Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [MAINTAINERS SUMMIT] Patch version changes in commit logs?

[Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>]

On Mon, 1 Jul 2019, James Bottomley wrote:
> On Mon, 2019-07-01 at 17:40 +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > On Mon, 1 Jul 2019, David Howells wrote:
> > > I put the changelog in the cover note (ie. patch 0) since if
> > > there's more than one patch there may well be changes that span
> > > multiple patches.  Whoever's
> > 
> > That's a pain. I'd have to go back and forth to find that
> > information. If the v$N info is in the patch itself, then it clearly
> > shows what the scope of the change is in that particular patch, e.g.
> > just fixing up the typo or some structural change.
> > 
> > And no, this is not about convenience for the submitter. It's about
> > convenience for the reviewer/maintainer. The goal must be to make
> > their life as simple as possible not the other way round.
> 
> Wouldn't the contemporaneous reviewer/maintainer be on the actual email
> threads ... so they wouldn't need the references?
> 
> I see the Link tag as a useful historical artifact but you seem to
> think it's an essential part of the contemporaneous acceptance.  I've

That's not what I was talking about. This was about a per patch change
history vs. putting all changes fron the previous version into the cover
letter.

i.e.

	cover letter

	V2 -> V3:
	      - list of changes

vs.

	cover letter

	V2 -> V3:
	   High level overview of changes

  and
	patch b/m

	SOB
	---
	V3: Fixup up typo

	patch d/m

	SOB
	---
	V3: New algorithm

	patch f/m

	SOB
	---
	V2: Fix comment style


So on review I can (if I trust the submitter) just skip 'b' and 'f' because
'b' has no interesting change (i.e. the typo which made the compile fail is
fixed) and 'f' has no change at all. Instead I focus on 'd' because there
is the meat of the V3 submission.

Having all this information only in the cover letter is a pain especially
on larger patch series.

The link to V2 is in both cases in the cover letter. That's
sufficient. Yes, it might not be necessary, but I just recently ended up
wasting an hour finding an earlier version because the cover letter subject
changed slightly. I surely have better things to do.

Thanks,

	tglx