From: Karthik Nayak Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:13:33 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 3/3] b4: introduce configuration for the Git project Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20260608-pks-b4-v3-3-f5e497d10c56@pks.im> Patrick Steinhardt writes: > We're about to extend our documentation to recommend b4 for sending Nit: This is in the past now > patch series to the mailing list. Prepare for this by introducing a b4 > configuration so that the tool knows to honor our preferences. For now, > this configuration does two things: > > - It configures "send-same-thread = shallow", which tells b4 to always > send subsequent versions of the same patch series as a reply to the > cover letter of the first version. > > - It configures "prep-cover-template", which tells b4 to use a custom > template for the cover letter. The most important change compared to > the default template is that our custom template also includes a > range-diff. > > There's potentially more things that we may want to configure going > forward, like for example auto-configuration of folks to Cc on certain > patches. But these two tweaks feel like a good place to start. > > Note that these values only serve as defaults, and users may want to > tweak those defaults based on their own preference. Luckily, users can > do that without having to touch `.b4-config` at all, as b4 allows them > to override values via Git configuration: > > ``` > $ git config set b4.prep-cover-template /does/not/exist > $ b4 send --dry-run > ERROR: prep-cover-template says to use x, but it does not exist > ``` > > So this gives users an easy way to override our defaults without having > to touch ".b4-config", which would dirty the tree. > > Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt > --- > .b4-config | 6 ++++++ > .b4-cover-template | 11 +++++++++++ > 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+) > > diff --git a/.b4-config b/.b4-config > new file mode 100644 > index 0000000000..fd4fb56b6d > --- /dev/null > +++ b/.b4-config > @@ -0,0 +1,6 @@ > +# Note that these are default values that you can tweak via the typical > +# git-config(1) machinery. You thus shouldn't ever have to change this file. > +# See also https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/config.html. > +[b4] > +send-same-thread = shallow > +prep-cover-template = ./.b4-cover-template > diff --git a/.b4-cover-template b/.b4-cover-template > new file mode 100644 > index 0000000000..ab864933b5 > --- /dev/null > +++ b/.b4-cover-template > @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ > +${cover} > + > +--- > +${shortlog} > + > +${diffstat} > + > +${range_diff} > +--- > +base-commit: ${base_commit} > +${prerequisites} > This looks similar to what I have locally too, happy to see this land. > -- > 2.54.0.1136.gdb2ca164c4.dirty