On Tue, Dec 03, 2019 at 08:44:49PM -0800, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
>
> > My flow looks like this:
> > 1. git format-patch -v<n> --cover-letter <params> -o <dir>
> > 2. vi <dir>/v<n-1>-0000-cover-letter.patch <dir>/v<n>-0000-cover-letter.patch
> >
> > copy subject and blurb, avoiding patchset stats
> >
> > 3. add changelog update blurb as appropriate
> >
> > 4. git send-email <dir>/v<n>-*
> >
> > The following perl script automates step 2 above.
>
> Neat. I wonder, should "git format-patch" learn an option for this?
> E.g.
>
> git format-patch -v<n> --cover-letter \
> --last-cover-letter=<dir>/v<n-1>-0000-cover-letter.patch \
> -o <dir>
>
> What would your ideal interface for this flow look like?
I use it in several ways
- new version - generate a new version from previous one
git format-patch -o patches/series ....
git cpcover patches/series/saved-cover-letter.patch patches/series/vN-cover-letter.patch
So ideally it would automatically pick up vN-1 cover letter if it's there.
- update - I generate patches but don't post yet.
write a cover letter with e.g. an explanation, decide
to make some changes before posting. Then:
cp patches/series/vN-cover-letter.patch patches/series/saved-cover-letter.patch
git format-patch -o patches/series ....
git cpcover patches/series/saved-cover-letter.patch patches/series/vN-cover-letter.patch
So ideally if cover letter already exists, ask whether to copy it.
or at least whether it's ok to over-write it...
- series history
I start with a non-versioned cover letter,
and maintain it in a directory:
cp patches/series/0000-cover-letter.patch patches/series/cover-letter.patch
This is where
I then put notes about design changes, list questions
to be answered, add people who contributed
to the discussion and should be Cc'd on new versions
Then each time I do
git format-patch -o patches/series ....
git cpcover patches/series/cover-letter.patch patches/series/vN-cover-letter.patch
- public-inbox
get series from public inbox (from someone else
or myself) and work on it
Ideally if cover-letter without a version exists, pick it up.
During all of this, it's important to pick up description, subject, to/cc.
Also one thing I need to remember to do is update changelog.
If there's a standard way to document version changes, ideally it will
be possible to check whether latest version changes have been
documented, and print a reminder if not.
> [...]
> > Any feedback on this? Interest in taking this into contrib/ for now?
>
> I don't know what Junio's preferences are for new contrib/
> contributions, but I kind of like it. If putting it in contrib/, my
> main advice would be to put it in a subdirectory there with a README.
> That way, we have a good place to document what it was replaced by
> once it has graduated to a standard format-patch feature.
>
> Thanks and hope that helps,
> Jonathan
OK so contrib/format-patch/ ?
--
MST
