From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Michael Haggerty Subject: Idea: "git format-patch" should get more information out of git Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2011 07:12:32 +0200 Message-ID: <4E587CC0.4090508@alum.mit.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: git@vger.kernel.org X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sat Aug 27 07:14:35 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QxBE2-0004p0-Pn for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2011 07:14:35 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750882Ab1H0FMf (ORCPT ); Sat, 27 Aug 2011 01:12:35 -0400 Received: from einhorn.in-berlin.de ([192.109.42.8]:35218 "EHLO einhorn.in-berlin.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750758Ab1H0FMf (ORCPT ); Sat, 27 Aug 2011 01:12:35 -0400 X-Envelope-From: mhagger@alum.mit.edu Received: from [192.168.69.134] (p54BED1A9.dip.t-dialin.net [84.190.209.169]) (authenticated bits=0) by einhorn.in-berlin.de (8.13.6/8.13.6/Debian-1) with ESMTP id p7R5CWnZ010965 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Sat, 27 Aug 2011 07:12:33 +0200 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.20) Gecko/20110805 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.12 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang_at_IN-Berlin_e.V. on 192.109.42.8 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: It is a nuisance that the emails for a patch series have to be hand-edited after they are generated by "git format-patch". Some of the problems with this workflow are 1. The extra information typed into the email series is not archived in the git repository, and therefore the emails have to be kept around. 2. If it is discovered between "git format-patch" and "git send-email" that one of the patches needs a tweak, then the email series has to be generated anew and all of the hand-edits need to be redone. 3. If a "v2" of the patch series has to be created, all of the hand-edits have to be done again. 4. There is no place to store the "additional information" (the part that comes in patch emails between the "---" and the diffstat) while working on the patch series; it all has to be remembered or noted somewhere else until just before sending off the patch emails. Wouldn't it be nice if more of the information needed by "git format-patch" could be extracted from the git repository? For example: * The subject and body of the cover letter could be written to the log message of an annotated tag at the tip of the patch series. "git format-patch" could retrieve it if the "--cover-letter" option is used. * The CC and ACK lists could be written as specially-formatted lines in the annotated tag's log message, or perhaps in a git note. * The "additional information" could be written to git notes. I don't know whether git notes are the right vessel for such information. For example, are they carried along when a commit is rebased? I don't have time to implement any of this, but perhaps somebody thinks this is a good idea and is inspired to work on it. Michael -- Michael Haggerty mhagger@alum.mit.edu http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/