spectral/README.md

# spectral

A monolithic kernel work wrapper, to make it easy.

> **Status: scaffold.** The command surface parses, every verb is wired
> through `main` to its module, and the paths resolve — but the bodies are
> `todo!()`. Twenty of them. Nothing builds a kernel, boots qemu, scrapes
> bugzilla, or sends mail yet. What exists is the shape of the thing and the
> seams to fill in, which is exactly what the *Where to pitch in* section
> below is for.

## Why

The kernel patch lifecycle is a dozen commands you retype every time. Find
something to fix, write it, run checkpatch, run it again after `--fix`,
commit with the right trailer, build, boot it under qemu, diff against
master, work out who the maintainers are for those files, send. Then a week
later do it all again as v2, remembering to thread it off the original.

None of those steps are hard. They are just easy to get subtly wrong, and
the subtle mistakes — a missing `Signed-off-by`, a v2 that doesn't thread,
a missing CC — are the ones that get a patch ignored rather than reviewed.

spectral is a thin wrapper over that loop. It is deliberately *thin*: every
verb shells out to a tool you already have and already trust.

## What it wraps

Nothing here reimplements kernel tooling, and nothing vendors it:

| spectral | actually runs |
|---|---|
| `patch check` / `patch format` | `scripts/checkpatch.pl` **from your tree** |
| `patch commit` | `git commit` |
| `patch create` | `git diff <base>` |
| `patch submit` | `scripts/get_maintainer.pl` **from your tree**, then `git send-email` |
| `kernel test` | `make`, then `qemu-system-x86_64` |
| `kernel quest` | HTTP against `bugzilla.kernel.org` |

The two scripts are called out because it matters: they come from the tree
you are working in, so spectral cannot have a stale copy of the kernel's own
style rules or maintainer map. Upgrade your tree, get the new rules.

And because it is thin, you can always drop the wrapper. `patch submit
--dry-run` prints the recipients and the exact `git send-email` command line
instead of sending, so you can check the plumbing or just run it yourself.

## The loop

What the finished tool should feel like — none of this runs yet:

```console
$ spectral kernel quest
12345 usb: xhci: device does not enumerate after resume
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12345

# ... go and fix it, in the tree ...

$ spectral patch check
$ spectral patch format          # checkpatch --fix, then check again
$ spectral patch commit "usb: xhci: re-arm the port after resume" --signoff
$ spectral kernel test           # build, then boot it under qemu
$ spectral patch create 000-xhci-port-rearm
~/.spectral/patches/000-xhci-port-rearm.patch

$ spectral patch submit 000-xhci-port-rearm.patch --dry-run
# happy? drop --dry-run and it goes out

# ... wait for review ...

$ spectral patch update 000-xhci-port-rearm.patch -v 2
~/.spectral/patches/v2-000-xhci-port-rearm.patch
$ spectral patch submit v2-000-xhci-port-rearm.patch --in-reply-to '<msg-id-of-v1>'
```

One deviation from the obvious design: `patch update` is a single subcommand
taking `-v N` rather than a generated `update-v2` / `update-v3`. clap
subcommands are static, and a flag beats a subcommand you cannot tab-complete.
Leave `-v` off and it infers the next revision from the file's current `vN-`
prefix.

## Install

Needs a recent stable Rust — edition 2024, so **1.85 or newer**; developed
against 1.98.1.

```console
$ git clone https://git.spectoria.dev/huntedbytheirs/spectral.git
$ cd spectral
$ cargo build --release
$ install -Dm755 target/release/spectral ~/.local/bin/spectral
```

Not on crates.io, so `cargo install spectral` will get you something else.
`cargo install --path .` from a clone works too.

Beyond Rust you want:

- **a kernel tree** — for `scripts/checkpatch.pl` and
  `scripts/get_maintainer.pl`. Both ship with the kernel; spectral does not
  carry its own.
- **git with `send-email` configured** — `git send-email` must work from a
  plain shell first. If it does not, `patch submit` cannot make it work, and
  is not meant to.
- **qemu** — `qemu-system-x86_64` on `$PATH`, for `kernel test`.

## Configuration

There is no config file yet. Two paths matter, and both come from the
environment with `$HOME`-relative defaults:

| what | resolution |
|---|---|
| kernel tree | `$SPECTRAL_KERNEL`, else `~/.spectral/linux` |
| patch dir | `~/.spectral/patches` |

```console
$ export SPECTRAL_KERNEL=$HOME/src/linux
```

A tree is accepted only if it has `scripts/checkpatch.pl`; otherwise you get
`not a kernel source tree` rather than a confusing failure three steps later.
A missing tree reports the path and the variable that would have set it. The
tree is not required for `kernel quest`, which only needs the network.

`~/.config/spectral/config.toml` and a `spectral init` to clone the tree are
planned, not built — `src/config.rs` is the only file that will have to change
for either.

## Commands

```console
$ spectral --help
A monolithic kernel work wrapper to make it easy.

Usage: spectral <COMMAND>

Commands:
  kernel  Find work, build it, boot it
  patch   Carry a change from working tree to mailing list
  help    Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
```

`spectral kernel quest` · `kernel test`

`spectral patch check` · `format` · `commit` · `create` · `submit` · `update`

Every one of them has `--help` that says more than this README does — and,
for now, a body that panics with a description of what it is supposed to do.

## Where to pitch in

Every stub is a small, self-contained function with its signature and doc
comment already written, its caller already wired, and a `todo!()` naming the
command it should run. Pick one and the blast radius is that file. No stub
needs you to have read the rest of the crate.

Roughly in order of how much they unblock:

**`patch submit` — the most self-contained win.** Needs a kernel tree but no
network and no scraper.

- `patch/maintainers.rs` · `lookup` — run `get_maintainer.pl --git` over the
  patch, split the output into `To:` and `Cc:`, and collect the files the
  patch touches
- `patch/maintainers.rs` · `add_cc` — fold `--cc` flags in without duplicates
- `patch/mod.rs` · `submit` — the above plus `git send-email`, with
  `--dry-run` stopping one step short

**`patch check` / `format` / `commit` / `create` — the everyday verbs.**
`patch/checkpatch.rs` · `run` already defines the `Target` enum (working
tree, a revision, or a patch file) and `Report` with an `is_clean`, so what
is missing is the process call and parsing the error/warning counts out of
its output.

**`patch update` — small, and worth doing with a test.** `patch/mod.rs` ·
`reroll_path` is the naming rule in one pure function: strip one leading
`vN-`, prepend `v<revision>-`. Re-running it at the same revision should be a
no-op, which is easier to assert than to describe.

**`kernel quest` — the fun one, if you like HTML.** `kernel/quest.rs` ·
`Bugzilla::fetch_open` is the only place `reqwest` and `scraper` earn their
place in `Cargo.toml`; `run` then applies `--filter` and picks one. The
`QuestSource` trait is the seam for swapping bugzilla for syzbot or a lore
thread later.

**`kernel test` — needs a machine you are willing to boot kernels on.**
`kernel/qemu.rs` · `build` then `boot`. Streaming serial output as it arrives
beats buffering it until qemu exits, which is what makes a boot hang
diagnosable.

**`git.rs` — the four plumbing calls.** `current_branch`, `diff_against`,
`commit`, `rev_parse`, each a few lines over the `run` that is already
written. Take these if you want to warm up on something tiny.

There are no tests yet. The naming rule in `reroll_path` and the recipient
split in `lookup` are the two that most want one.

## Development

```console
$ cargo fmt --all
$ cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
$ cargo test
```

All three are clean on `main` and are the bar for a change.

A few conventions, in the spirit of keeping the crate reviewable:

- `src/cli.rs` holds the whole command surface. It is one file on purpose —
  the CLI is the specification, and reading it top to bottom should tell you
  what the tool does.
- Command modules return what they produced; `main` prints it. Output policy,
  formatting and all, lives in one place.
- Errors go through the one `Error` enum and `?`. The command paths have no
  `unwrap`.
- A new stub gets a `todo!()` that names the command it will end up running.
  If a whole module is unreachable until its caller exists, it carries a
  single `#[allow(dead_code)]` with the reason attached — there are no
  crate-wide allows, so the warnings come back as the stubs get filled in.
- No `unsafe`, no FFI.

## License

MIT — see `LICENSE`, © 2026 huntedbytheirs.