Re: b4 review available in master

Louis Chauvet
2026-03-20T16:52:38Z

On 2/27/26 20:53, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> Hi, all:
>
> TLDR: "b4 review" is a terminal UI that hopes to streamline a lot of
> maintainer duties. A getting-started guide with screencasts is here:
> https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/reviewer/getting-started.html
>
> It's available from b4 master pending initial testing and will be generally
> available in b4-0.15.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been testing the review tool and it’s working very well! Congrats
for this tool!

I’ve encountered a small issue while trying to review/test the following
series:

20260313132103.2529746-1-jim.cromie@gmail.com

When forcing drm-misc/drm-misc-next base, the check fails. I tried to
force the acceptation (^y), but I got a git am issue during the branch
creation (I fixed it manually, so my issue is "solved").

According to the documentation[1], it should use git am -3, so I tried
(in an other worktree, rerere disabled) to run b4 am -3 && git am -3,
and it worked (you need to fetch https://github.com/jimc/linux). I don't
understand why it doesn't work in b4 review.

Did I misunderstood something in the documentation? Do I have an issue
in my configuration? If not, can you add a way to apply the series with
git am -3?

Small list of "stuff I found when using the tool" (I totally accept a
"totally useless / don't have time / bad idea", the tool is already very
nice) :
- Add a way to see application logs (notably git errors)
- Add a way to read the existing trailers to mark patches as "done" (in
the above series, I already reviewed few patches, but they are not
marked as done in the tui).
- Copy don't work in the tui, it is a bit annoying (for example copy
git hash, text)
- When you exit, if a process was started in background (for example the
base check), they are not cancelled and the tool waits until completion
(not an issue for small series, but in my case the series is 63 patches,
so it can take up to 1 minute)
- Add a way to select and add trailers on multiple patches at the same time
- If a trailer is added in the `reply` interface, don't move it, I often
use and see stuff like `with or without this: R-by`, this is
"contextual", so could be nice to keep it in place.
- Add a config to disable "autosnip" (I understand the goal, but a per
patch "on/off" could be useful)
- Add a "quick shortcut" to add trailers (t -> r/a/t/n -> enter instead
of t -> arrows -> space -> enter)
- Add a way to disable the scroll animation (pgup/down do a "smooth"
scroll, which is very strange in a terminal) (very personal feeling)
- Scroll using arrows/pgupdown/jk don't work in the "send email"
confirmation list

Best regards,
Louis

[1]:https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/maintainer/review.html#conflict-resolution