Re: [GSoC][RFC PATCH 0/6] Add --subject-extra-prefix flag to format-patch

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 4, 2025, 22:06 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq5xkoo3gs.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <Z8aspywaD0mAyHwd@pks.im>

Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> I do understand though that `--rfc=GSoC` is not exactly discoverable for
> a newcomer. Maybe a simpler fix would be to introduce an alias for that
> option that is more discoverable? I don't have a great idea for how to
> name it -- the best that comes to mind is `--patch-prefix`, which
> mirrors `--subject-prefix`.

The problem with it is that having "patch" vs "subject" prefix will make it confusing which one is which.

Let's step back and examine what we already have.

 * The "--subject-prefix" is configurable and format.subjectPrefix
   is meant to go to .git/config for repositories that work with
   projects with special needs (they tell you to use not [PATCH] but
   subproject specific moniker like [PATCH rcu] instead).

 * The "--rfc[=<word>]" has no configuration and it is deliberately
   so, as it is meant to be used as needed, on occasions that call
   for it, pretty much decided per invocation.

Are these two points above not clear in our documentation? If so, we should fix it, but I do not think giving a synonym to --rfc is a good way to clarify it.

If it is a GSoC topic sent to this list, it _will_ be GSoC topic for the entire iterations of the same topic. So it would be good to use --subject-prefix="GSoC PATCH" (or configure format.subjectPrefix in the repository to use that, if a student works with us only on GSoC topics during the Summer-of-Code program duration), and on occasion, when students are not so sure about their patches (yet), use of --rfc would be a good way, which would give us "[RFC GSoC PATCH 0/6]", to mark the patches as such.

Another problem with --patch-prefix synonym is that --rfc is not necessarily a prefix. With

	git format-patch --rfc='-WIP' --subject-prefix='GSoC PATCH'

you would get "[GSoC PATCH WIP 0/6]" instead.

In any case, I think it is the root cause of this disease to treat GSoC mark as something extra that requires a new marker that is separate from the usual PATCH marker. Using whatever mechanism you would use your string in place for the standard PATCH mark to make it say "GSoC PATCH" would be the most appropriate, without mucking with an extra option, be it '--rfc' or '--subject-extra-prefix', I would say.

Thanks.