patchwork feature request: support for patch series cover letters?

[Dirk Wallenstein]

On Fri, Jan 07, 2011 at 06:43:58PM +0800, Jeremy Kerr wrote:
> Hi Peter,
> 
> > Most qemu patches get sent to the list as multi-patch sets with
> > an initial "[PATCH 00/nn]" "cover letter". Unfortunately patchwork
> > doesn't do anything with the cover letter, so it just shows the
> > individual sub-patches.
> > 
> > Would it be possible for patchwork to also handle the 'cover letter'
> > email, so that:
> >  * there's a single URL you can refer to for the whole patchset
> > (which could link to the patch URLs for all its parts)
> >  * patchwork recorded the overall rationale for the patchset as
> > documented in the cover letter (and discussion on it which was
> > sent as a reply to the cover letter)
> > ?
> > 
> > (Perhaps patchsets should be automatically turned into
> > patchwork bundles? I'm not sure.)
> 
> Yeah, this is something I'd like to do too. I see bundles as user-created, so 
> would prefer some other system of grouping.
> 
> I've previously thought this could be solved by adding 'relations' between 
> patches, that can be used to express all sorts of stuff, like:
> 
>  * patch X replaces patch Y,
>  * patch X is a add-on to patch Y, or
>  * patch X is in the same series as patch y
> 
> However, the patch-cover-letter case might break the last case (and isn't 
> really the best way to express grouping).
> 
> So how does this sound (just taking some initial notes here):
> 
> Add patch 'groups', which have:
> 
>   * A group leader - the cover letter, or the first patch in the series if
>       there is none.
> 
>   * Member patches
> 
> Some bits to consider:
> 
> Parsing: currently, if a mail does not contain a patch, we see if it's a 
> follow up to an existing patch, and discard it if not. This probably won't 
> work for cover letters, as it's likely that we haven't parsed any patches from 
> the series yet. For the cover letters, we'd need to keep a record of 
> 'potential' cover letters, and try and match it up with patches that come in 
> later.

Would it be a problem/overkill to record every mail thread? For example,
a user notifies about a bug and then there are several patches attached
to the thread. It would be nice to have a grouping for those, too.

-- 
Greetings,
Dirk