Format for JDK 6/7 changeset comments?

[Mark Reinhold]

> Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:25:52 -0800
> From: kelly.ohair at sun.com

> I'm ok with this, a few minor questions:
> 
>    - Is a bugid any decimal integer, or is it a 7 digit number?

Seven digits, pointing into Sun's bug database, for now.

>    - Will we check the bugid to make sure it's a valid bugid?

That requires doing a bug-database query which can, with the current
system anyway, be kind of slow, and impossible if you're not connected.
(We want the hg script that implements these checks to be usable by any
developer creating changesets, so that changesets can be validated
locally before being pushed up to group integration forests.)

We could do this check just on the hg server side, or just when the
machine running the check is actually connected.  We could also, in the
longer term, play various caching tricks to speed up the query.

If we did do such a check it'd have limited value.  It could only verify
that the bugid is associated with the appropriate release, which is worth
something I suppose but not as thorough a check as one might like, given
the cost.

So at the moment I'm leaning against checking bugids mechanically.

>    - Does the synopsis have to match the synopsis in the bugtraq system?

It should, but I don't think it's worth checking mechanically.

>    - How picky will we be on leading spaces on the line, or around the ':' character?

Picky.

>    - Can the Summary line be any length?

Hmm, good question.  I suppose we could limit it to prevent mistakes or
abuse.  80 characters?  200?  Or allow some number of continuation lines,
as in e-mail headers, that start with whitespace?  (That might be more
readable.)

>    - Should the reviewer name also be required to not be the changeset author?

Yep.

>    - Are multiple reviewer names blank or comma separated?

Comma separated, just as in e-mail messages.

>    - Any strict rules on the contributor email line? Company names ok?

Valid RFC-822 e-mail address for the contributor, which must be a
specific individual.

>    - Are tab characters allowed? ;^)

Heck no!  (I'm shocked that you, of all people, would even ask.)

- Mark