Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] MyFirstContribution: recommend shallow threading of cover letters
- From
Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
- Date
- Jun 15, 2026, 12:58 UTC
- Message-ID
- <ai_26l4sYwK09kdY@pks.im>
- In-Reply-To
- <CAOLa=ZQE-kkpSX=pP2A6SXdbp_O6AHzRmbUDOtKCsvz2Yz66Ng@mail.gmail.com>
On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 07:08:33AM -0400, Karthik Nayak wrote:
Show 26 quoted lines
> Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes: > > > The "MyFirstContribution" document recommends the use of deep threading > > of cover letters: every cover letter of subsequent iterations shall be > > linked to the cover letter of the preceding version. The result of this > > is that eventually, threads with many versions are getting nested so > > deep that it becomes hard to follow. > > > > Adapt the recommendation to instead propose shallow threading of cover > > letters: instead of linking the cover letter to the previous cover > > letter, the user is supposed to always link it to the first cover > > letter. This still makes it easy to follow the iterations, but has the > > benefit of nesting to a much shallower level. > > Should we also modify 'Documentation/SubmittingPatches'? Which states: > > All subsequent versions of a patch series and other related patches > should be grouped into their own e-mail thread to help readers find > all parts of the series. To that end, send them as replies to either > an additional "cover letter" message (see below), the first patch, or > the respective preceding patch. Here is a > link:MyFirstContribution.html#v2-git-send-email[step-by-step guide] on > how to submit updated versions of a patch series. > > Personally, I find it a bit awkward when new versions are sent as a new > separate thread, especially when the subject is changed over versions.
I don't necessarily see this as contradicting advice, I rather read it as "patches of vN+1 should have their own subthread". But it certainly is confusingly written, and I'm not even sure myself whether I'm reading it correctly or not.
I kind of feel like this is a bit outside the scope of this series. Also because I'm not a 100% sure how to reword this to make it read nicer :) But I'm very happy to accept suggestions here.
Patrick