Re: b4 submit ready for beta testing

[Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 10:43:17AM -0400, James Bottomley wrote:
> On Sat, 2022-07-16 at 10:29 -0400, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> > After the branch is created, b4 will create an empty commit that will
> > serve to store the cover letter contents and some tracking
> > information. You can view the raw commit with "git log" just like any
> > other commit, and you can even edit it with "git rebase" but it's not
> > recommended. It's much better to use "b4 submit --edit-cover".
> 
> Could we please stop inventing stuff that's incompatible with a
> standard git workflow ... or argue with the git maintainers that what
> we want to do is better and persuade them to add it?  That way git and
> b4 are fully interoperable ... for those of us who aren't dedicated to
> one or the other.
> 
> The standard git way of storing cover letters isn't in an empty commit,
> it's in the branch description.  To be honest, this does seem a more
> logical way to do it (a commit can get lost within the branch), but I'd
> be reasonably OK with either mechanism, provided both git and b4 agree
> on it.

I hear you, but branch descriptions are confined to your local repository and
can't be pushed to a remote. So, if you work on a series, send it off, and
then pick it up again two weeks later from a different workstation, that's no
good for most of what b4 submit needs to do. :(

So, it was either using notes (which almost everyone forgets to push anyway),
or using an empty commit. I agree it's hurky, but it currently the only thing
that fits in the "least likely to end up lost on a rebase or workstation
switch" category.

-K