Wolfram Sang wrote:
you could, instead of only checking for the author, also try to check for the maximum amount of patches. If you find patch [Patch 1/7], I assume you currently wait for all 7 patches. Now if a patch 1/3 comes in between, you'll see that the maximum is different, in this case 3, so you'll know that it's a different patch-set.
I thought about that, but the drawback is that a new patch set is started if the submitter mistypes the maximum (e.g. [1/4], [2/4], [3/5], [4/4]). In that case we end up with two incomplete sets.
This should be a pretty rare case given that most people will use some generators like 'git format-patch' or 'quilt' for their patch-series.
People do use those tools and then change their mind. One can see regularly patches like [5/4] or people drop a patch from the series, etc.
I'd say if such an error ever occurs, the series could be manually fixed/resent. That way, you don't need to code some UI and the authors who have not done a mistake won't need to take an extra step.
That isn't very user friendly and at least for the beginning the tool needs to cope with the established and accepted workflow. Once the tool gets part of the patch submission process stuff can be made more strict if it is deemed necessary.
bye michael