Re: [PATCH v8 0/4] format-patch: add cover-letter-format option

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 12, 2026, 18:12 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq5x70gbn0.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <abL6gNTwmVfQsmU2@exploit2>

Mirko Faina <mroik@delayed.space> writes:

> ..., how should incremental changes be numbered in their version?
> Do I keep going incrementally (v9 despite building on top of
> another version), or should I use something like "v7.1, v7.2,
> v7.3"?

We often see a series that depends on topics that are in 'next' but not yet in 'master', with its cover letter describing how exactly the base of the series should be created. Patrick often does this, and we can learn from cover letters of his topics. A good example is here.

https://lore.kernel.org/git/20260305-b4-pks-odb-source-pluggable-v2-0-3290bfd1f444@pks.im/

And treating such a series starting from v1 (i.e., the first attempt to make that other topic better) would be the easiest to understand. The cover letter would start with something like

    An earlier mf/format-patch-cover-letter-format series that is in
    'next' but not in 'master' added THESE THINGS to the system.
    Here is a follow-on series to further improve it by changing
    SUCH and SUCH things.

before describing how its base was constructed.

As to the naming, I find "chrono" worse than "chronological", because there are other possible ways to shorten the overly long word, and picking one will force users to remember that choice.

Thanks.