From: Junio C Hamano Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2026 19:26:48 GMT Subject: [PATCH 4/6] MyFirstContribution: clarify that 'seen' does not mean acceptance Message-ID: <20260711192650.2417665-5-gitster@pobox.com> In-Reply-To: <20260711192650.2417665-1-gitster@pobox.com> Document that getting a patch picked up into 'seen' is not the end of the story for contributors; it is merely the beginning. This is also described in SubmittingPatches:[[patch-flow]] section, but beneficial to make new contributors aware of it early. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc | 18 ++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc b/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc index 988f0d4fba..5acc265589 100644 --- a/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc +++ b/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc @@ -1534,10 +1534,20 @@ that received the `Reviewed-by:` trailer untouched. [[after-approval]] === After Review Approval -The Git project has four integration branches: `seen`, `next`, `master`, and -`maint`. Your change will be placed into `seen` fairly early on by the maintainer -while it is still in the review process; from there, when it is ready for wider -testing, it will be merged into `next`. Plenty of early testers use `next` and +The Git project maintains four integration branches: `seen`, `next`, +`master`, and `maint`. The maintainer will often place your change +into `seen` fairly early in the review process; sometimes even before +it receives its first comments. + +However, being queued in `seen` does not mean your patch has been +accepted. It is only there for integration testing, CI, and giving +wider exposure and ready access to reviewers. To advance from `seen` +to `next`, your topic needs positive reviews and community consensus +on the mailing list. If reviews are favorable, the maintainer will +mark the topic as "Will merge to `next`" in the "What's cooking" +report before actually merging it. + +Plenty of early testers use `next` and may report issues. Eventually, changes in `next` will make it to `master`, which is typically considered stable. Finally, when a new release is cut, `maint` is used to base bugfixes onto. As mentioned at the beginning of this -- 2.55.0-391-gdf86bf5712