[PATCH] qseries: add --edit option for editing series file for current queue

Mads Kiilerich mads at kiilerich.com
Thu Jun 17 10:39:58 CDT 2010


On 06/17/2010 04:20 AM, Greg Ward wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 12:10 PM, Mads Kiilerich<mads at kiilerich.com>  wrote:
>> +    """print the content of the series file
>> +
>> +    --edit is a shortcut for opening the series file for the current series in an
>> +    editor. Changes must be made with great care but can for example be used to
>> +    reorder patches - assuming that they are sufficiently commutative."""
>
> How about:
>
>    --edit is a shortcut for opening the series file for the current series in an
>    editor. The main reason for this is to reorder patches, not to add or remove
>    them.  (To add patches, use qimport or qnew; to delete patches, use qdelete.)
>    Be sure to respect the dependencies between patches when you reorder: if
>    patch B depends on patch A, then putting B first will most likely
> result in a broken
>    patch series that fails to apply.
>
> It's a bit wordy, but a lot more explicit.  It's dead obvious to you
> and me, but there are plenty of programmers out there who get very
> befuddled by *.rej files.  They need all the help we can give them.
> (Probably starting out with, "don't use MQ unless you really need it
> and understand what you're getting into".  ;-)

That is a fine improvement of the text. (Perhaps it also should describe 
what .rej files are and how to deal with them?)

Yes, we should probably explain somewhere what the series file is, how 
to find it (especially when using one of multiple queus) and when and 
how to edit it. It seems like we don't explain that anywhere?

But is the help for qseries really the right place to introduce the 
series file and tell how to edit it? qseries --edit is just handy 
shortcut, not the canonical interface to the series file.

Perhaps the long description should be in "help mq" instead, and the 
help for --edit should be limited to the first sentence?

/Mads


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