[Mesa-dev] Is it time to stop using the mailing list for patch review?

[Jason Ekstrand]

On Tue, Dec 10, 2019 at 4:59 PM Dylan Baker <dylan at pnwbakers.com> wrote:

> Quoting Zebediah Figura (2019-12-10 10:58:45)
> > On 12/10/19 12:21 PM, Matt Turner wrote:
> > > On Mon, Dec 9, 2019 at 6:07 PM Dylan Baker <dylan at pnwbakers.com>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Hi everyone,
> > >>
> > >> I think its time we discussed whether we're going to continue to do
> patch review
> > >> on the mailing list, or if it it should all go through gitlab. I
> think we should
> > >> stop using the mailing list, here are some reasons:
> > >>
> > >> 1) Most development is happening on gitlab at this point, patches on
> the mailing
> > >>     list are often overlooked
> > >> 2) The mailing list bypasses CI which potentially breaks the build
> > >> 3) Probably more reasons I'm forgetting.
> > >
> > > I think effectively we're already there.
> > >
> > > What concrete change would you propose?
> >
> > Removing mention of the mailing list from documentation would be nice.
> > Also, currently the README implies that the mailing list is not only
> > acceptable but preferred: "Note that Mesa uses email mailing-lists for
> > patches submission, review and discussions."
>
> This would be a good start, I don't know what else to do to stop people
> from
> sending patches, maybe mailman has some kind of hook we can add to spot
> patches
> and mention that gitlab is preferred? No idea.
>

I think updating README type docs is sufficient and I think it's probably
time we did that.  If someone sends a patch to the ML anyway, we should
just go ahead and review it and suggest that next time they open an MR next
time.  I don't think we need a hook or to do anything more forceful.  If
the odd patch ends up on the mailing list, it won't hurt anyone.

As far about "OMG what if a drive-by person sends a patch!" goes.... I
don't think that's all that likely.  New contributors are far more likely
to understand the PR model from experience with GitHub than they are to
know how to send patches.  (Unless they're already a long-time contributor
to other systems level Linux projects but new to Mesa).  If it does happen,
we shouldn't make a big stink about it.  We should just review the patch
and suggest a pull request for next time.  If the patch needs more than
just rubber-stamp review, maybe say "I've got some comments, mind making a
PR so we can discuss it there?"

If people are all that concerned about CI, we can say that if you are
pushing patches on behalf of someone else, you should create a MR and merge
it that way.

--Jason
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