Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] get_maintainer.pl: Default to --no-git-fallback

[Markus Armbruster]

"Michael S. Tsirkin" <address@hidden> writes:

> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 03:34:46PM +0200, Markus Armbruster wrote:
>> Paolo Bonzini <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> > On 10/20/2014 04:15 PM, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
>> >> What do you want to happen in this case?
>> >> Won't this cause even more patches to fall to the floor?
>> >>
>> >> The benefit seems marginal, the risk high.
>> >
>> > I agree with Michael.
>> >
>> > Can we detect if get_maintainer.pl is invoked as a cccmd, and in this
>> > case default to --no-git-fallback?  If it is invoked manually, I would
>> > like to show the committers (I will then cherry pick the right ones).
>> 
>> I don't like context-sensitive defaults.  Too much magic.
>>
>> What about this: if get_maintainer.pl comes up empty, it points you to
>> --git-fallback.
>
> This is exactly what it's doing now :)

Nope.  This is what it's doing now:

    $ scripts/get_maintainer.pl -f util/cutils.c
    Luiz Capitulino <address@hidden> (commit_signer:1/2=50%)
    Eric Blake <address@hidden> (commit_signer:1/2=50%)
    Alexey Kardashevskiy <address@hidden> (commit_signer:1/2=50%)
    Laszlo Ersek <address@hidden> (commit_signer:1/2=50%)
    Amit Shah <address@hidden> (commit_signer:1/2=50%)

A sufficiently seasoned contributor will spot the "commit_signer" tags,
and the output as a hint to find people to copy.  In this particular
case, he'll recognize the hint is useless.  Maybe he'll try something
like --git-since 2010 or --git-blame then.  I'd just peruse git-log.

A less seasoned contributor will blindly copy all five.

This is what I'm proposing to do:

    $ scripts/get_maintainer.pl -f util/cutils.c
    No maintainers found.
    You may want to try --git-fallback to find recent contributors.
    Do not blindly cc: them on patches!  Use common sense.

Perhaps round off with a link to a Wiki page with additional advice on
how to find people to copy.