A tool to work with public-inbox and patch archives
Project description
- Date:
- 2020-04-10
- Copyright:
- The Linux Foundation and contributors
- License:
GPLv2+
- Version:
- 0.4.1
- Manual section:
5
SYNOPSIS
b4 {mbox,am,attest,pr,ty} [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 attest: (EXPERIMENTAL) Submit cryptographic attestation for patches
b4 pr: (EXPERIMENTAL) Work with pull requests
b4 ty: (EXPERIMENTAL) Create templated replies for processed patches and pull requests
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
- -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
- -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-)
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
Use a custom From field
- -n, --no-submit
Do not submit attestation, just save the message ready to send
- -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
Save attestation message in this file if not submitting it
Example: b4 attest -n -o output/xxxx-attestation.patch 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
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 .git/config file if your workflow changes per project.
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, use this order. Can use shell-globbing # and must end with ,* # Common alternative order: #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*,* # # 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 # # "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/%.10s # 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.
Project details
Release history Release notifications | RSS feed
Download files
Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.