Re: [coreboot] Guide lines: Prepend commit summary with component (was: New patch to review for coreboot: 0b41858 Clean up the mmu setup a bit)

[Peter Stuge]

David Hendricks wrote:
> If you wish to focus only on a particular part of the codebase

It's more about getting an overview of what has changed.

It is impossible to discern whether "Fix MMU setup" is at all
relevant for my ThinkPad from the message alone. Maybe some setup
was wrong - what do I know. "armv7: Fix MMU setup" however makes it
clear what the change is.
> specify the directories/files you wish to look at when running git log.

It's the other way around, for creating an overview.

The commit message represents the commit. The commit contains a root
tree. Commits only affecting subsets of the code isn't really an
accurate representation of how the repository works.
> Actually, I think it would look kind of ugly to do "git log src/arch/x86"
> and see every commit cluttered with some cookie-cutter prefix.

Maybe - or maybe it is simply expected. Within x86 it's possible that
there will be several different and distinct parts.

//Peter

Guide lines: Prepend commit summary with component

[Paul Menzel]

Am Mittwoch, den 30.01.2013, 21:47 +0100 schrieb Peter Stuge:
> David Hendricks wrote:
> > If you wish to focus only on a particular part of the codebase
>
> It's more about getting an overview of what has changed.
>
> It is impossible to discern whether "Fix MMU setup" is at all
> relevant for my ThinkPad from the message alone. Maybe some setup
> was wrong - what do I know. "armv7: Fix MMU setup" however makes it
> clear what the change is.

Thanks Peter. That example made my point clear.
> > specify the directories/files you wish to look at when running git log.

The Web interfaces make this stuff hard.
> It's the other way around, for creating an overview.

At least I am also doing it this way. Or do Peter or I miss some trick
for getting this overview.
> The commit message represents the commit. The commit contains a root
> tree. Commits only affecting subsets of the code isn't really an
> accurate representation of how the repository works.
> > Actually, I think it would look kind of ugly to do "git log src/arch/x86"
> > and see every commit cluttered with some cookie-cutter prefix.
>
> Maybe - or maybe it is simply expected. Within x86 it's possible that
> there will be several different and distinct parts.

One other point, supporting that prepending is the right thing to do, is
that the Linux kernel is also prepending each commit summary with the
subsystem it touches.

Thanks,

Paul

Guide lines: Prepend commit summary with component

[David Hendricks]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 2:24 PM, Paul Menzel <
[e-mail]> wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, den 30.01.2013, 21:47 +0100 schrieb Peter Stuge:
> > David Hendricks wrote:
> > > If you wish to focus only on a particular part of the codebase
> >
> > It's more about getting an overview of what has changed.
> >
> > It is impossible to discern whether "Fix MMU setup" is at all
> > relevant for my ThinkPad from the message alone. Maybe some setup
> > was wrong - what do I know. "armv7: Fix MMU setup" however makes it
> > clear what the change is.
>
> Thanks Peter. That example made my point clear.

Yeah, but "Run option ROMs in coreboot by default only if the payload is
not SeaBIOS" is plenty descriptive without prepending anything. It would
probably get rejected by a pre-submit hook for being too long had the
author tried.

Anyway, I find pre-fixes useful and I use them whenever it makes sense to
do so. I just don't think that we need to get militant about it so long as
people exercise common sense.
> > specify the directories/files you wish to look at when running git log.
>
> The Web interfaces make this stuff hard.

I'm confused... When you navigate to a sub-directory in gitweb and press
the "history" link it will only print changes that have touched files in
that sub-directory and those beneath it.