Re: email as a bona fide git transport

From: Greg KH
Date: Thu Oct 17 2019 - 16:43:54 EST


On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 10:45:19AM -0400, Santiago Torres Arias wrote:
> Hi Willy, Vegard.
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 01:10:09PM +0200, Willy Tarreau wrote:
> > Hi Vegard,
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 12:22:54PM +0200, Vegard Nossum wrote:
> > > (cross-posted to git, LKML, and the kernel workflows mailing lists.)
> > >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I've been following Konstantin Ryabitsev's quest for better development
> > > and communication tools for the kernel [1][2][3], and I would like to
> > > propose a relatively straightforward idea which I think could bring a
> > > lot to the table.
> > >
> > > Step 1:
> > >
> > > * git send-email needs to include parent SHA1s and generally all the
> > > information needed to perfectly recreate the commit when applied so
> > > that all the SHA1s remain the same
> > >
> > > * git am (or an alternative command) needs to recreate the commit
> > > perfectly when applied, including applying it to the correct parent
> > >
> > > Having these two will allow a perfect mapping between email and git;
> > > essentially email just becomes a transport for git. There are a lot of
> > > advantages to this, particularly that you have a stable way to refer to
> > > a patch or commit (despite it appearing on a mailing list), and there
> > > is no need for "changeset IDs" or whatever, since you can just use the
> > > git SHA1 which is unique, unambiguous, and stable.
>
> I wonder if it'd be also possible to then embed gpg signatures over
> send-mail payloads so as they can be transparently transferred to the
> commit.

That's a crazy idea. It would be nice if we could do that, I like it :)

greg k-h