Skip to content

Commit 7e7b3b0

Browse files
committed
docs: netdev: document the existence of the mail bot
We had a good run, but after 4 weeks of use we heard someone asking about pw-bot commands. Let's explain its existence in the docs. It's not a complete documentation but hopefully it's enough for the casual contributor. The project and scope are in flux so the details would likely become out of date, if we were to document more in depth. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/ Reviewed-by: Andrew Lunn <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Simon Horman <[email protected]> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/[email protected] Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <[email protected]>
1 parent 8a02fb7 commit 7e7b3b0

File tree

1 file changed

+26
-7
lines changed

1 file changed

+26
-7
lines changed

Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst

Lines changed: 26 additions & 7 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -127,13 +127,32 @@ the value of ``Message-ID`` to the URL above.
127127
Updating patch status
128128
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
129129

130-
It may be tempting to help the maintainers and update the state of your
131-
own patches when you post a new version or spot a bug. Please **do not**
132-
do that.
133-
Interfering with the patch status on patchwork will only cause confusion. Leave
134-
it to the maintainer to figure out what is the most recent and current
135-
version that should be applied. If there is any doubt, the maintainer
136-
will reply and ask what should be done.
130+
Contributors and reviewers do not have the permissions to update patch
131+
state directly in patchwork. Patchwork doesn't expose much information
132+
about the history of the state of patches, therefore having multiple
133+
people update the state leads to confusion.
134+
135+
Instead of delegating patchwork permissions netdev uses a simple mail
136+
bot which looks for special commands/lines within the emails sent to
137+
the mailing list. For example to mark a series as Changes Requested
138+
one needs to send the following line anywhere in the email thread::
139+
140+
pw-bot: changes-requested
141+
142+
As a result the bot will set the entire series to Changes Requested.
143+
This may be useful when author discovers a bug in their own series
144+
and wants to prevent it from getting applied.
145+
146+
The use of the bot is entirely optional, if in doubt ignore its existence
147+
completely. Maintainers will classify and update the state of the patches
148+
themselves. No email should ever be sent to the list with the main purpose
149+
of communicating with the bot, the bot commands should be seen as metadata.
150+
151+
The use of the bot is restricted to authors of the patches (the ``From:``
152+
header on patch submission and command must match!), maintainers themselves
153+
and a handful of senior reviewers. Bot records its activity here:
154+
155+
https://patchwork.hopto.org/pw-bot.html
137156

138157
Review timelines
139158
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)