I'd like to announce a project I've been working on for a while: git-series provides a tool for managing patch series with git, tracking the "history of history". git series tracks changes to the patch series over time, including rebases and other non-fast-forwarding changes. git series also tracks a cover letter for the patch series, formats the series for email, and prepares pull requests.
This makes it easier to collaborate on a patch series, distribution package, backport, or any other development process that includes rebasing or non-fast-forward development. I'm announcing this to debian-devel specifically because package maintenance tends to have this exact family of problems: maintaining a set of patches to upstream code, rebasing those patches on new upstream versions, reorganizing/refining/adding/dropping patches, having individual patches merged upstream, and backporting changes *from* upstream. I've seen git repositories for Debian packaging of software maintained many different ways, but in general, it seems non-trivial to simultaneously maintain a tree based on upstream git history while managing patches that don't go upstream right away. I hope that git-series can make Debian package maintenance easier. A patch series typically goes through multiple iterations before submission; the path from idea to RFC to [PATCHv12 1/8] includes many invocations of git rebase -i. However, while Git tracks and organizes commits quite well, it doesn't actually track changes to a patch series at all, outside of the ephemeral reflog. This makes it a challenge to collaborate on a patch series, distribution package, backport, or any other development process that includes rebasing or non-fast-forward development. Typically, tracking the evolution of a patch series over time involves moving part of the version control outside of git. You can move the patch series from git into quilt or a distribution package, and then version the patch files with git, losing the power of git's tools. Or, you can keep the patch series in git, and version it via multiple named branches; however, names like feature-v2, feature-v3-typofix, and feature-v8-rebased-4.6-alice-fix sound like filenames from corporate email, not modern version control. And either way, git doesn't track your cover letter at all. git-series tracks both a patch series and its evolution within the same git repository. git-series works entirely with existing git features, allowing git to push and pull a series to any git repository along with other branches and tags. Each time you change the patch series, whether fast-forwarding or not, you can "git series commit" a new version of the patch series, complete with commit message. You can rebase a patch series with "git series rebase -i", format it for submission with "git series format", or send a "please pull" request with "git series req". git-series knows the base of your series, so you don't need to count patches or find a commit hash to run rebase or format. If you're interested in trying git-series, see https://github.com/git-series/git-series for installation instructions and a "getting started" guide. I've also documented the internal storage format of git-series at https://github.com/git-series/git-series/blob/master/INTERNALS.md , including the details for how git-series ensures git can always reach, push, and pull a series. I'd welcome any feedback, whether on the interface and workflow, the internals and collaboration, ideas on presenting diffs of patch series, thoughts on maintaining Debian packaging with git-series, or anything else. - Josh Triplett