Re: storing cover letter of a patch series?

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date: Sep 10, 2015, 20:09 UTC
Message-ID: <A20C476954134C53B0D256D644B1CCC2@PhilipOakley>
In-Reply-To: <CA+P7+xodgeu6Vo+Rt57_iFycxkEnNjxP-TTOfY8DdXwzeVKbZg@mail.gmail.com>

From: "Jacob Keller" <jacob.keller@gmail.com>

Show 18 quoted lines

> On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 11:44 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 
> wrote:
>> Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I hadn't thought of separating the cover letter from git-send-email.
>>> That would be suitable for me.
>>
>> Yeah, I said this number of times over time, and I said it once
>> recently in another thread, but I think it was a mistake to allow
>> git-send-email to drive format-patch.  It may appear that it will
>> make things convenient in the perfect world where no user makes
>> mistakes, but people are not perfect in real life.  Expecting them
>> to be is being naive.
>>
>
> Yep. I didn't even know cover-letter was an option of format-patch
> only thought it was in send-email.
>

Actually, the one feature I'd like (I think) is to be able to join together the empty commit mechanism and the cover letter mechanism within format patch so that:

* the empty commit message would detected and automatically become the 
[0/N] in the patch series (without need to say --cover-letter)

* the cover letter would still have some 'template' markings to say "*** 
insert what's changed here***" or smilar (with option to exclude them).

That way, when starting a series / branch, the first item would be to add the explanatory 'empty commit' that states the requirements of what one hopes to achieve (a key cover letter content), which is then followed by commits that move toward that goal.

The series can then be rebased as the user develops the code, and that cover note can be edited as required during the rebase.

When it comes time to show it to the list, the format patch will *know* from the empty commit that it is the [0/N] cover letter and (perhaps -option) add the appropriate markers ready for editing.

The user edits the cover letter with the extra 'what's changed' / interdiff / whatever, and sends. sendmail barfs if the user hasn't edited the markers.

This could also work with the sendmail patch formating (though I've never used that workflow) as now the cover letter becomes automatic for the upstream.

Philip