Create a ghc-simple-patch-propose list? Re: Notes from Ben's "contribute to ghc" discussion

Wed Sep 28 01:47:14 UTC 2016

So you're suggesting that GitHub would function as a sort of alternate front-end to Phab. While I've grown to enjoy Phab quite a bit, I still strongly dislike arc, which tries to be too clever for my tastes. Provided the integration works smoothly, I quite like this idea.

Richard

> On Sep 27, 2016, at 5:32 PM, Michael Sloan <mgsloan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> You're welcome Richard!  I look forward to helping make it happen.  In
> the other thread, Alexander Vershilov mentioned that we might instead
> consider the following more straightforward workflow:
> 
> 0) Have a bot that watches github for PRs.
> 1) Submit whatever you want to github as a PR.
> 2) It will be automatically closed and migrated to Phabricator.  I
> would like it to automatically create a Phabricator account if you do
> not already have one.  The message from the bot will tell you about
> this action, and explain how to log in, perhaps even linking to
> resources about Phabricator.
> 
> Is this worth it?  I think it is for the one-off cases.  However, you
> will have to be prepared that this means that people won't have
> arcanist setup, and therefore are less likely to actually iterate on
> their PR.  Perhaps we should extend this to the following:
> 
> 3) Subsequent pushes to the branch for the PR will update the
> Phabricator differential as if you had pushed via Arcanist.  I think
> with this in place, we would have a fully streamlined system that
> allows people to use their familiar GitHub workflows, without needing
> to learn Arcanist.  Interactions would then still occur on , of
> course.
> 
> This way, GHC HQ doesn't even need to learn to use this new "ghc-hub"
> tool!  Could name the bot that, though!
> 
> Thoughts?  I think it would be great for this to be proposed formally
> soon so that we can make it happen.  I am eager to be able to use my
> normal git workflows, as my little experience with Arcanist induced
> some head-scratching.  Not the fault of the tool, just a result of
> lack of familiarity.
> 
> -Michael
> 
> On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 8:46 AM, Richard Eisenberg <rae at cs.brynmawr.edu> wrote:
>> To sum up, this proposes the following:
>> 
>> 1. Allow PRs on GitHub.
>> 
>> 2. Michael Sloan to write a new utility, ghc-hub, which automates tasks interfacing between GitHub and Phab. This utility would be used only by GHC HQ and not by contributors.
>> 
>> 3. Small GitHub PRs can be merged directly, by ghc-hub.
>> 
>> 4. Larger GitHub PRs can be migrated to Phab by ghc-hub. The contributor would be issued a polite email explaining how to set up a Phab account to continue to follow their contribution.
>> 
>> Have I captured this accurately? If so, a resounding +1 from me. I’ve wanted exactly this for a while.
>> 
>> Is this worth sending through ghc-proposals?
>> 
>> Thanks for volunteering item (2), Michael!
>> 
>> Richard
>> 
>> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>> Richard A. Eisenberg
>> Asst. Prof. of Computer Science
>> Bryn Mawr College
>> Bryn Mawr, PA, USA
>> cs.brynmawr.edu/~rae
>> 
>>> On Sep 26, 2016, at 11:09 PM, Manuel M T Chakravarty <chak at justtesting.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Sounds like a great idea to me and might alleviate SimonM’s concerns about fragmentation of dev attention.
>>> 
>>> Manuel
>>> 
>>>> Michael Sloan <mgsloan at gmail.com>:
>>>> 
>>>> Argh, sent too soon.  The first paragraph, revised:
>>>> 
>>>> This sounds like an ideal solution, Ben!  As has been discussed many
>>>> times before, GitHub has many users familiar with its interface.  By
>>>> allowing GitHub PRs, the initial contribution barrier will be lowered. If
>>>> there is an easy and straightforward process for shifting big patches
>>>> to Phabricator, then people who are regularly contributing via GitHub
>>>> PRs can be incrementally on-boarded to the Phabricator / Arcanist
>>>> workflow.
>>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 12:07 PM, Michael Sloan <mgsloan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> This sounds like an ideal solution, Ben!  As has been discussed many
>>>>> times before, GitHub has many users familiar with its interface.  By
>>>>> allowing GitHub PRs, the initial contribution
>>>>> 
>>>>> I think it would be acceptable for larger GitHub PRs to have some
>>>>> automated boilerplate response.  Ideally this would look like:
>>>>> 
>>>>> """
>>>>> Thanks for making this patch!  I've turned this into a Phab
>>>>> Differential xxx and closed this PR.  Please create a differential
>>>>> account associated with your email address ..."
>>>>> """
>>>>> 
>>>>> The email address can be automatically pulled from commit metadata.
>>>>> If one is absent, then this automated process isn't possible.  If it
>>>>> is present and
>>>>> 
>>>>> So, I'm imagining a utility that interfaces between both GitHub and
>>>>> Phab,allowing the following commands:
>>>>> 
>>>>> * "ghc-hub migrate https://github.com/ghc/ghc/pull/1" - migrates the
>>>>> patch to differential.  It may attempt to migrate body and title of
>>>>> the initial post, but lets not bother with migrating any review data.
>>>>> 
>>>>> * "ghc-hub merge https://github.com/ghc/ghc/pull/1" - merges the
>>>>> patch.  This is used for merging small patches.  It would not do an
>>>>> automated push.  Maybe have "--push" also perform the push?  So like
>>>>> if you are on master, then "ghc-hub merge
>>>>> https://github.com/ghc/ghc/pull/1 --push" would merge the patches and
>>>>> push to master.
>>>>> 
>>>>> How does this sound?  I like the idea a lot, and would enjoy helping
>>>>> with implementation, time permitting.  I could possibly start hacking
>>>>> on it if others give the go ahead of "Yes, lets do that".
>>>>> 
>>>>> -Michael
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 11:45 AM, Ben Gamari <ben at smart-cactus.org> wrote:
>>>>>> Carter Schonwald <carter.schonwald at gmail.com> writes:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> In writing the following huge wall of text, I had and idea that I think
>>>>>>> many folks would find palatable:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> What if simple small patches (such as hypothetical drive by doc patches )
>>>>>>> had a mailing list where folks could email the simple / small patches as
>>>>>>> email attachments plus a body text that summarizes the patch, what it does,
>>>>>>> and why it's simple!
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I completely agree that for small (e.g. documentation) patches our
>>>>>> current system is quite heavy. For this reason I suggested at ICFP that
>>>>>> we simply begin accepting small patches via GitHub pull requests.
>>>>>> Frankly, this is less work for me than merging patches from a mailing
>>>>>> list and I believe many users feel that GitHub is more accessible than a
>>>>>> mailing list.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The problem of course is what subset of patches do we want to allow to
>>>>>> be taken via GitHub. My suggested answer to that is any patch which, if
>>>>>> I were to write it myself, I would feel comfortable pushing directly to
>>>>>> the tree.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Then there is the question of what do we do with pull requests opened
>>>>>> which do not satisfy this criterion. In this case I would likely open a
>>>>>> Phabricator Differential with the pull request and close the pull
>>>>>> request with a link to the Diff. In the ideal case this will inspire the
>>>>>> contributor to join the review process on Phabricator; in the worst case
>>>>>> review turns up issues in the patch and the user gives up. Either way, at
>>>>>> least the contributor feels his patch has been seen and given the
>>>>>> attention it deserves.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> - Ben
>>>>>> 
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>>>>>> 
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