Is there an integrated b4 + patchwork guide for maintainers?

Is there an integrated b4 + patchwork guide for maintainers?

[Jeff Johnson]

I'm in the process of taking over ath.git maintainer activities from Kalle. He
has shared his workflow, but much of it is based upon using Stacked Git (STG)
and a patchwork script he authored. I seems like many (most?) maintainers are
now using b4, and Kalle fully supports me using it, so I just want to see if
there is a guide or sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork. I'd
like to adopt a proven workflow rather than stumbling around on my own.

/jeff

Re: Is there an integrated b4 + patchwork guide for maintainers?

[Jeff Johnson]

On 7/17/2024 12:30 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> I'm in the process of taking over ath.git maintainer activities from Kalle. He
> has shared his workflow, but much of it is based upon using Stacked Git (STG)
> and a patchwork script he authored. I seems like many (most?) maintainers are
> now using b4, and Kalle fully supports me using it, so I just want to see if
> there is a guide or sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork. I'd
> like to adopt a proven workflow rather than stumbling around on my own.

I sent this over a year ago (using my former credentials). I did not receive
any responses at that time, so I just cobbled things together.

In light of current discussion about using Link: tags, and related discussion
about how multi-commit series should be treated (applied linearly or merged
from a dev branch), it seems timely to re-ask the question. Is there a guide
or recommended sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork?

/jeff

Re: Is there an integrated b4 + patchwork guide for maintainers?

[dan.j.williams]

Jeff Johnson wrote:
> On 7/17/2024 12:30 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> > I'm in the process of taking over ath.git maintainer activities from Kalle. He
> > has shared his workflow, but much of it is based upon using Stacked Git (STG)
> > and a patchwork script he authored. I seems like many (most?) maintainers are
> > now using b4, and Kalle fully supports me using it, so I just want to see if
> > there is a guide or sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork. I'd
> > like to adopt a proven workflow rather than stumbling around on my own.
> 
> I sent this over a year ago (using my former credentials). I did not receive
> any responses at that time, so I just cobbled things together.
> 
> In light of current discussion about using Link: tags, and related discussion
> about how multi-commit series should be treated (applied linearly or merged
> from a dev branch), it seems timely to re-ask the question. Is there a guide
> or recommended sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork?

I am not aware of one. I have maintained the CXL subsystem with
patchwork and b4 in the past, but did not use much more than:

https://korg.docs.kernel.org/patchwork/index.html

...in terms of a guide.

b4 mostly does some patchwork flows better, like pulling patches from
the list, and patchwork-bot handles the thank-yous and marking patches
accepted with their commit-ids.

Outside of that it quickly gets into subsystem specific flows around
patch states, delegation, and submitter expectations.

I would recommend going through the subsystem handbooks if you have not
already in terms inspiration for setting submitter expectations:

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v6.16-rc1/process/maintainer-handbooks.html

Re: Is there an integrated b4 + patchwork guide for maintainers?

[Krzysztof Kozlowski]

On 12/09/2025 01:54, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> On 7/17/2024 12:30 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>> I'm in the process of taking over ath.git maintainer activities from Kalle. He
>> has shared his workflow, but much of it is based upon using Stacked Git (STG)
>> and a patchwork script he authored. I seems like many (most?) maintainers are
>> now using b4, and Kalle fully supports me using it, so I just want to see if
>> there is a guide or sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork. I'd
>> like to adopt a proven workflow rather than stumbling around on my own.
> 
> I sent this over a year ago (using my former credentials). I did not receive
> any responses at that time, so I just cobbled things together.
> 
> In light of current discussion about using Link: tags, and related discussion
> about how multi-commit series should be treated (applied linearly or merged
> from a dev branch), it seems timely to re-ask the question. Is there a guide


These two examples are not really dependent on the workflow - whether
your upstream rebases your patches or not, will be the same regardless
you use b4 or old `mutt | git am` method.

> or recommended sample workflow for using b4 along with patchwork?


Therefore maybe precise a bit the question, because it can really be
understood in many ways. For example I understood as:
1. Get the list of patches from Patchwork with pwclient and feed to
mutt/neomutt.
2. Go through them.
3. b4 shazam accepted patches, which will mark them as accepted in
Patchwork (see b4 config about Patchwork integration or my talk from
2023 LPC)
4. Respond through rest of them and then delete downloaded mboxes/maildir.

But maybe you ask about linux-next rules (although hardly relevant to
b4...) so that's why I did not respond. It's just too vague.

Best regards,
Krzysztof