Re: How to watch a mailing list & repo for patches which affect a certain area of code?

From: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Date: Oct 10, 2016, 19:08 UTC
Message-ID: <CAGZ79kb2HWmaW3XpfHRj8vcOStPoQmR_NZe7RCRhw=FnnHbZ8A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AB0A757A7BE241B39C8193A633C61FED@black7>

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 11:56 AM, Jason Pyeron <jpyeron@pdinc.us> wrote:

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>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Stefan Beller
>> Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 14:43
>>
>> +cc Xiaolong Ye <xiaolong.ye@intel.com>
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 9, 2016 at 2:26 PM, Jason Pyeron <jpyeron@pdinc.us> wrote:
>> >> -----Original Message-----
>> >> From: Ian Kelling
>> >> Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2016 15:03
>> >>
>> >> I've got patches in various projects, and I don't have
>> time to keep up
>> >> with the mailing list, but I'd like to help out with
>> >> maintenance of that
>> >> code, or the functions/files it touches. People don't cc me.
>> >> I figure I
>> >> could filter the list, test patches submitted, commits made,
>> >> mentions of
>> >> files/functions, build filters based on the code I have in
>> >> the repo even
>> >> if it's been moved or changed subsequently. I'm wondering
>> what other
>> >> people have implemented already for automation around
>> this, or general
>> >> thoughts. Web search is not showing me much.
>> >>
>> >
>> > One thought would be to apply every patch automatically (to
>> the branches of interest?). Then trigger on the [successful] changed
>> > code. This would simplify the logic to working on the
>> source only and not parsing the emails.
>> >
>> > -Jason
>> >
>>
>> I think this is currently attempted by some kernel people.
>> However it is very hard to tell where to apply a patch, as it
>
> This is one of the reasons why I use bundles instead of format patch.

Oh! That sounds interesting for solving the problem where to apply a change, but the big disadvantage of bundles to patches is the inability to just comment on it with an inline response. So I assume you follow a different workflow than git or the kernel do. Which project do you use it for and do you have some documentation/blog that explains that workflow?

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>
>> is not formalized.
>> See the series that was merged at 72ce3ff7b51c
>> ('xy/format-patch-base'),
>> which adds a footer to the patch, that tells you where
>> exactly a patch ought
>> to be applied.
>
> Cant wait for that.

Well it is found in 2.9 and later. Currently the base footer is opt-in, e.g. you'd need to convince people to run `git config format.useAutoBase true` or to manually add the base to the patch via `format-patch --base=<commit>`.

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>
>>
>> The intention behind that series was to have some CI system hooked up
>> and report failures to the mailing list as well IIUC. Maybe
>> that helps with
>> your use case, too?
>
> I envisioned that it would try for each head he was interested in.
>

Well the test system can be smart enough to differentiate between:
* the patch you sent did not even compile on your base, so why
   are you sending bogus patches?
* the patch you sent was fine as you sent it, but in the mean time
  the target head progressed, and it doesn't compile/test any more.
  collaboration is hard.
* or an extension to the prior point: this patch is fine but is broken
  by the series xyz that is also in flight, please coordinate with
  name@email.