patch2pr

Create GitHub pull requests from Git patches without cloning the repository.

Why?

As a command line tool, it's mostly a curiosity and test for the library, but might have some use for exceptionally large repositories or in environments where cloning is not feasible.

As a library, however, it enables tools to make automated code changes without giving every part of system write access or requiring extra logic for managing clones. One part of the system can generate a patch and send it to another part that uses this library to apply it and create a pull request.

Usage: CLI

Pre-built binaries for common platforms are available on the releases page.

You can also install from source using go install:

go install github.com/bluekeyes/patch2pr/cmd/patch2pr@latest

The CLI takes a path to a patch file as the only argument or reads a patch from stdin if no file is given.

The other required arguments are:

• The -repository flag to specify the repository in owner/name format
• A GitHub token, set with the -token flag or in the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.
  • Classic tokens must have repo scope
  • Fine-grained tokens must have read and write access to administration (for creating forks), contents (for committing changes), and pull requests

For example:

$ export GITHUB_TOKEN="token"
$ patch2pr -repository bluekeyes/patch2pr /path/to/file.patch

See the CLI help (-h or -help) or below for full details.

Full Usage

Usage: patch2pr [options] [patch...]

  Create a GitHub pull request from a patch file

  This command parses one or more patches, applies them, and creates a pull
  request with the result. It does not clone the repository. If no patch files
  are given, the command reads the patches from standard input. Each file can
  contain a single patch or multiple patches in the mbox format produced by 'git
  format-patch --stdout' or GitHub's patch view.

  By default, patch2pr uses the patch header for author and committer
  information, falling back to the authenticated GitHub user if the headers are
  missing or invalid. Callers can override these values using the standard Git
  environment variables:

    GIT_AUTHOR_NAME
    GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL
    GIT_AUTHOR_DATE
    GIT_COMMITTER_NAME
    GIT_COMMITER_EMAIL
    GIT_COMMITER_DATE

  Override the commit message by using the -message flag.

  With the -fork and -fork-repository flags, the command can submit the pull
  request from a fork repository. If an existing fork does not exist, the
  command creates a new fork, which may take up to five minutes.

Options:

  -base-branch=branch    The branch to target with the pull request. If unset,
                         use the repository's default branch.

  -draft                 Create a draft pull request.

  -force                 Update the head branch even if it exists and is not a
                         fast-forward.

  -fork                  Submit the pull request from a fork instead of pushing
                         directly to the repository. With no other flags, use a
                         fork in the current account with the same name as the
                         target repository, creating the fork if it does not exist.

  -fork-repository=repo  Submit the pull request from the named fork instead of
                         pushing directly to the repository, creating the fork
                         if it does not exist. Implies the -fork flag.

  -head-branch=branch    The branch to create or update with the new commit. If
                         unset, use 'patch2pr'.

  -json                  Output information about the new commit and pull request
                         in JSON format.

  -message=message       Message for the commit. Overrides the patch header.

  -no-pull-request       Do not create a pull request after creating a commit.

  -patch-base=base       Base commit to apply the patch to. Can be a SHA1, a
                         branch, or a tag. Branches and tags must start with
                         'refs/heads/' or 'refs/tags/' respectively. If unset,
                         use the repository's default branch.

  -pull-body=body        The body for the pull request. If unset, use the body of
                         the commit message.

  -pull-title=title      The title for the pull request. If unset, use the title
                         of the commit message.

  -repository=repo       Repository to apply the patch to in 'owner/name' format.
                         Required.

  -token=token           GitHub API token with 'repo' scope for authentication.
                         If unset, use the value of the GITHUB_TOKEN environment
                         variable.

  -url=url               GitHub API URL. If unset, use https://api.github.com.

  -v/-version            Print the version and exit.

Usage: Library

The CLI is built on the patch2pr library, which can be used to build other tools that apply patches directly to GitHub. See the documentation for full details.

The library uses google/go-github to interact with GitHub and exposes types from that package in the API.

Stability

Beta. The library is used in a production application that applies thousands of patches every day, but the interface for both the CLI and the library may change.

While the underlying patch library (bluekeyes/go-gitdiff) has good test coverage and real-world usage, the space of all possible patches is large, so there are likely undiscovered bugs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If reporting an issue with applying a patch, please include the patch file and the base commit or file content if possible. A link to a public repository is most helpful.

At this time, I don't intend to support services other than GitHub. If you'd like support for another service, please file an issue with a link to the relevant API documentation so I can estimate the work involved in adding the necessary abstractions.

License

MIT