Patman

Create, check, send and track patch series, for projects which take patches by email, such as U-Boot and Linux

A real U-Boot series: checking it before sending, seeing a new review tag on patchwork, collecting it for v2 and tracking the series

What it does

• Sends a series from your branch. Tags in the commits say where it goes, its version and its cover letter, so there is nothing to remember when you come back weeks later.
• Checks it first. Runs checkpatch.pl and works out who to copy with get_maintainer.pl. Sends with git send-email, or through the kernel.org web relay if you have no working SMTP.
• Follows it on patchwork. Shows new review tags and comments, and writes the tags into a branch ready for the next version.
• Tracks all your series. A local database records each version, its patchwork link and the state of each patch, across more than one upstream tree.
• Helps you review. Drafts reviews of other people’s series with a Claude agent, and shows your series and reviews on a mobile-friendly web page.

Review in the browser

Run patman serve to review mailing-list code from a web page, on your desk or your phone. Ask a Claude agent to review a series, read and edit its comments next to the patch, then send them.

Reviewing a series with patman serve: drafting a review, editing a comment and sending the drafts (a made-up series, with patchwork and the agent stood in)

Try it

pip install patch-manager

patman send -n     # check the branch
patman send        # send it
patman status      # see the reviews

The guide goes through this step by step with a real U-Boot series, from setting up to sending v2.

Links

• Documentation: the manual, guide and command reference
• PyPI: install with pip install patch-manager
• GitHub: source, issues and changelog
• Patman and b4: how patman compares with b4, and how to use them together

Patman is free software under the GPL-2.0+ licence.