Re: [PATCH 1/2] SubmittingPatches: extend release-notes experiment to topic names

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 8, 2025, 20:51 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq8qhlf777.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <85dbe67e-f252-4548-910d-4af29939806a@app.fastmail.com>

"Kristoffer Haugsbakk" <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> I like the format in the cover letter:
>
>      * tb/submitting-patches
>
>        Extend the experimental protocol used by contributors to propose a
>        topic branch name in addition to a description, and describe how to
>        name multi-series efforts.

Hmph, but the paragraphs that eventually go into RelNotes are not commit log messages. "Extend the protocol A to achieve X" is what we would write in our proposed log messages, but after such a patch achieves X by extending the protocol A, we'd report it in our release notes by saying something ike "The protocol A was extended in such and such way to achieve X".

Show 5 quoted lines

> But it was noted[1] that the-topic-summary doesn’t seem to have been
> used much. That’s not surprising given that the instruction makes
> the-topic-summary blend in with the rest of the cover letter and doesn’t
> signal that the author intends for the first paragraph to be used as
> such. This patch shares the same problem.

Oh, that's a new theory. So you are saying that authors may have tried but I (and others) failed to notice? It cetainly is possible.