Re: [PATCH] git-contacts: Add recognition of Reported-by

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 21, 2017, 16:03 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqwp71hj5n.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <a8b47a45-0100-dbef-0bff-fdfdb9cbccb4@redhat.com>

Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> You mean, something like
>
> git config --add contacts.autocc Reported-by
> git config --add contacts.autocc Suggested-by
>
> where contacts.autocc would be a new multi-valued config option
> specifying additional Tag: patterns to scrape out of the commit message?

Yes, something along that line, and you are correct to point out that I should have mentioned the need for command-line override.

In fact, if you anticipate that the primary use of this contributed script is as "send-email --cccmd", then we probably are better off doing this without any configuration variables, but just add the mechanism for command-line override of the hardcoded default.

I also should have mentioned the need for a way to say "remove all hardcoded default and start from scratch".

> Also, putting it in 'git config' still means that it is a per-developer
> responsibility to choose which patterns to add to their list.  Is there
> any easy way to make a particular repository supply the same list for
> all developers who check it out, without them having to munge things?

That is a good point, but we should be very careful. "Let's add whatever configuration the project supplies to the user's repository upon cloning" is an absolute no-no, as a malicious project can ship something like [alias] "co" = "!rm -rf ." and unsuspecting victim to blindly add it to the configuration.

A standard practice we encourage is to ship a file that records the suggested set of configuration variables as part of the source tree and mention how to add these to their repository in README (which you are already using to talk about how to contribute to the project, etc.).

That would give them a chance to inspect what potential damage the project suggestion will make to their environment (hopefully, there is none, but the user must be given a chance to ensure that).

The extra lines you may need in your README may become something like

    Run this in your copy of the project:

    $ git config sendemail.cccmd "git contact --cc Suggested-by"

with such a scheme.