format-patch base-commit: moving to above the patch?

> Currently, format-patch puts base-commit and prerequisite-patch-id
> information below the patch, and below the email signature.  Most mail
> clients automatically trim everything below the signature marker as
> unimportant when quoting a mail for a reply, which would make it
> difficult for someone to reply, quote the base-commit, and say something
> like "I don't have this commit, where did it come from?" or "Can you
> please rebase this on ...".
>
> Might it make sense to move this information adjacent to the diffstat,
> instead?  Or, at least, above the email signature?

> Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org> writes:
> 
> > Currently, format-patch puts base-commit and prerequisite-patch-id
> > information below the patch, and below the email signature.  Most mail
> > clients automatically trim everything below the signature marker as
> > unimportant when quoting a mail for a reply, which would make it
> > difficult for someone to reply, quote the base-commit, and say something
> > like "I don't have this commit, where did it come from?" or "Can you
> > please rebase this on ...".
> >
> > Might it make sense to move this information adjacent to the diffstat,
> > instead?  Or, at least, above the email signature?
> 
> I personally feel that it would be annoying to have them near
> diffstat, especially given that unbounded many prereq patches can be
> listed.  It would not be too bad to flip the order between the call
> to print_signature() and print_bases(), though.

> The extent of the change needed to (note: not even compile-tested)
> does does not look too bad, either.
> 
> I did not carefully think what the right adjustment for the MIME
> case is, though.

> I would expect some tests that expect the current order of the tail
> end of the output to break, which you would need to adjust.  And if
> there is no such test right now, you should add one, as your inquiry
> and this patch _sets_ a concrete expectation as to what should come
> before the signature line, which future updates should not break.

> 
>  builtin/log.c | 4 ++--
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/builtin/log.c b/builtin/log.c
> index 92dc34d..d69d5e6 100644
> --- a/builtin/log.c
> +++ b/builtin/log.c
> @@ -1042,7 +1042,6 @@ static void make_cover_letter(struct rev_info *rev, int use_stdout,
>  	diff_flush(&opts);
>  
>  	fprintf(rev->diffopt.file, "\n");
> -	print_signature(rev->diffopt.file);
>  }
>  
>  static const char *clean_message_id(const char *msg_id)
> @@ -1720,6 +1719,7 @@ int cmd_format_patch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
>  		make_cover_letter(&rev, use_stdout,
>  				  origin, nr, list, branch_name, quiet);
>  		print_bases(&bases, rev.diffopt.file);
> +		print_signature(rev.diffopt.file);
>  		total++;
>  		start_number--;
>  	}
> @@ -1779,13 +1779,13 @@ int cmd_format_patch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
>  		if (!use_stdout)
>  			rev.shown_one = 0;
>  		if (shown) {
> +			print_bases(&bases, rev.diffopt.file);
>  			if (rev.mime_boundary)
>  				fprintf(rev.diffopt.file, "\n--%s%s--\n\n\n",
>  				       mime_boundary_leader,
>  				       rev.mime_boundary);
>  			else
>  				print_signature(rev.diffopt.file);
> -			print_bases(&bases, rev.diffopt.file);
>  		}
>  		if (!use_stdout)
>  			fclose(rev.diffopt.file);