Subject: Re: [GSoC][RFC PATCH 0/6] Add --subject-extra-prefix flag to format-patch

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:06:43 -0800

Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]> writes:

> I do understand though that `--rfc=GSoC` is not exactly discoverable for
> a newcomer. Maybe a simpler fix would be to introduce an alias for that
> option that is more discoverable? I don't have a great idea for how to
> name it -- the best that comes to mind is `--patch-prefix`, which
> mirrors `--subject-prefix`.

The problem with it is that having "patch" vs "subject" prefix will
make it confusing which one is which.

Let's step back and examine what we already have.

 * The "--subject-prefix" is configurable and format.subjectPrefix
   is meant to go to .git/config for repositories that work with
   projects with special needs (they tell you to use not [PATCH] but
   subproject specific moniker like [PATCH rcu] instead).

 * The "--rfc[=<word>]" has no configuration and it is deliberately
   so, as it is meant to be used as needed, on occasions that call
   for it, pretty much decided per invocation.

Are these two points above not clear in our documentation?  If so,
we should fix it, but I do not think giving a synonym to --rfc is a
good way to clarify it.

If it is a GSoC topic sent to this list, it _will_ be GSoC topic for
the entire iterations of the same topic.  So it would be good to use
--subject-prefix="GSoC PATCH" (or configure format.subjectPrefix in
the repository to use that, if a student works with us only on GSoC
topics during the Summer-of-Code program duration), and on occasion,
when students are not so sure about their patches (yet), use of --rfc
would be a good way, which would give us "[RFC GSoC PATCH 0/6]", to
mark the patches as such.

Another problem with --patch-prefix synonym is that --rfc is not
necessarily a prefix.  With

	git format-patch --rfc='-WIP' --subject-prefix='GSoC PATCH'

you would get "[GSoC PATCH WIP 0/6]" instead.

In any case, I think it is the root cause of this disease to treat
GSoC mark as something extra that requires a new marker that is
separate from the usual PATCH marker.  Using whatever mechanism you
would use your string in place for the standard PATCH mark to make
it say "GSoC PATCH" would be the most appropriate, without mucking
with an extra option, be it '--rfc' or '--subject-extra-prefix', I
would say.

Thanks.