From: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
Cc: Kuan-Wei Chiu <visitorckw@gmail.com>,
Dwaipayan Ray <dwaipayanray1@gmail.com>,
Lukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com>,
Stephen Rothwell <sfr@canb.auug.org.au>,
Andy Whitcroft <apw@canonical.com>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH] checkpatch: Add an invalid patch separator test
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:42:52 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <6ec1ed08328340db42655287afd5fa4067316b11.camel@perches.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260113193319.701e5799059eb642bbfc9a04@linux-foundation.org>
Some versions of tools that apply patches incorrectly allow lines that
start with 3 dashes and have additional content on the same line.
Checkpatch will now emit an ERROR on these lines and optionally
convert those lines from dashes to equals with --fix.
Signed-off-by: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
---
Documentation/dev-tools/checkpatch.rst | 5 +++++
scripts/checkpatch.pl | 10 ++++++++++
2 files changed, 15 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/checkpatch.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/checkpatch.rst
index ca475805df4c8..dccede68698ca 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-tools/checkpatch.rst
+++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/checkpatch.rst
@@ -601,6 +601,11 @@ Commit message
See: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/submitting-patches.html#describe-your-changes
+ **BAD_COMMIT_SEPARATOR**
+ The commit separator is a single line with 3 dashes.
+ The regex match is '^---$'
+ Lines that start with 3 dashes and have more content on the same line
+ may confuse tools that apply patches.
Comparison style
----------------
diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index e0f1d6a6bc636..a11f88d11edd8 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -3035,6 +3035,16 @@ sub process {
}
}
+# Check for invalid patch separator
+ if ($in_commit_log &&
+ $line =~ /^---.+/) {
+ if (ERROR("BAD_COMMIT_SEPARATOR",
+ "Invalid commit separator - some tools may have problems applying this\n" . $herecurr) &&
+ $fix) {
+ $fixed[$fixlinenr] =~ s/-/=/g;
+ }
+ }
+
# Check for patch separator
if ($line =~ /^---$/) {
$has_patch_separator = 1;
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-16 17:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-05 5:34 [PATCH v1] checkpatch: Warn about sign offs if there's an accidental patch separator Ian Rogers
2025-12-05 7:22 ` Kuan-Wei Chiu
2026-01-04 1:10 ` Ian Rogers
2026-01-04 17:37 ` Kuan-Wei Chiu
[not found] ` <195a2cba2b461a0ab99ae004bdf079b038db8b07.camel@perches.com>
2026-01-04 21:13 ` Ian Rogers
2026-01-04 22:22 ` Joe Perches
2026-01-05 15:39 ` Ian Rogers
2026-01-05 16:46 ` Joe Perches
2026-01-05 17:13 ` Ian Rogers
2026-01-14 3:33 ` Andrew Morton
2026-01-14 5:29 ` Stephen Rothwell
2026-01-14 18:20 ` Joe Perches
2026-01-14 19:01 ` Ian Rogers
2026-01-16 17:42 ` Joe Perches [this message]
2026-01-16 20:48 ` [PATCH] checkpatch: Add an invalid patch separator test Andrew Morton
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