If you are doing
105 anything more than just casual work on LLVM, it is highly suggested that you
106 also subscribe to the llvm-commits list and pay attention to changes being
107 made by others.</p>
Reid Spencer78bade22007-02-14 07:22:19 +0000108 <p>We recommend that active developers register an email account with
109 <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM Bugzilla</a> and preferably subscribe to
110 the <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmbugs">llvm-bugs</a>
111 email list to keep track of bugs and enhancements occurring in LLVM.</p>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000112</div>
113
114<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
115<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="newwork">Starting New Work</a></div>
116<div class="doc_text">
Reid Spencer78bade22007-02-14 07:22:19 +0000117 <p>When a developer begins a major new project with the aim of contributing
118 it back to LLVM, s/he should inform the community with an email to
119 the <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">llvm-dev</a>
120 email list, to the extent possible. The reason for this is to:
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000121 <ul>
122 <li>keep the community informed about future changes to LLVM, </li>
123 <li>avoid duplication of effort by having multiple parties working on the
124 same thing and not knowing about it, and</li>
125 <li>ensure that any issues around the proposed work are discussed and
126 resolved before any significant work is accomplished.</li>
127 </ul>
Reid Spencer78bade22007-02-14 07:22:19 +0000128 <p>The design of LLVM is carefully controlled to ensure that all the pieces
129 fit together well. If you plan to make a major change to the way LLVM works or
130 a major new extension, it is a good idea to get consensus with the development
131 community before you start working on it.</p>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000132</div>
133
134<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
135<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="reviews">Code Reviews</a></div>
136<div class="doc_text">
137 <p>LLVM has a code review policy. Code review is an excellent way to ensure
138 high quality in the software. The following policies apply:</p>
139 <ol>
140 <li>All developers are required to have any significant changes reviewed
141 before they are committed to the repository.</li>
142 <li>Code reviews are conducted by email.</li>
143 <li>Code can be reviewed either before it is committed or after.</li>
144 <li>The developer responsible for a code change is also responsible for
145 making all necessary review changes.</li>
146 <li>Developers should participate in code reviews as both a reviewer and
147 a reviewee. We don't have a dedicated team of reviewers. If someone is
148 kind enough to review your code, you should return the favor for someone
149 else.</li>
150 </ol>
151</div>
152
153<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
154<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="incremental">Incremental Development</a>
155</div>
156<div class="doc_text">
157 <p>LLVM uses an incremental development style and all developers are expected
158 to follow this practice. Incremental development is a big key to LLVM's
159 success and it is essential that developers submit incremental patches. The
160 following defines the incremental development approach:</p>
161 <ol>
162 <li>The first task is to define the increment and get consensus (with the
163 LLVM development community) on what the end goal of the change is. Making
164 random small changes that go nowhere is not useful for anyone.</li>
165 <li>An increment is the smallest patch size necessary to effect one change
166 in LLVM.</li>
167 <li>Increments can be stand alone (e.g. to fix a bug), or part of a planned
168 series of increments towards some development goal.</li>
169 <li>Increments should be kept as small as possible. This simplifies your
170 work (into a logical progression), simplifies code review and reduces the
171 chance that you will get negative feedback on the change. Small increments
172 also facilitate the maintenance of a high quality code base.</li>
173 </ol>
174</div>
175
176<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
177<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="quality">Quality</a></div>
178<div class="doc_text">
179 <p>The minimum quality standards for any change to the main development
180 branch are:</p>
181 <ol>
182 <li>Code must adhere to the
183 <a href="CodingStandards.html">LLVM Coding Standards</a>.</li>
184 <li>Code must compile cleanly (no errors, no warnings) on at least one
185 platform.</li>
186 <li>Code must pass the deja gnu (llvm/test) test suite.</li>
187 <li>
188 </ol>
189 <p>Additionally, the committer is responsible for all of the following items.
190 It is considered significantly preferable for all of these items to be
191 accounted for <i>before</i> the code is submitted for review or committed.</p>
192 <ol>
193 <li>Code must compile cleanly on all platforms.</li>
194 <li>Code must pass the <tt>llvm-test</tt> test suite including
195 SPEC CINT2000, SPEC CFP2000, SPEC CINT2006, and SPEC CFP2006.</li>
Reid Spencer80483bb2007-02-13 09:20:14 +0000196 <li>The change set must not cause performance or correctness regressions
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000197 for the LLVM tools.</li>
198 <li>The changes must not cause performance or correctness regressions in
199 code compiled with LLVM on all applicable targets.</li>
200 </ol>
201</div>
202
203<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
204<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="testcases">Test Cases</a></div>
205<div class="doc_text">
206 <p>Developers are required to create test cases for regressions and new
207 features and include them with their changes. The following policies
208 apply:</p>
209 <ol>
210 <li>All feature and regression test cases must be added to the
Reid Spencer80483bb2007-02-13 09:20:14 +0000211 <tt>llvm/test</tt> directory. The appropriate sub-directory should be
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000212 selected (see the <a href="TestingGuide.html">Testing Guide</a> for
Reid Spencer40602962007-02-13 20:57:57 +0000213 details).</li>
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000214 <li>Test cases should be written in LLVM assembly language unless the
215 feature or regression being tested requires another language.</li>
216 <li>Test cases, especially for regressions, should be as reduced as
217 possible, preferably by
Reid Spencer4e2fb7b2007-02-13 09:11:33 +0000218 <a href="CommandGuide/html/bugpoint.html">bugpoint</a>. It is unacceptable
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000219 to place an entire failing program into <tt>llvm/test</tt> as this creates
220 a <i>time-to-test</i> burden on all developers. Keep them short!</li>
221 <li>More extensive test cases (applications, benchmarks, etc.) should be
222 added to the <tt>llvm-test</tt> test suite, after approval from the
223 Oversight Group. This test suite is for coverage not features or
224 regressions.</li>
225 </ol>
226</div>
227
228<!--=========================================================================-->
229<div class="doc_section"><a name="patches">Patch Policies</a></div>
230<!--=========================================================================-->
231<div class="doc_text">
232 <p>This section contains policies that pertain to submitting patches
233 to LLVM and committing code to the repository</p>
234</div>
235<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
236<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="p_form">Patch Form</a></div>
237<div class="doc_text">
238 <p>When submitting a patch, developers must follow these rules:</p>
239 <ol>
240 <li>Patches must be made against the CVS HEAD (main development trunk),
241 not a branch.</li>
242 <li>Patches must be made with this cvs command:<pre>
243 cvs diff -Ntdup -5</pre> or with the utility <tt>utils/mkpatch</tt>.</li>
244 <li>Patches must not include differences in generated code such as the
245 code generated by <tt>flex</tt>, <tt>bison</tt> or <tt>tblgen</tt>. The
246 <tt>utils/mkpatch</tt> utility takes care of this for you.</li>
247 </ol>
248</div>
249<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
250<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="p_testing">Patch Testing</a></div>
251<div class="doc_text">
252 <p>Before a patch is submitted for review, it should be tested to ensure
253 that:</p>
254 <ol>
255 <li>The patch must compile against the CVS HEAD cleanly (zero warnings, zero
256 errors).</li>
257 <li>All the llvm/test (Deja Gnu) tests must pass.</li>
258 <li>All the llvm-test tests must pass on at least one platform.</li>
259 </ol>
260</div>
261<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
262<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="p_submission">Patch Submission</a></div>
263<div class="doc_text">
264 <p>When a patch is ready to be submitted, these policies apply:</p>
265 <ol>
266 <li>Patches should be submitted immediately after they are generated. Stale
267 patches are unlikely to apply correctly and could be rejected simply due to
268 age.</li>
269 <li>Patches must be submitted by e-mail to the
270 <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvm-commits">
271 llvm-commits</a> list.</li>
272 </ol>
273</div>
274
275<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
276<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="p_after">After Submission</a></div>
277<div class="doc_text">
278 <p>After a patch has been submitted, these policies apply:</p>
279 <ol>
280 <li>The patch is subject to review by anyone on the llvm-commits email list.
281 </li>
282 <li>Any changes recommended by the reviewer must be made by the submitter
283 of the patch and the patch re-submitted.</li>
284 <li>If the submitter believes the review comment is in error, a response to
285 the <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvm-commits">
286 llvm-commits</a> list should be made explaining why the recommendation
287 cannot be followed.</li>
288 </ol>
289</div>
290
291<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
292<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="p_after">After Commit</a></div>
293<div class="doc_text">
294 <p>After a patch has been committed, these policies apply:</p>
295 <ol>
296 <li>The patch is subject to further review by anyone on the llvm-commits
297 email list.</li>
298 <li>The patch submitter is responsible for all aspects of the patch per
299 the <a href="quality">quality policy</a> above.</li>
300 <li>If the patch is discovered to not meet the
301 <a href="quality">quality standards</a> standards within a reasonable time
302 frame (24 hours), it may be subject to reversal.</li>
303 </ol>
304</div>
305
306<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
307<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="c_access">Gaining Commit Access</a></div>
308<div class="doc_text">
309 <p>Commit access to the repository is granted according to this policy:</p>
310 <ol>
311 <li>Commit access is not granted to anyone unless they specifically ask for
312 it.</li>
313 <li>Requests for commit access must be sent to the LLVM Oversight Group at
314 <a href="mailto:oversight@llvm.org">oversight@llvm.org</a>.</li>
315 <li>Granting commit access is at the sole discretion of the LLVM Oversight
316 Group.</li>
317 <li>Submitting patches to LLVM via the patch policy above will greatly
318 increase the chance that your request for commit access is granted.</li>
319 <li>Getting to know the members of the LLVM community (email, IRC, in person
320 contact, etc.) will also increase your chances.</li>
321 </ol>
322</div>
323
324<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
325<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="c_new">New Committers</a></div>
326<div class="doc_text">
327 <p>For those who have recently obtained commit access, the following policies
328 apply:</p>
329 <ol>
330 <li>You are granted <i>commit-after-approval</i> to all parts of LLVM.
331 To get approval, submit a patch to llvm-commits per the patch policies
332 above. When approved you may commit it yourself.</li>
Reid Spencer80483bb2007-02-13 09:20:14 +0000333 <li>You are granted <i>commit-without-approval</i> to those portions of LLVM
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000334 that you own (contributed) or maintain (have been assigned responsibility
335 for), with the proviso that such commits must not break the build. This is
336 a "trust but verify" policy and commits of this nature are reviewed after
337 they are committed.</li>
338 <li>Commits that violate the <a href="quality">quality standards</a> may
339 be reverted. This is necessary when the change blocks other developers from
340 making progress. The developers is welcome to re-commit the change after
341 the problem has been fixed.</li>
Reid Spencer80483bb2007-02-13 09:20:14 +0000342 <li>Multiple violations of these policies or a single egregious violation
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000343 may cause commit access to be revoked, at the sole discretion of the
344 LLVM Oversight Group.</li>
345 </ol>
346</div>
347
348<!--=========================================================================-->
Reid Spencer78bade22007-02-14 07:22:19 +0000349<div class="doc_section"><a name="candl">Copyright and License</a></div>
350<!--=========================================================================-->
351<div class="doc_text">
352 <p>We address here the issues of copyright and license for the LLVM project.
353 The object of the copyright and license is the LLVM source and documentation.
354 Currently, the University of Illinois is the LLVM copyright holder and the
355 terms of its license to LLVM users and developers is the
356 <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/UoI-NCSA.php">University of
357 Illinois/NCSA Open Source License</a>.
358</div>
359
360<div class="doc_notes">
361 <p>NOTE: This section deals with legal matters but does not provide legal
362 advice. It is intended only as a general guideline.</p>
363</div>
364
365<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
366<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="copyright">Attribution</a></div>
367<div class="doc_text">
368 <p>The LLVM project believes in correct attribution of contributions to
369 their contributors, as follows:</p>
370 <ol>
371 <li>Developers who originate new files in LLVM should place their name at
372 the top of the file per the
373 <a href="CodingStandards.html">Coding Standards</a>.</li>
374 <li>There should be only one name at the top of the file and it should be
375 the person who created the file.</li>
376 <li>Placing your name in the file does not imply copyright but does
377 correctly attribute the file to its author.</li>
378 <li>Developers should be aware that after some time has passed, the name at
379 the top of a file may become meaningless as maintenance/ownership of files
380 changes.</li>
381 <li>Developers should submit or commit patches to the
382 <a href="http://llvm.org/cvsweb/cvsweb.cgi/llvm/CREDITS.TXT?rev=1.67&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup">CREDITS.txt</a>
383 file to summarize their contributions.</li>
384 <li>Commit comments should contain correct attribution of the person who s
385 submitted the patch if that person is not the committer (i.e. when a
386 developer with commit privileges commits a patch for someone else).</li>
387 </ol>
388</div>
389
390<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
391<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="copyright">Copyright</a></div>
392<div class="doc_text">
393 <p>
394 <p>However, for consistency and ease of management, the project requires the
395 copyright for all LLVM software to be held by a single copyright holder.
396 Although UIUC may assign the copyright of the software to another entity,
397 the intent for the project is to always have a single entity hold the copy
398 rights to LLVM at any given time.
399 <p>Having multiple copyright holders for various portions of LLVM is
400 problematic in the management of the software. Having a single copyright
401 holder is in the best interests of all developers and users as it greatly
402 reduces the managerial burden for any kind of administrative or technical
403 decisions about LLVM.</p>
404</div>
405<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
406<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="license">License</a></div>
407<div class="doc_text">
408 <p>LLVM licensing decisions will be made by the LLVM Oversight Group. Any
409 issues, comments or suggestions with the licensing should be sent to
410 <a href="mailto:oversight@llvm.org">oversight@llvm.org</a>.</p>
411 <p>The LLVM Oversight Group intends to keep LLVM perpetually open source
412 and to use liberal open source licenses. The current license is the
413 University of Illinois Open Source License (see LICENSE.TXT), which boils
414 down to this:</p>
415 <ul>
416 <li>You can freely distribute LLVM.</li>
417 <li>You must retain the copyright notice if you redistribute LLVM.</li>
418 <li>Binaries derived from LLVM must reproduce the copyright notice.</li>
419 <li>You can't use our names to promote your LLVM derived products.</li>
420 <li>There's no warranty on LLVM at all.</li>
421 </ul>
422 <p>We believe this fosters the widest adoption of LLVM because it allows
423 commercial products to be derived from LLVM with few restrictions and
424 without a requirement for making any derived works also open source. We
425 suggest that you read the
426 <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/UoI-NCSA.php">License</a> if
427 further clarification is needed.</p>
428</div>
429<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
430<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="devagree">Developer Agreements</a></div>
431<div class="doc_text">
432 <p>With regards to the LLVM copyright and licensing, developers agree to:</p>
433 <ul>
434 <li>assign their copy rights to UIUC for any contribution made so that
435 the entire software base can be managed by a single copyright holder.</li>
436 <li>allow their contribution(s) to be licensed as open source by the then
437 current license chosen by the LLVM Oversight Group.</li>
438 <li>not make LLVM available under any other licensing agreement.</li>
439 </ul>
440</div>
441
442<!--=========================================================================-->
Reid Spencer8d0ac692007-02-13 09:06:01 +0000443<div class="doc_section"><a name="notes">Policy Notes</a></div>
444<!--=========================================================================-->
445<div class="doc_text">
446 <p>This section contains some notes on policy topics that need to be
447 resolved and incorporated into the main body of the document above.</p>
448 <ol>
449 <li>When to open a new bug and when to re-use an existing one. For example
450 PR1158. If the same assertion happens do you open a new bug or reopen
451 1158?</li>
452 </ol>
453</div>
454
455<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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