On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 10:00:39AM -0300, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 02:47:09PM +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > Hi Jason,
> > 
> > On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 2:34 PM Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@ziepe.ca> wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 09:02:40AM +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > > > If I use a tag I have to remember to update the tag after every
> > > > > rebase. It is much more likely to break down.
> > > >
> > > > Why would you have to update the tag? The tag would represent what
> > > > was sent out, i.e. the tag name would include the revision number.
> > > > After rebase, you have to recreate the cover letter (with an
> > > > increased revision number), using the previous tag description as
> > > > a template.
> > >
> > > Using a tag as 'what was sent out' might make sense - but that is a
> > > different problem.
> > >
> > > In many cases the cover letter is part of the series, and complex
> > > series often have very big cover letters explaining what is going on
> > > that take alot of effort to make and review in a "team based" flow.
> > >
> > > Fundamentally, the cover letter needs to be source controlled while it
> > > is being authored just like anything else.
> > 
> > Makes sense.
> > 
> > So during development, you want the cover letter to be a real file,
> > using a specific file naming convention.
> > When sending out the series, you need some machinery to detect the
> > cover letter file, and turn it into the 0000-cover-letter.txt file instead?
> 
> Here we've always used empty commits for this, for years and years
> now. 
> 
> I'm puzzled why people are saying this is non-standard, it is well
> supported by git and works well with all the review and web tools. The
> only missing bit in git is a git format-patch flag to process it
> automatically into to the cover letter email.

So, I definitely haven't been around for as long as you, but I still
have been using git daily for the last 15 years. It's literally the
first time I'm hearing about someone using that workflow.

The only reference I could find remotely describing how that would work
are those two:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/11/14/37
https://public-inbox.org/git/CA+P7+xpHDGY5RTR8ntrABdxqM6b4V9dndS68=kV1+1Ym1N6YKw@mail.gmail.com/

I'm sure that it works great for you and others using that workflow, but
it's far from widely used still. I wouldn't call it non-standard
because, well, there's pretty much no standard when it comes to how you
should use git, but if we're targeting outsiders we shouldn't go too far
off the typical workflow.

Maxime