| B4 tools |
| ======== |
| This is a helper utility to work with patches made available via a |
| public-inbox archive like lore.kernel.org. It is written to make it |
| easier to participate in a patch-based workflows, like those used in |
| the Linux kernel development. |
| |
| The name "b4" was chosen for ease of typing and because B-4 was the |
| precursor to Lore and Data in the Star Trek universe. |
| |
| See man/b4.5.rst for more information. |
| |
| Installing |
| ---------- |
| To install from pypi:: |
| |
| python3 -m pip install --user b4 |
| |
| Upgrading |
| --------- |
| If you previously installed from pypi:: |
| |
| python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade b4 |
| |
| Running from the checkout dir |
| ----------------------------- |
| If you want to run from the checkout dir without installing the python |
| package, you can use the included ``b4.sh`` wrapper. You can set it as |
| an alias in your .bash_profile:: |
| |
| alias b4="$HOME/path/to/b4/b4.sh" |
| |
| Setting up a symlink should also be possible. Remember to run the |
| following command after the initial clone in order to pull in the |
| dependencies that are tracked via submodules:: |
| |
| git submodule update --init |
| |
| Patch attestation |
| ----------------- |
| B4 implements two attestation verification mechanisms: |
| |
| - DKIM attestation using the dkimpy library |
| - X-Developer-Signature attestation using the patatt library |
| |
| If you installed from pip, you should have pulled both of these |
| dependencies in automatically. Alternatively, you can install dkimpy |
| from your OS packaging and then run "git submodule update --init" to |
| clone patatt as a submodule of b4. |
| |
| For attesting your outgoing patches, see patatt documentation. |
| https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/patatt/patatt.git/about/ |
| |
| Display attestation results on received patches |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| There are four attestation verification modes in b4: |
| |
| - off |
| - check |
| - softfail (default) |
| - hardfail |
| |
| The "check" policy is look for any available attestation and try to |
| verify it. If verification fails, b4 will not output any errors, but |
| will not show verification checkmarks either. |
| |
| In the "softfail" mode, any verification errors will be prominently |
| displayed, but b4 will still produce the resulting file with patches. |
| |
| The "hardfail" mode will show verification errors and exit without |
| generating the .mbx file with patches. |
| |
| You can set the preferred policy via the git configuration file:: |
| |
| [b4] |
| attestation-policy = hardfail |
| |
| Support |
| ------- |
| For support or with any other questions, please email |
| tools@linux.kernel.org, or browse the list archive at |
| https://lore.kernel.org/tools. |
