[Gnu-arch-users] [BUG] feature plan -- merge request headers

[Tom Lord]

These version variables:

        upstream-version
        upstream-email
        upstream-directive


should have a special meaning wrt to a new command:


  % tla commit --announce

    Compose email to the address bound to version variable
    `upstream-email'.   The subject of the email should
    begin with `upstream-directive' and the body of the 
    message should include some pseudo-headers:

        merge-from: $VERSION
        merge-to: $upstream-version
        archive-location: `tla advertised-archive-location $MY-ARCHIVE`

    The user should have the opportunity to edit the body
    of this email (perhaps via editting the log message)

    Commit and, if the commit succeeds, send the email.


Now, I hear people shouting already, "Can't you do that with hooks?"

Well, yes, but:

Now someone can fix a trivial bug in arch with:

        % address@hidden

        % tla get $LORD/dists--devo--1.0 wd
        % cd wd
        % tla buildcfg emf.net/devo
        % cd src/tla
        % tla fork bug123
        [hack hack hack]
        [test test]
        [hack]
        [test]
        [hack]
        % tla commit --announce


and their fix will enter the bug-tracker just from that.  Note that
their branch inherited settings for `upstream-version',
`upstream-email', and `upstream-directive' from my tla--devo--1.3.

(This kind of commit can pass an extra flag to the commit hook,
letting it know that this is an announced commit.  That way, the
commit hook can do smart things like auto-push the archive to its
public mirror.)

(This could use some additional help from Bug Goo.  In particular,
suppose that I merge in some changes and that some of the patch-logs
that get merged in are from `commit --announce' commits.

When I commit my tree, if my tree-version matches the `merge-to'
pseudo-header of the merge request, then commit should send email
to bug goo announcing that the merge has taken place.   

Unfortunately, that requires have an identifier for a merge request
that is stable from the time the request is first sent onwards.  Bug
Goo currently doesn't do that --- it only assigns stable identifiers
to merge requests sometime after they first arrive at bug goo.

It'd be easy enough for `tla commit --announce' to generate a
presumably unique id and include that in the merge request -- bug goo
just has to be willing to index by these and to discard requests that
would duplicate an already used id.

-t


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