Start emailing your patches GUIDE

Why we need this

Corporate git websites are bloat. All that work can be done from the command line with git or patch and a mail client like neomutt. Hell, it can be done without a client using sendmail.

Why this is better for projects

By using a email and static content workflow, and making a mailing list, it is just a better deal for the community working on the program. Discussions can happen on the same mailing list server that patches are sent. How are discussions done on git(hub/lab/tea)? At least sourceforge had its own mailing lists.

How to send a patch

I have some helper scripts. There are two ways:

• git format-patch (my preferred method)

• the patch program is another option (more based)

• Have git just do it and send it with a script. Cross your fingers!

• Have git write to a file, then copy it on the command line and paste it in on the command line!

• Have a helper script that does more formatting and whitespace removal. Very good for picky mailing list hawks like when contributing to suckless.org or the linux kernel.

• Don’t hand-edit patches. It breaks them.

How to host your own git static site generator (not Gittea)

Let’s not use Gittea. It is bloat. Self-hosting a whole corporate dynamic git website is madness. Let’s use codemadness.org stagit. There is even a gopher edition. All it does is make a simple site like the one linked there.

my format-patch scripts

These use some dmenu scripts like y-or-n and prompt-mail so they will not be plug-and-play on your system. A good starting place though.

format-patch
Doesn’t do anything special. Formats a patch and asks me if I want to send it up without looking for save it to a file.
If I save it to a file I will use that as the mail message.

#!/bin/sh
# also see suckless-format-patch and friends
[ -z "$1" ] && EMAIL="$(prompt-mail)"
[ -n "$1" ] && EMAIL="$1"
echo "Formatting a patch file..."
TAG="$(git tag --points-at HEAD^)"
TAGDIFF="${PWD##*/}-$(sed 's:.*/::' .git/HEAD)-$(date +%Y%m%d)-$TAG.diff"
fp () {
    file="${PWD##*/}-$(sed 's:.*/::' .git/HEAD)-$1.diff"
    git format-patch \
        --to "$EMAIL" \
        --stdout HEAD^ \
        > "$file" \
    && echo "Wrote $file."
}
[ -n "$TAG" ] && fp "$TAG"
[ -z "$TAG" ] && fp "$(date +%Y%m%d)-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
echo "Patch made."
y-or-n "git-send-email it right now?" && git-send-email --to "$EMAIL" "$file" \
  && y-or-n "delete patch file?" && rm "$file"

format-patch-suckless
I guess I got this from the suckless mailing list when I sent something without clang formatting.

#!/bin/sh
[ -z "$1" ] && EMAIL="$(prompt-mail)"
[ -n "$1" ] && EMAIL="$1"
y-or-n "Clang format (for C)?" && clang-format -i *.h *.c && echo 'formatted'
y-or-n "Stage that?" && git stage *.h *.c
y-or-n "Amend it to commit silently?" && git cane
TAG="$(git tag --points-at HEAD^)"
TAGDIFF="${PWD##*/}-$(sed 's:.*/::' .git/HEAD)-$(date +%Y%m%d)-$TAG.diff"
fp () {
    file="${PWD##*/}-$(sed 's:.*/::' .git/HEAD)-$1.diff"
    git format-patch \
        --subject-prefix="${PWD##*/}][PATCH" \
        --to "$EMAIL" \
        --stdout HEAD^ \
    > "$file" \
    && echo "Wrote $file."
}
[ -n "$TAG" ] && fp "$TAG"
[ -z "$TAG" ] && fp "$(date +%Y%m%d)-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
echo "Patch made."

format-patch-send
Beam it up without looking!

#!/bin/sh
# also see suckless-format-patch and friends
EMAIL=""
[ -z "$1" ] && EMAIL="$(prompt-mail)"
[ -n "$1" ] && EMAIL="$1"
echo "Formatting a patch file..."
TAG="$(git tag --points-at HEAD^)"
TAGDIFF="${PWD##*/}-$(sed 's:.*/::' .git/HEAD)-$(date +%Y%m%d)-$TAG.diff"
fp () {
    file="${PWD##*/}-$(sed 's:.*/::' .git/HEAD)-$1.diff"
    git format-patch \
        --to "$EMAIL" \
        --stdout HEAD^ \
        > "$file" \
    && echo "Wrote $file."
}
[ -n "$TAG" ] && fp "$TAG"
[ -z "$TAG" ] && fp "$(date +%Y%m%d)-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
echo "Patch made."
git-send-email --to "$EMAIL" "$file"
rm "$file"

Hackermen neomutt config · Get on mailing lists like it is 1989 · dmenu scripts repo released · dpatchmail · prompt-mail · suckless