[ovs-dev] Cover letters (was Re: [PATCH 0/7] Add OVS DPDK keep-alive functionality)

Stephen Finucane stephen at that.guru
Tue May 2 20:36:19 UTC 2017


On Tue, 2017-05-02 at 12:21 -0400, Aaron Conole wrote:
> Ben Pfaff <blp at ovn.org> writes:
> 
> > On Mon, May 01, 2017 at 04:45:56PM -0400, Aaron Conole wrote:
> > > Ben Pfaff <blp at ovn.org> writes:
> > > ...
> > > > I think it'd be even better to include measurements in one of
> > > > the commit messages, because those are available in the
> > > > repository after the patches are applied.  It's harder to find
> > > > cover letters because they're only on the mailing list.
> > > 
> > > One thing that other projects do to keep the cover letters is to
> > > create a branch, apply all the patches from the series, and then
> > > create a merge commit, with the commit message as the cover
> > > letter.  It can make the history a bit messier, but means that
> > > the cover letter is retained, and makes 'git bisect' work quite a
> > > bit better (because bisect knows how to skip merged trees
> > > appropriately).  It could be worth doing, because it can help to
> > > explain an overall motivation for a series when walking the tree
> > > with git annotations.
> > 
> > I wouldn't object to that, for well-organized series.
> > 
> > Is there a way to automate applying a branch like this from
> > email?  Or is it better to do them as pull requests (whether via
> > email or Github)?
> 
> I think patchwork provides access to the cover letter somehow.  I've
> CC'd Stephen because he has a bit of experience with PW, and may be
> able to comment on whether or not I'm just crazy.

Patchwork 2.0 will. We're finishing up the release at the moment (RC
this week. Final release some time later this month), but it'll allow
downloading of entire series and displaying of cover letters. One of
the Patchwork contributors has a sample instance up to browse [1].

You should also check out 'git-pw' [2] (which I think Aaron has
contributed patches to?). This relies on Patchwork 2.0, but it'll make
downloading and applying a series as easy as:

  git-pw series apply {seriesID}

for a whole series, or:

  git-pw patch apply {patchID}

for a patch with its dependencies.

I'll be sure to ping the list as soon as the 2.0 is released and the
ozlabs instance bumped, which should be (fingers crossed) any week now.

Stephen

[1] https://py3.patchwork.dja.id.au/project/lkml/list/
[2] https://github.com/stephenfin/git-pw


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