[PATCH] SubmittingPatches: avoid add-failing-test-then-fix anti-pattern
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WARM2d
From: Jon Simons <hidden>
Date: 2026-10-11 16:51:20
Subsystem:
documentation, the rest · Maintainers:
Jonathan Corbet, Linus Torvalds
Document the preference to avoid the 'add a failing test and fix it in a subsequent commit' anti-pattern. Although such a sequence is fine for local development, reviewers instead prefer a single commit that introduces the test together with its code change. The goal of this addition is to capture the preference in writing, with hopes of optimizing future review flows by reducing back-and-forths to the list. Signed-off-by: Jon Simons <redacted> --- Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index c60855f706..27b53d2b31 100644
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches@@ -271,6 +271,16 @@ fixed by accident to avoid regression. Also, try merging your work to that are still in flight may have unexpected interactions with what you are trying to do in your topic. +When fixing a bug, you may find it useful to first write a test using +`test_expect_failure` to confirm that the test exposes the bug. +However, unless there is a strong reason not to, submit the test as +`test_expect_success` in the same commit as your code change that +fixes the bug. A separate commit that only changes `test_expect_failure` +to `test_expect_success` can leave the behavior being tested out of the +diff context, making the fix harder to review. Reviewers who want to +verify that your test reproduces the bug can temporarily undo the code +changes while keeping the test. + Pushing to a fork of https://github.com/git/git will use their CI integration to test your changes on Linux, Mac and Windows. See the <<GHCI,GitHub CI>> section for details.
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2.55.0