b4: introduce configuration for the Git project
We're about to extend our documentation to recommend b4 for sending
patch series to the mailing list. Prepare for this by introducing a b4
configuration so that the tool knows to honor our preferences. For now,
this configuration does two things:
- It configures "send-same-thread = shallow", which tells b4 to always
send subsequent versions of the same patch series as a reply to the
cover letter of the first version.
- It configures "prep-cover-template", which tells b4 to use a custom
template for the cover letter. The most important change compared to
the default template is that our custom template also includes a
range-diff.
There's potentially more things that we may want to configure going
forward, like for example auto-configuration of folks to Cc on certain
patches. But these two tweaks feel like a good place to start.
Note that these values only serve as defaults, and users may want to
tweak those defaults based on their own preference. Luckily, users can
do that without having to touch `.b4-config` at all, as b4 allows them
to override values via Git configuration:
```
$ git config set b4.prep-cover-template /does/not/exist
$ b4 send --dry-run
ERROR: prep-cover-template says to use x, but it does not exist
```
So this gives users an easy way to override our defaults without having
to touch ".b4-config", which would dirty the tree.
Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.
See Documentation/gittutorial.adoc to get started, then see Documentation/giteveryday.adoc for a useful minimum set of commands, and Documentation/git-<commandname>.adoc for documentation of each command. If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.adoc (man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is installed).
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission and Documentation/CodingGuidelines).
Those wishing to help with error message, usage and informational message string translations (localization l10) should see po/README.md (a po file is a Portable Object file that holds the translations).
To subscribe to the list, send an email to git+subscribe@vger.kernel.org (see https://subspace.kernel.org/subscribing.html for details). The mailing list archives are available at https://lore.kernel.org/git/, https://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.
Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the Git Security mailing list git-security@googlegroups.com.
The maintainer frequently sends the “What's cooking” reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
The name “git” was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as “the stupid content tracker” and the name as (depending on your mood):