[darcs-users] darcs UI: send = bundle file; send --mail = mail

[Benjamin Franksen]

Eric Kow wrote:
> On 15 Aug 2012, at 09:38, Benjamin Franksen wrote:
>>> Mmm, sorry. I didn't do a very good job making the context behind this
>>> change clear.  The issue is that as things stand we don't even know if
>>> things fail. It just silently does the wrong thing
>> 
>> Well, that's bad for sure, but why not try to improve that? I can't
>> believe there is no way to find out if sending an email failed.
> 
> As I currently understand the situation, the
> default-configed-mailer-I-didn't-even-know-was-there *thinks* it
> succeeded.

Ok, I was not aware that this is the situation we face. Still, I think the 
program that was supposed to send the mail (or its botched configuration, or 
the mail provider, or the ISP) is at fault here, but not darcs.

> So I suppose we need some way of gathering extrinsic evidence
> that the send worked (and this in the context of trying to send a patch,
> not go through some kind of darcs configuration process)

I don't think this is possible, in general, in any reliable way, so I'd say 
just forget it. Darcs should check the return code of the mail-sending 
program, if it feels industrious, maybe let it check the stderr output, but 
no more.

As I wrote in another message, I am all for saving the bundle into some file 
with an auto-generated name, somewhere. Best under _darcs; my preferred UI 
would be this:

> darcs send
#...the usual ask which patches to include
#...ask if user wants to edit the description
#...ask for user's email if not configured
#...finally say:
Saving patch bundle to _darcs/sent/xyz_blabla_patch_name.dpatch
Sending to whoever at whatever.host...done

or, if sendmail indicates an error,

Sending to whoever at whatever.host...failed:
#...display captured sendmail stderr here...
-- 
Ben Franksen
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