On 10/20/25 11:13 PM, Ali Alnubani wrote:
Hello,
I'm sending this email to propose adding a priority field to patches
with support for
automatic priority assignment based on file paths. This would help
maintainers identify and triage patches that affect critical
subsystems/components.
Many projects have certain files or subsystems that are more critical
than
others, and currently there's no easy way to highlight
patches that modify these critical areas, which makes triage more
difficult
for maintainers.
My proposed solution is to add a priority field to the Patch model
with four categorical levels:
- Low (0)
- Normal (1) - default
- High (2)
- Critical (3)
The priority can be set manually through the UI/API, or automatically
assigned when patches are parsed based on configurable rules.
As for the implementation,
Will add a priority field to the Patch model with choices. This is
stored as an
integer but displayed as text labels in the UI.
Will create a new PriorityRule model that defines path patterns and their
associated priority levels. Similar to the existing DelegationRule model,
it includes:
- project: which project the rule applies to
- path: fnmatch-style pattern
- priority: the priority level to assign (Low/Normal/High/Critical)
- rule_priority: precedence when multiple rules match
When parsing incoming patches, will extract filenames from the diff
and match
them against the project's PriorityRule entries. If multiple rules match,
will use the one with the highest rule_priority. When a patch modifies
multiple
files that match different priority rules, the parser assigns the
highest priority
found. If no rules match, default to Normal.
This is similar to how Patchwork currently handles delegation rules,
so the
implementation can follow that pattern.
Patch list view will get a new sortable "Priority" column that
displays the
text label (Low/Normal/High/Critical). Will add a filter dropdown to
allow
filtering by priority level. Showing the new column can be optional
(opt-in)
and enabled in user profile settings. We can also implement it so that
it can
be optional per-project.
Admin interface gets an inline editor for PriorityRule on the Project
admin page, plus a standalone admin page for managing rules.
The migration will add the priority column with a default of 1
(Normal), so
existing patches are unaffected. New projects can define priority rules
as needed (optional).
Please let me know what you think,
Hello,
Wanted to follow up and check if anyone had a chance to review, or if
more details are needed.
I’m happy to clarify any points or make updates as suggested. Any
feedback, even a quick thumbs up or concerns, would be really appreciated.
Thanks for your time and for maintaining this project!
Regards,
Ali
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