b4 send support for email alias file

b4 send support for email alias file

[Jacob Keller]

Hi,

I have recently been trying to switch to using b4 as my tool for sending
patch sets. I previously used git send-email. send-email has support for
an email alias file which allows specifying shorthand nicknames for
emails and automatically translating those aliases into the full name
and email address.

Would it be possible to have b4 either handle git's email alias file? Or
perhaps have its own file/config options?

This would make it easier than needing to specify the name and email in
quotes every time when sending to common addresses.

Thanks,
Jake

Re: b4 send support for email alias file

[Konstantin Ryabitsev]

On Tue, Aug 06, 2024 at 02:19:57PM GMT, Jacob Keller wrote:
> I have recently been trying to switch to using b4 as my tool for sending
> patch sets. I previously used git send-email. send-email has support for
> an email alias file which allows specifying shorthand nicknames for
> emails and automatically translating those aliases into the full name
> and email address.

Right, this has come up several times in the past -- the TLDR is that it's not
as straightforward as it seems at first:

https://lore.kernel.org/tools/20231212-illustrious-lion-of-psychology-d85d9d@meerkat/

> Would it be possible to have b4 either handle git's email alias file? Or
> perhaps have its own file/config options?

I have a counter-offer -- suggest on the git list that the --dump-aliases
switch should also have a way to provide destinations, not just aliases
themselves. Then we won't need to support 6 different alias file formats and
can just rely on git doing the translation. :)

-K

Re: b4 send support for email alias file

[Jacob Keller]

On 8/7/2024 6:47 AM, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 06, 2024 at 02:19:57PM GMT, Jacob Keller wrote:
>> I have recently been trying to switch to using b4 as my tool for sending
>> patch sets. I previously used git send-email. send-email has support for
>> an email alias file which allows specifying shorthand nicknames for
>> emails and automatically translating those aliases into the full name
>> and email address.
> 
> Right, this has come up several times in the past -- the TLDR is that it's not
> as straightforward as it seems at first:
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/tools/20231212-illustrious-lion-of-psychology-d85d9d@meerkat/
> 

Sure. I guess you could pick and limit a format, but then inevitably
that would lead to users wanting to support whatever format that git
supports.

>> Would it be possible to have b4 either handle git's email alias file? Or
>> perhaps have its own file/config options?
> 
> I have a counter-offer -- suggest on the git list that the --dump-aliases
> switch should also have a way to provide destinations, not just aliases
> themselves. Then we won't need to support 6 different alias file formats and
> can just rely on git doing the translation. :)
> 

Perhaps also just an option to request git send-email translate the
alias itself? I can look into that, I think it would be fairly easy to
implement.

> -K