Improved documentation for the ciabot scripts.

Signed-off-by: Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

2 files changed, 50 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/contrib/ciabot/INSTALL b/contrib/ciabot/INSTALL
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8253865d22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/ciabot/INSTALL
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+= Installation instructions =
+
+Two scripts are included.  The Python one (ciabot.py) is faster and
+more capable; the shell one (ciabot.sh) is a fallback in case Python
+gives your git hosting site indigestion. (I know of no such sites.)
+
+It is no longer necessary to modify the script in order to put it
+in place; in fact, this is now discouraged. It is entirely
+configurable with the following git config variables:
+
+ciabot.project = name of the project (required)
+ciabot.repo = name of the project repo for gitweb/cgit purposes
+ciabot.xmlrpc  = if true (default), ship notifications via XML-RPC
+ciabot.revformat = format in which the revision is shown
+
+The ciabot.repo value defaults to ciabot.project lowercased.
+
+The revformat variable may have the following values
+raw -> full hex ID of commit
+short -> first 12 chars of hex ID
+describe -> describe relative to last tag, falling back to short
+The default is 'describe'.
+
+Once you've set these variables, try your script with -n to see the
+notification message dumped to stdout and verify that it looks sane.
+
+After verifying correct function, install one of these scripts either
+in a post-commit hook or in an update hook.
+
+In post-commit, run it without arguments. It will query for
+current HEAD and the latest commit ID to get the information it
+needs.
+
+In update, call it with a refname followed by a list of commits:
+You want to reverse the order git rev-list emits because it lists
+from most recent to oldest.
+
+/path/to/ciabot.py ${refname} $(git rev-list ${oldhead}..${newhead} | tac)
diff --git a/contrib/ciabot/README b/contrib/ciabot/README
index 3b916acece..6d8b549f58 100644
--- a/contrib/ciabot/README
+++ b/contrib/ciabot/README
@@ -8,5 +8,15 @@ You probably want the Python version; it's faster, more capable, and
 better documented.  The shell version is maintained only as a fallback
 for use on hosting sites that don't permit Python hook scripts.
 
-You will find installation instructions for each script in its comment
-header.
+To test these scripts, your project needs to have been registered with
+the CIA site.  Here are the steps:
+
+1. Open an IRC window on irc://freenode/commits or your registered
+   project IRC channel.
+
+2. Run ciabot.py and/or ciabot.sh from any directory under git
+   control, using the -p option to pass in your project name.
+
+You should see a notification on the channel for your most recent commit.
+
+See the file INSTALL for installation instructions.