1 .. _phabricator-reviews:
3 =============================
4 Code Reviews with Phabricator
5 =============================
10 If you prefer to use a web user interface for code reviews, you can now submit
11 your patches for Clang and LLVM at `LLVM's Phabricator`_ instance.
13 While Phabricator is a useful tool for some, the relevant -commits mailing list
14 is the system of record for all LLVM code review. The mailing list should be
15 added as a subscriber on all reviews, and Phabricator users should be prepared
16 to respond to free-form comments in mail sent to the commits list.
21 To get started with Phabricator, navigate to `https://reviews.llvm.org`_ and
22 click the power icon in the top right. You can register with a GitHub account,
23 a Google account, or you can create your own profile.
25 Make *sure* that the email address registered with Phabricator is subscribed
26 to the relevant -commits mailing list. If you are not subscribed to the commit
27 list, all mail sent by Phabricator on your behalf will be held for moderation.
29 Note that if you use your Subversion user name as Phabricator user name,
30 Phabricator will automatically connect your submits to your Phabricator user in
31 the `Code Repository Browser`_.
33 Requesting a review via the command line
34 ----------------------------------------
36 Phabricator has a tool called *Arcanist* to upload patches from
37 the command line. To get you set up, follow the
38 `Arcanist Quick Start`_ instructions.
40 You can learn more about how to use arc to interact with
41 Phabricator in the `Arcanist User Guide`_.
43 .. _phabricator-request-review-web:
45 Requesting a review via the web interface
46 -----------------------------------------
48 The tool to create and review patches in Phabricator is called
51 Note that you can upload patches created through various diff tools,
52 including git and svn. To make reviews easier, please always include
53 **as much context as possible** with your diff! Don't worry, Phabricator
54 will automatically send a diff with a smaller context in the review
55 email, but having the full file in the web interface will help the
56 reviewer understand your code.
58 To get a full diff, use one of the following commands (or just use Arcanist
59 to upload your patch):
61 * ``git show HEAD -U999999 > mypatch.patch``
62 * ``git format-patch -U999999 @{u}``
63 * ``svn diff --diff-cmd=diff -x -U999999``
65 To upload a new patch:
67 * Click *Differential*.
68 * Click *+ Create Diff*.
69 * Paste the text diff or browse to the patch file. Click *Create Diff*.
70 * Leave this first Repository field blank. (We'll fill in the Repository
71 later, when sending the review.)
72 * Leave the drop down on *Create a new Revision...* and click *Continue*.
73 * Enter a descriptive title and summary. The title and summary are usually
74 in the form of a :ref:`commit message <commit messages>`.
75 * Add reviewers (see below for advice). (If you set the Repository field
76 correctly, llvm-commits or cfe-commits will be subscribed automatically;
77 otherwise, you will have to manually subscribe them.)
78 * In the Repository field, enter the name of the project (LLVM, Clang,
79 etc.) to which the review should be sent.
82 To submit an updated patch:
84 * Click *Differential*.
85 * Click *+ Create Diff*.
86 * Paste the updated diff or browse to the updated patch file. Click *Create Diff*.
87 * Select the review you want to from the *Attach To* dropdown and click
89 * Leave the Repository field blank. (We previously filled out the Repository
90 for the review request.)
91 * Add comments about the changes in the new diff. Click *Save*.
93 Choosing reviewers: You typically pick one or two people as initial reviewers.
94 This choice is not crucial, because you are merely suggesting and not requiring
95 them to participate. Many people will see the email notification on cfe-commits
96 or llvm-commits, and if the subject line suggests the patch is something they
97 should look at, they will.
100 .. _finding-potential-reviewers:
102 Finding potential reviewers
103 ---------------------------
105 Here are a couple of ways to pick the initial reviewer(s):
107 * Use ``svn blame`` and the commit log to find names of people who have
108 recently modified the same area of code that you are modifying.
109 * Look in CODE_OWNERS.TXT to see who might be responsible for that area.
110 * If you've discussed the change on a dev list, the people who participated
111 might be appropriate reviewers.
113 Even if you think the code owner is the busiest person in the world, it's still
114 okay to put them as a reviewer. Being the code owner means they have accepted
115 responsibility for making sure the review happens.
117 Reviewing code with Phabricator
118 -------------------------------
120 Phabricator allows you to add inline comments as well as overall comments
121 to a revision. To add an inline comment, select the lines of code you want
122 to comment on by clicking and dragging the line numbers in the diff pane.
123 When you have added all your comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and
124 click the Submit button.
126 You can add overall comments in the text box at the bottom of the page.
127 When you're done, click the Submit button.
129 Phabricator has many useful features, for example allowing you to select
130 diffs between different versions of the patch as it was reviewed in the
131 *Revision Update History*. Most features are self descriptive - explore, and
132 if you have a question, drop by on #llvm in IRC to get help.
134 Note that as e-mail is the system of reference for code reviews, and some
135 people prefer it over a web interface, we do not generate automated mail
136 when a review changes state, for example by clicking "Accept Revision" in
137 the web interface. Thus, please type LGTM into the comment box to accept
138 a change from Phabricator.
143 Once a patch has been reviewed and approved on Phabricator it can then be
144 committed to trunk. If you do not have commit access, someone has to
145 commit the change for you (with attribution). It is sufficient to add
146 a comment to the approved review indicating you cannot commit the patch
147 yourself. If you have commit access, there are multiple workflows to commit the
148 change. Whichever method you follow it is recommended that your commit message
153 Differential Revision: <URL>
155 where ``<URL>`` is the URL for the code review, starting with
156 ``https://reviews.llvm.org/``.
158 This allows people reading the version history to see the review for
159 context. This also allows Phabricator to detect the commit, close the
160 review, and add a link from the review to the commit.
162 Note that if you use the Arcanist tool the ``Differential Revision`` line will
163 be added automatically. If you don't want to use Arcanist, you can add the
164 ``Differential Revision`` line (as the last line) to the commit message
167 Using the Arcanist tool can simplify the process of committing reviewed code as
168 it will retrieve reviewers, the ``Differential Revision``, etc from the review
169 and place it in the commit message. You may also commit an accepted change
170 directly using ``git llvm push``, per the section in the :ref:`getting started
171 guide <commit_from_git>`.
173 Note that if you commit the change without using Arcanist and forget to add the
174 ``Differential Revision`` line to your commit message then it is recommended
175 that you close the review manually. In the web UI, under "Leap Into Action" put
176 the SVN revision number in the Comment, set the Action to "Close Revision" and
177 click Submit. Note the review must have been Accepted first.
180 Committing someone's change from Phabricator
181 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
183 On a clean Git repository on an up to date ``master`` branch run the
184 following (where ``<Revision>`` is the Phabricator review number):
188 arc patch D<Revision>
191 This will create a new branch called ``arcpatch-D<Revision>`` based on the
192 current ``master`` and will create a commit corresponding to ``D<Revision>`` with a
193 commit message derived from information in the Phabricator review.
195 Check you are happy with the commit message and amend it if necessary. Then,
196 make sure the commit is up-to-date, and commit it. This can be done by running
201 git pull --rebase origin master
202 git show # Ensure the patch looks correct.
203 ninja check-$whatever # Rerun the appropriate tests if needed.
206 Subversion and Arcanist (deprecated)
207 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
209 To download a change from Phabricator and commit it with subversion, you should
210 first make sure you have a clean working directory. Then run the following
211 (where ``<Revision>`` is the Phabricator review number):
215 arc patch D<Revision>
216 arc commit --revision D<Revision>
218 The first command will take the latest version of the reviewed patch and apply
219 it to the working copy. The second command will commit this revision to trunk.
224 If you decide you should not commit the patch, you should explicitly abandon
225 the review so that reviewers don't think it is still open. In the web UI,
226 scroll to the bottom of the page where normally you would enter an overall
227 comment. In the drop-down Action list, which defaults to "Comment," you should
228 select "Abandon Revision" and then enter a comment explaining why. Click the
229 Submit button to finish closing the review.
234 Please let us know whether you like it and what could be improved! We're still
235 working on setting up a bug tracker, but you can email klimek-at-google-dot-com
236 and chandlerc-at-gmail-dot-com and CC the llvm-dev mailing list with questions
237 until then. We also could use help implementing improvements. This sadly is
238 really painful and hard because the Phabricator codebase is in PHP and not as
239 testable as you might like. However, we've put exactly what we're deploying up
240 on an `llvm-reviews GitHub project`_ where folks can hack on it and post pull
241 requests. We're looking into what the right long-term hosting for this is, but
242 note that it is a derivative of an existing open source project, and so not
243 trivially a good fit for an official LLVM project.
245 .. _LLVM's Phabricator: https://reviews.llvm.org
246 .. _`https://reviews.llvm.org`: https://reviews.llvm.org
247 .. _Code Repository Browser: https://reviews.llvm.org/diffusion/
248 .. _Arcanist Quick Start: https://secure.phabricator.com/book/phabricator/article/arcanist_quick_start/
249 .. _Arcanist User Guide: https://secure.phabricator.com/book/phabricator/article/arcanist/
250 .. _llvm-reviews GitHub project: https://github.com/r4nt/llvm-reviews/