Distinguishing code-generated files during review

[Paul Jolly]

Hi all,

Apologies if this has come up before. My searches for various combinations of terms didn't through up a specific enough search for me to find a previous conversation if it does exist.

In the CUE project (https://cuelang.org/) we have lots of code generated files. We review almost all of our code via the excellent GerritHub. 

Some changes contain changes to (lots of) code generated files.

All of our code generated files have a signalling comment (header), similar to that prescribed by https://golang.org/s/generatedcode. For Go code that is a comment matching the regular expression:

^// Code generated .* DO NOT EDIT\.$

In situations (like JSON files) where this is not possible, we have used .gitattributes to signal to tools like GitHub that a file is generated.

One thing I've found myself wanting is a way of distinguishing, at a glance, whether a file I am reviewing as part of a change is code generated or not. Such a visual cue (no pun intended) would help me to more quickly skim/skip over that file. 

Is there such a thing within Gerrit? 

(We are agnostic on whether such a system is driven by a comment/similar within a file, the file name, or .gitattributes specification)

Thanks,

Paul

[Nasser Grainawi]

On Wed, Aug 2, 2023 at 10:01 AM Paul Jolly <pa...@myitcv.org.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

Apologies if this has come up before. My searches for various combinations of terms didn't through up a specific enough search for me to find a previous conversation if it does exist.

In the CUE project (https://cuelang.org/) we have lots of code generated files. We review almost all of our code via the excellent GerritHub. 

Some changes contain changes to (lots of) code generated files.

All of our code generated files have a signalling comment (header), similar to that prescribed by https://golang.org/s/generatedcode. For Go code that is a comment matching the regular expression:

^// Code generated .* DO NOT EDIT\.$

In situations (like JSON files) where this is not possible, we have used .gitattributes to signal to tools like GitHub that a file is generated.

What do you use in .gitattributes to do this? I think that's the most likely path for adding support for something like this in Gerrit.

 

One thing I've found myself wanting is a way of distinguishing, at a glance, whether a file I am reviewing as part of a change is code generated or not. Such a visual cue (no pun intended) would help me to more quickly skim/skip over that file. 

Is there such a thing within Gerrit? 

(We are agnostic on whether such a system is driven by a comment/similar within a file, the file name, or .gitattributes specification)

Thanks,

Paul

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[Paul Jolly]

>> In situations (like JSON files) where this is not possible, we have used .gitattributes to signal to tools like GitHub that a file is generated.
>
> What do you use in .gitattributes to do this? I think that's the most likely path for adding support for something like this in Gerrit.

The GitHub method uses .gitattributes. There docs are fairly limited:

https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/working-with-files/managing-files/customizing-how-changed-files-appear-on-github

An example of that in action:

https://github.com/cue-lang/cuelang.org/blob/master/.gitattributes

Thanks