Re: [bitbake-devel] [PATCH] add basic b4 config file

[Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz@cherry.de>]

Hi Khem,

On 5/24/24 6:28 PM, Khem Raj wrote:
> On Fri, May 24, 2024 at 8:33 AM Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz@cherry.de> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Khem,
>>
>> On 5/24/24 5:18 PM, Khem Raj via lists.openembedded.org wrote:
>>> On Fri, May 24, 2024 at 6:49 AM Quentin Schulz via
>>> lists.openembedded.org <foss=0leil.net@lists.openembedded.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> From: Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz@cherry.de>
>>>>
>>>> b4[1] is a very nice tool for mail-based contribution. A config[2] file
>>>> exists to set up a few defaults. We can use it to set the Cc recipients
>>>> to always add, in our case the mailing list.
>>>>
>>>> This shouldn't be necessary if we had a script that b4 prep --auto-to-cc
>>>> could call to find the mail address(es) to send to. While we could do
>>>> that, this opens the door to people trying to add a way to notify some
>>>> people (e.g. a MAINTAINERS file) which is not somewhere the project
>>>> wants to go right now, and this also makes sure the address is always
>>>> added even if one forgets to run b4 prep --auto-to-cc (which is part of
>>>> the typical workflow for U-Boot and Linux kernel, but is not necessary
>>>> thanks to this patch).
>>>>
>>>> [1] https://pypi.org/project/b4/
>>>> [2] https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/config.html
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz@cherry.de>
>>>> ---
>>>> This adds a basic config file for b4 to avoid to have to add the mailing
>>>> list by hand. For documentation patches, one will still need to run
>>>> b4 send --cc docs@lists.yoctoproject.org
>>>> manually for sending it to the docs ML as well.
>>>>
>>>> Note that b4 supports patchwork, c.f.
>>>> https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/config.html#patchwork-integration-settings
>>>> though I have no clue what it does with it as I am no maintainer, but
>>>> maybe something worth having a look at if some maintainer of this repo
>>>> wants to use b4 to merge stuff?
>>>
>>> I use b4 regularly for meta-openembedded maintenance and it also updates
>>> patchwork when patch is accepted, I have this config.
>>>
>>>      [b4]
>>>       pw-url = "https://patchwork.yoctoproject.org/"
>>>       pw-key = "<mykey>"
>>>       pw-project = "oe"
>>>       pw-review-state = "under-review"
>>>       pw-accept-state =  "accepted"
>>>       pw-discard-state = "rejected"
>>>       send-series-to = "openembedded-devel@lists.openembedded.org"
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for the example! Would it make sense for me to add the pw parts
>> to this patch as well (in a v2 for example)?
> 
> Maybe, it can be documented like this but I would leave it to the maintainers
> to promote using b4 not.
> 

Promoting != supporting.

Right now, I was just planning on adding basic support for b4 so that 
people who are in the know can use it. We can decide whether we want to 
document this and/or make this the default contribution workflow later, 
they don't have to happen at the same time.

As for the pw bits, it's one less barrier to maintainers using it if 
they only have to run
git config b4.pw-key "<mykey>"
once (which I can even put as a comment in the file). It can silently 
and slowly drive adoption if they only have to run one command for 
trying things out. Reminder that I'm not a maintainer and I'm not using 
b4 as a maintainer so I have no clue if this is actually useful to 
Yocto/OE maintainers.

Paul Barker presented his use of b4+lei 3 years ago and I have a vague 
recollection Bruce may be doing it but cannot find a presentation of his 
quickly so maybe I'm misremembering.

Providing those defaults (provided they work) doesn't mean people have 
to use b4 for contribution or as a maintainer as part of their workflow, 
we just make it easier for people to use that workflow if they want to.

>>
>> I'm perplexed about the pw-key though. This is very much something we
>> don't want to version nor potentially leak by mistake. I assume it is
>> not possible to add to the global ~/.config/git/config or ~/.gitconfig
>> because the URL would change for example between projects (I assume we
>> may have a different patchwork for OE and YP, but for sure if people
>> maintain kernel stuff as well, then they would have one for kernel.org
>> for example). Mmmm but maybe a simple
>>
>> git config b4.pw-key "<mykey>"
>>
>> from within the local git repo would be enough :)
> 
> right, it must be documented clearly. setting up b4 is not simple like a pull
> request merge.
> 

Do we want to document this now. If so, where? yocto-docs and bitbake/docs?

Richard "suggested" something a bit more involved for git repos merged 
into the poky git repo so that it finds stuff automagically, if you are 
writing patches for bitbake inside poky git repo, bitbake/docs, oe-core, 
etc... So maybe I should think about something a bit "smarter" :)

Cheers,
Quentin