X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Dirk Bergstrom]

after much testing and digging around the sources, it appears to me that gnats more or less ignores both the X-GNATS-Notify: and Cc: headers of a PR when sending out state-change messages (the "audit-mail" mail-format).

gnatsweb happily populates and reads XGN & Cc headers, leading one to believe that they are useful, but no matter how i mess around in dbconfig, i can't get gnats to generate mail to the addresses in the Cc or XGN headers.

i've tried adding "cc", "x-gnats-notify", "headers[cc]", "$MailCC", and a couple other things to the to-addresses list in the audit-mail mail-format, with no luck.  i dug thru the sources, and found the code that generates headers, but i haven't been able to decipher the twisty maze of structs, enums and subroutine calls that are used to grab email addresses.   from this (mail.h):

/* These addresses are always mapped through the responsible adm
   file.  */
struct mail_address
{
  /* A fixed name.  */
  char *fixedAddress;
  /* A list of addresses to try--each one is tried in turn until a
     non-empty one is found. */
  FieldList addresses;
};

it looks like the source for mail addresses are all gnats fields, and not headers (or "fixed-address" values from the dbconfig file).  actually, they can also be parameters (like "$EditUserEmailAddr"), but there are a limited set of those, and they don't include cc or xgn.

i vaguely remember reading somewhere that X-GNATS-Notify was deprecated, or just plain didn't work, but i can't find such a thing now.  i've searched the manpages, the *.texi files, and the changelogs, and i can't find any mention of them in 4.0.

so, does anyone know what the deal is with these headers?  if they are unsupported, we should either support them in gnats, or remove them from gnatsweb.  if they are supported, somebody needs to tell me how to get at them in a meaningful way.

thanks.

--
Dirk Bergstrom               dirk@juniper.net
_____________________________________________
Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
Tel: 707.433.0564           Fax: 707.433.0769

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Re: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Paul Traina]

[Disclaimer: My memory on this issue is very stale]

I seem to recall that they were deprecated in the 3.X timeframe because they
never quite worked right, and we didn't have a great desire to fix them for
4.0.  It isn't *hard* to add these headers in as keyworded values, but I
seem to recall that we had some debate on the validation of said headers.

That said, what are you trying to do?  There may be other better ways to
skin this cat.


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X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Dirk Bergstrom]

after much testing and digging around the sources, it appears to me that gnats more or less ignores both the X-GNATS-Notify: and Cc: headers of a PR when sending out state-change messages (the "audit-mail" mail-format).

gnatsweb happily populates and reads XGN & Cc headers, leading one to believe that they are useful, but no matter how i mess around in dbconfig, i can't get gnats to generate mail to the addresses in the Cc or XGN headers.

i've tried adding "cc", "x-gnats-notify", "headers[cc]", "$MailCC", and a couple other things to the to-addresses list in the audit-mail mail-format, with no luck.  i dug thru the sources, and found the code that generates headers, but i haven't been able to decipher the twisty maze of structs, enums and subroutine calls that are used to grab email addresses.   from this (mail.h):

/* These addresses are always mapped through the responsible adm
   file.  */
struct mail_address
{
  /* A fixed name.  */
  char *fixedAddress;
  /* A list of addresses to try--each one is tried in turn until a
     non-empty one is found. */
  FieldList addresses;
};

it looks like the source for mail addresses are all gnats fields, and not headers (or "fixed-address" values from the dbconfig file).  actually, they can also be parameters (like "$EditUserEmailAddr"), but there are a limited set of those, and they don't include cc or xgn.

i vaguely remember reading somewhere that X-GNATS-Notify was deprecated, or just plain didn't work, but i can't find such a thing now.  i've searched the manpages, the *.texi files, and the changelogs, and i can't find any mention of them in 4.0.

so, does anyone know what the deal is with these headers?  if they are unsupported, we should either support them in gnats, or remove them from gnatsweb.  if they are supported, somebody needs to tell me how to get at them in a meaningful way.

thanks.

--
Dirk Bergstrom               dirk@juniper.net
_____________________________________________
Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
Tel: 707.433.0564           Fax: 707.433.0769

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Help-gnats@gnu.org
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Re: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Paul Traina]

[Disclaimer: My memory on this issue is very stale]

I seem to recall that they were deprecated in the 3.X timeframe because they
never quite worked right, and we didn't have a great desire to fix them for
4.0.  It isn't *hard* to add these headers in as keyworded values, but I
seem to recall that we had some debate on the validation of said headers.

That said, what are you trying to do?  There may be other better ways to
skin this cat.


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Re: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Lars Henriksen]

On Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 02:44:26PM -0800, Dirk Bergstrom wrote:
> i propose:
> 
> *) in place of x-gnats-notify, add a field to the standard dbconfig called "CC-On-Change-List" (or something like that).
> *) change the audit-mail format thusly:
>     header {
> -	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\n"
> +	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\nCc: %s\n"
> -	fields { "Category" "Number" }
> +	fields { "Category" "Number" "CC-On-Change-List" }
>     }
> *) remove the Cc: and X-GNATS-Notify headers from send-pr, and remove the [-c|--cc] option.
> *) remove the code supporting XGN/CC from gnatsweb.
> 
> this will give us most of the same functionality, without a bunch of bag-on-the-side support for random headers.  it also gives users the choice of whether or not to have a CC functionality.
> 
> what do y'all think?

Sorry for the slow reaction. This is a good idea. I have noticed that you (?)
have removed X-GNATS-Notify from gnatsweb.pl in the current CVS version. I have
tested your suggestion of introducing a new field in dbconfig and it works out
fine.

One suggestion though. Instead of tagging a Cc: header onto Subject:, I have
simply added the new field (Notify-List in my case) to to-addresses in the
audit-mail format:

   to-addresses {
	"Notify-List"
	"Responsible"
	"$OldResponsible"
	"Category[notify]"
	"Submitter-Id[contact]"
	"$EditUserEmailAddr"
	"Reply-To:" | "From:" | "From"
   }

By the way, there are still two X-GNATS-Notify occurrences left in gnatsweb.pl,
so the mail header is still present in PRs. Is that on purpose?

Lars Henriksen

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Re: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "DB" == Dirk Bergstrom <dirk@juniper.net> writes:

    DB> i propose:

    DB> *) in place of x-gnats-notify, add a field to the standard dbconfig called
    DB> "CC-On-Change-List" (or something like that).

    DB> *) change the audit-mail format thusly:
    DB>     header {
    DB> -	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\n"
    DB> +	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\nCc: %s\n"
    DB> -	fields { "Category" "Number" }
    DB> +	fields { "Category" "Number" "CC-On-Change-List" }
    DB>     }
    DB> *) remove the Cc: and X-GNATS-Notify headers from send-pr, and remove the
    DB> [-c|--cc] option.

    DB> *) remove the code supporting XGN/CC from gnatsweb.

    DB> this will give us most of the same functionality, without a
    DB> bunch of bag-on-the-side support for random headers.  it also
    DB> gives users the choice of whether or not to have a CC
    DB> functionality.

    DB> what do y'all think?

I think it's basically a good idea.  One thing to be considered is what
to do if you want to echo anything related to the PR, not only
Audit-Trail changes, somewhere, see also PR gnats/143.

BTW, I'm not going to introduce any new functionality until 4.0 is
released (unless it's so important that its absence can be considered a
serious bug), so any change requests should be filed as such into the
bug tracking systems, otherwise they can be forgotten.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
real programmer?  don't get me started.  if you need to hide your
pathetic excuse for a carreer behind super-macho languages like C, C++,
and/or Perl instead of writing clean, maintainable, efficient code, you
aren't much of a real programmer in my view.  -- Erik Naggum in comp.emacs

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RE: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Dirk Bergstrom]

> I seem to recall that they were deprecated in the 3.X 
> timeframe because they
> never quite worked right, and we didn't have a great desire 
> to fix them for 4.0.

ahh, that's what i'd suspected.  if only i could remember *where* i came across the idea...

> That said, what are you trying to do?  There may be other 
> better ways to skin this cat.

i was trying to figure out why the "CC these people on PR status email:" field in gnatsweb didn't work.  the answer is "because it's not connected to anything on the back end".

so now the question becomes "should we yank this pseudo-field out of gnatsweb, or add code to gnats?"  my preference would be to whack it out of gnatsweb -- it's a hell of a lot simpler to *remove* code w/o creating bugs than it is to add it.

i propose:

*) in place of x-gnats-notify, add a field to the standard dbconfig called "CC-On-Change-List" (or something like that).
*) change the audit-mail format thusly:
    header {
-	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\n"
+	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\nCc: %s\n"
-	fields { "Category" "Number" }
+	fields { "Category" "Number" "CC-On-Change-List" }
    }
*) remove the Cc: and X-GNATS-Notify headers from send-pr, and remove the [-c|--cc] option.
*) remove the code supporting XGN/CC from gnatsweb.

this will give us most of the same functionality, without a bunch of bag-on-the-side support for random headers.  it also gives users the choice of whether or not to have a CC functionality.

what do y'all think?

--
Dirk Bergstrom               dirk@juniper.net
_____________________________________________
Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
Tel: 707.433.0564           Fax: 707.433.0769

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Help-gnats mailing list
Help-gnats@gnu.org
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Re: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "DB" == Dirk Bergstrom <dirk@juniper.net> writes:

    DB> i propose:

    DB> *) in place of x-gnats-notify, add a field to the standard dbconfig called
    DB> "CC-On-Change-List" (or something like that).

    DB> *) change the audit-mail format thusly:
    DB>     header {
    DB> -	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\n"
    DB> +	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\nCc: %s\n"
    DB> -	fields { "Category" "Number" }
    DB> +	fields { "Category" "Number" "CC-On-Change-List" }
    DB>     }
    DB> *) remove the Cc: and X-GNATS-Notify headers from send-pr, and remove the
    DB> [-c|--cc] option.

    DB> *) remove the code supporting XGN/CC from gnatsweb.

    DB> this will give us most of the same functionality, without a
    DB> bunch of bag-on-the-side support for random headers.  it also
    DB> gives users the choice of whether or not to have a CC
    DB> functionality.

    DB> what do y'all think?

I think it's basically a good idea.  One thing to be considered is what
to do if you want to echo anything related to the PR, not only
Audit-Trail changes, somewhere, see also PR gnats/143.

BTW, I'm not going to introduce any new functionality until 4.0 is
released (unless it's so important that its absence can be considered a
serious bug), so any change requests should be filed as such into the
bug tracking systems, otherwise they can be forgotten.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
real programmer?  don't get me started.  if you need to hide your
pathetic excuse for a carreer behind super-macho languages like C, C++,
and/or Perl instead of writing clean, maintainable, efficient code, you
aren't much of a real programmer in my view.  -- Erik Naggum in comp.emacs

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Help-gnats mailing list
Help-gnats@gnu.org
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RE: X-GNATS-NOTIFY & the CC list in 4.0

[Dirk Bergstrom]

> I seem to recall that they were deprecated in the 3.X 
> timeframe because they
> never quite worked right, and we didn't have a great desire 
> to fix them for 4.0.

ahh, that's what i'd suspected.  if only i could remember *where* i came across the idea...

> That said, what are you trying to do?  There may be other 
> better ways to skin this cat.

i was trying to figure out why the "CC these people on PR status email:" field in gnatsweb didn't work.  the answer is "because it's not connected to anything on the back end".

so now the question becomes "should we yank this pseudo-field out of gnatsweb, or add code to gnats?"  my preference would be to whack it out of gnatsweb -- it's a hell of a lot simpler to *remove* code w/o creating bugs than it is to add it.

i propose:

*) in place of x-gnats-notify, add a field to the standard dbconfig called "CC-On-Change-List" (or something like that).
*) change the audit-mail format thusly:
    header {
-	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\n"
+	format "Subject: Re: %s/%s\nCc: %s\n"
-	fields { "Category" "Number" }
+	fields { "Category" "Number" "CC-On-Change-List" }
    }
*) remove the Cc: and X-GNATS-Notify headers from send-pr, and remove the [-c|--cc] option.
*) remove the code supporting XGN/CC from gnatsweb.

this will give us most of the same functionality, without a bunch of bag-on-the-side support for random headers.  it also gives users the choice of whether or not to have a CC functionality.

what do y'all think?

--
Dirk Bergstrom               dirk@juniper.net
_____________________________________________
Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
Tel: 707.433.0564           Fax: 707.433.0769

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Help-gnats@gnu.org
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