[Mesa-dev] [PATCH v2] docs: Document GitLab merge request process (email alternative)

[Michel Dänzer]

On 2018-12-13 4:52 p.m., Alex Deucher wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 3:42 AM Samuel Pitoiset
> <samuel.pitoiset at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Personally, I will continue to use the list, at least for a simplicity
>> point of view. I'm not sure if using a new tool will improve quality and
>> code review process.
>>
>> Though, if the majority reports that is really nice to use, I will
>> probably change my mind. Not a strong reject.
> 
> I agree.  We've been using the MR interface for xf86-video-amdgpu and
> I find it awkward compared to the mailing list.  Maybe it just takes
> getting used to.  I also feel less inclined to do drive by patch
> review if I have to explicitly delve into the browser to look at the
> outstanding MRs.  Over email, sometimes I see a patch set in my in box
> that piques my interest and I find some time to review it when I might
> not have otherwise if the bar were higher.

Hopefully we can get notifications of new MRs to the mailing lists at
some point, but in the meantime, this should be solvable by tuning your
notification settings in GitLab. That might even allow you to fine-tune
what you receive notifications for, compared to the all-or-nothing with
e-mail based review.


> Out of curiosity what do others like about the MR interface?  How are
> you using it?  What advantages does it give you over the mailing list?

One things that's nice about the MR interface is the integration with
the CI pipeline.

But for me, it's not so much about the MR interface per se, but about
the integration between different parts. With e-mail based review, it's
sometimes a bit awkward to link between patches for testing / review and
the final changes in Git, e.g. in bug reports. All of these things can
be linked together by MRs.

This should be even better once we use GitLab issues instead of Bugzilla.


> I feel like the interface makes it harder than it needs to be to see
> the actual changes in MR to be reviewed.  All of the links click
> through to the source view rather than the patch view.

There are certainly still rough edges around review of MRs with multiple
commits. There have been some improvements based on feedback provided by
freedesktop.org folks to GitLab developers, but there's still need for more.


-- 
Earthling Michel Dänzer               |               http://www.amd.com
Libre software enthusiast             |             Mesa and X developer