table of contents
B4(5) | B4(5) |
NAME¶
B4 - Work with code submissions in a public-inbox archive
SYNOPSIS¶
b4 {mbox,am,attest,pr,ty,diff} [options]
DESCRIPTION¶
This is a helper utility to work with patches and pull requests made available via a public-inbox archive like lore.kernel.org. It is written to make it easier to participate in a patch-based workflows, like those used in the Linux kernel development.
The name "b4" was chosen for ease of typing and because B-4 was the precursor to Lore and Data in the Star Trek universe.
SUBCOMMANDS¶
- b4 mbox: Download a thread as an mbox file
- b4 am: Create an mbox file that is ready to git-am
- b4 pr: Work with pull requests
- b4 diff: Show range-diff style diffs between patch versions
- b4 ty: (EXPERIMENTAL) Create templated replies for processed patches and pull requests
- b4 attest: (EXPERIMENTAL) Add cryptographic attestation to patches
OPTIONS¶
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -d, --debug
- Add more debugging info to the output (default: False)
- -q, --quiet
- Output critical information only (default: False)
SUBCOMMAND OPTIONS¶
b4 mbox¶
- usage:
- b4 mbox [-h] [-o OUTDIR] [-p USEPROJECT] [-c] [-n WANTNAME] [-m LOCALMBOX] [msgid]
- positional arguments:
- msgid Message ID to process, or pipe a raw message
- optional arguments:
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -o OUTDIR, --outdir OUTDIR
- Output into this directory (or use - to output mailbox contents to stdout)
- -p USEPROJECT, --use-project USEPROJECT
- Use a specific project instead of guessing (linux-mm, linux-hardening, etc)
- -c, --check-newer-revisions
- Check if newer patch revisions exist
- -n WANTNAME, --mbox-name WANTNAME
- Filename to name the mbox file
- -m LOCALMBOX, --use-local-mbox LOCALMBOX
- Instead of grabbing a thread from lore, process this mbox file
- -C, --no-cache
- Do not use local cache
Example: b4 mbox 20200313231252.64999-1-keescook@chromium.org
b4 am¶
- usage:
- b4 am [-h] [-o OUTDIR] [-p USEPROJECT] [-c] [-n WANTNAME] [-m LOCALMBOX] [-v WANTVER] [-t] [-T] [-s] [-l] [-Q] [msgid]
- positional arguments:
- msgid Message ID to process, or pipe a raw message
- optional arguments:
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -o OUTDIR, --outdir OUTDIR
- Output into this directory (or use - to output mailbox contents to stdout)
- -p USEPROJECT, --use-project USEPROJECT
- Use a specific project instead of guessing (linux-mm, linux-hardening, etc)
- -c, --check-newer-revisions
- Check if newer patch revisions exist
- -n WANTNAME, --mbox-name WANTNAME
- Filename to name the mbox file
- -m LOCALMBOX, --use-local-mbox LOCALMBOX
- Instead of grabbing a thread from lore, process this mbox file
- -C, --no-cache
- Do not use local cache
- -v WANTVER, --use-version WANTVER
- Get a specific version of the patch/series
- -t, --apply-cover-trailers
- Apply trailers sent to the cover letter to all patches
- -S, --sloppy-trailers
- Apply trailers without email address match checking
- -T, --no-add-trailers
- Do not add or sort any trailers
- -s, --add-my-sob
- Add your own signed-off-by to every patch
- -l, --add-link
- Add a lore.kernel.org/r/ link to every patch
- -Q, --quilt-ready
- Save mbox patches in a quilt-ready folder
- -P CHERRYPICK, --cherry-pick CHERRYPICK
- Cherry-pick a subset of patches (e.g. "-P 1-2,4,6-", "-P _" to use just the msgid specified, or "-P *globbing*" to match on commit subject)
- -g, --guess-base
- Try to guess the base of the series (if not specified)
- -3, --prep-3way
- Prepare for a 3-way merge (tries to ensure that all index blobs exist by making a fake commit range)
- --cc-trailers
- Copy all Cc'd addresses into Cc: trailers, if not already present
- --no-cover
- Do not save the cover letter (on by default when using -o -)
Example: b4 am 20200313231252.64999-1-keescook@chromium.org
b4 attest¶
usage: b4 attest [-h] [-f SENDER] [-n] [-o OUTPUT] patchfile [patchfile ...]
- positional arguments:
- patchfile Patches to attest
- optional arguments:
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -f SENDER, --from SENDER
- OBSOLETE: this option does nothing and will be removed
- -n, --no-submit
- OBSOLETE: this option does nothing and will be removed
- -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
- OBSOLETE: this option does nothing and will be removed
Example: b4 attest output/*.patch
b4 pr¶
- usage:
- command.py pr [-h] [-g GITDIR] [-b BRANCH] [-c] [-e] [-o OUTMBOX] [msgid]
- positional arguments:
- msgid Message ID to process, or pipe a raw message
- optional arguments:
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -g GITDIR, --gitdir GITDIR
- Operate on this git tree instead of current dir
- -b BRANCH, --branch BRANCH
- Check out FETCH_HEAD into this branch after fetching
- -c, --check
- Check if pull request has already been applied
- -e, --explode
- Convert a pull request into an mbox full of patches
- -o OUTMBOX, --output-mbox OUTMBOX
- Save exploded messages into this mailbox (default: msgid.mbx)
Example: b4 pr 202003292120.2BDCB41@keescook
b4 ty¶
- usage:
- b4 ty [-h] [-g GITDIR] [-o OUTDIR] [-l] [-s SEND [SEND ...]] [-d DISCARD [DISCARD ...]] [-a] [-b BRANCH] [--since SINCE]
- optional arguments:
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -g GITDIR, --gitdir GITDIR
- Operate on this git tree instead of current dir
- -o OUTDIR, --outdir OUTDIR
- Write thanks files into this dir (default=.)
- -l, --list
- List pull requests and patch series you have retrieved
- -s SEND, --send SEND
- Generate thankyous for specific entries from -l (e.g.: 1,3-5,7-; or "all")
- -d DISCARD, --discard DISCARD
- Discard specific messages from -l (e.g.: 1,3-5,7-; or "all")
- -a, --auto
- Use the Auto-Thankanator to figure out what got applied/merged
- -b BRANCH, --branch BRANCH
- The branch to check against, instead of current
- --since SINCE
- The --since option to use when auto-matching patches (default=1.week)
Example: b4 ty --auto
b4 diff¶
usage: b4 diff [-h] [-g GITDIR] [-p USEPROJECT] [-C] [-v WANTVERS [WANTVERS ...]] [-n] [-o OUTDIFF] [-c] [-m AMBOX AMBOX] [msgid]
- positional arguments:
- msgid Message ID to process, pipe a raw message, or use -m
optional arguments:
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -g GITDIR, --gitdir GITDIR
- Operate on this git tree instead of current dir
- -p USEPROJECT, --use-project USEPROJECT
- Use a specific project instead of guessing (linux-mm, linux-hardening, etc)
- -C, --no-cache
- Do not use local cache
- -v WANTVERS [WANTVERS ...], --compare-versions WANTVERS [WANTVERS ...]
- Compare specific versions instead of latest and one before that, e.g. -v 3 5
- -n, --no-diff
- Do not generate a diff, just show the command to do it
- -o OUTDIFF, --output-diff OUTDIFF
- Save diff into this file instead of outputting to stdout
- -c, --color
- Force color output even when writing to file
- -m AMBOX AMBOX, --compare-am-mboxes AMBOX AMBOX
- Compare two mbx files prepared with "b4 am"
Example: b4 diff 20200526205322.23465-1-mic@digikod.net
CONFIGURATION¶
B4 configuration is handled via git-config(1), so you can store it in either the toplevel $HOME/.gitconfig file, or in a per-repository
Default configuration, with explanations:
[b4]
# Where to look up threads by message id
midmask = https://lore.kernel.org/r/%s'
#
# When recording Link: trailers, use this mask
linkmask = https://lore.kernel.org/r/%s
#
# When processing thread trailers, sort them in this order.
# Can use shell-globbing and must end with ,*
# Some sorting orders:
#trailer-order=link*,fixes*,cc*,reported*,suggested*,original*,co-*,tested*,reviewed*,acked*,signed-off*,*
#trailer-order = fixes*,reported*,suggested*,original*,co-*,signed-off*,tested*,reviewed*,acked*,cc*,link*,*
trailer-order = _preserve_
#
# Attestation-checking configuration parameters
# off: do not bother checking attestation
# check: print an attaboy when attestation is found
# softfail: print a warning when no attestation found
# hardfail: exit with an error when no attestation found
attestation-policy = check
#
# Fall back to checking DKIM header if we don't find any other
# attestations present?
attestation-check-dkim = yes
#
# "gpg" (whatever gpg is configured to do) or "tofu" to force TOFU mode
# If you don't already have a carefully maintained web of trust setup, it is
# strongly recommended to set this to "tofu"
attestation-trust-model = gpg
#
# How strict should we be when comparing the email address in From to the
# email addresses in the key's UIDs?
# strict: must match one of the uids on the key to pass
# loose: any valid and trusted key will be accepted
attestation-uid-match = loose
#
# When showing attestation check results, do you like "fancy" (color, unicode)
# or simple checkmarks?
attestation-checkmarks = fancy
#
# How long before we consider attestation to be too old?
attestation-staleness-days = 30
#
# You can point this at a non-default home dir, if you like, or leave out to
# use the OS default.
attestation-gnupghome = None
#
# If this is not set, we'll use what we find in
# git-config for gpg.program; and if that's not set,
# we'll use "gpg" and hope for the best
gpgbin = None
#
# How long to keep downloaded threads in cache (minutes)?
cache-expire = 10
# Used when creating summaries for b4 ty, and can be set to a value like
# thanks-commit-url-mask = https://git.kernel.org/username/c/%.12s
# See this page for more info on convenient git.kernel.org shorterners:
# https://korg.wiki.kernel.org/userdoc/git-url-shorterners
thanks-commit-url-mask = None
# See thanks-pr-template.example. If not set, a default template will be used.
thanks-pr-template = None
# See thanks-am-template.example. If not set, a default template will be used.
thanks-am-template = None
SUPPORT¶
Please email tools@linux.kernel.org with support requests, or browse the list archive at https://linux.kernel.org/g/tools.
AUTHOR¶
mricon@kernel.org
License: GPLv2+
COPYRIGHT¶
The Linux Foundation and contributors
2020-11-20 | 0.6.0 |