patchbin

A pastebin for patches, supercharged for git collaboration.

Contributions are designed to be anonymous: the quality of your work is what matters. No signup required, just connect with an SSH key.

The target project doesn't need to run patchbin for someone to submit a patch request against it. It works like a pull request, except both sides collaborate by sending rounds of patchsets: a contributor sends patches, a reviewer replies with their own patches on top, back and forth, as commits rather than comments. The result is a collaborative workspace built entirely out of patches. Reviewing means pulling the code down, not clicking through a diff viewer. Issues work the same way: an issue is just a patch request without any code attached yet, and anyone can follow up with a real patch request on top of it.

There's no accept or reject step. A patch request is simply active or inactive: active ones go inactive after 30 days without activity. When a reviewer is happy with the code, they pull it, merge it, and push upstream themselves; there's nothing to manage here beyond that.

quickstart

Submit a patch request (starts as a draft, visible only to you):

git format-patch main --stdout | ssh {url} pr create {repo}

Open it so others can see it (also enables RSS notifications):

ssh {url} pr open {prID}

Checkout the latest patchset from a patch request:

ssh {url} print pr-{prID} | git am -3

Add a follow-up patchset (e.g. after addressing review comments):

git format-patch main --stdout | ssh {url} pr add {prID}

Help guide:

ssh {url} help

commands

pr - manage patch requests

• pr create {repo} - submit a new PR from stdin (starts as draft)

  git format-patch main --stdout | ssh {url} pr create {repo}
  

• pr add {prID} - add a new patchset to an existing PR from stdin

  git format-patch main --stdout | ssh {url} pr add {prID}
  

• pr open {prID} [--comment] - transition draft open, enables RSS notifications

  ssh {url} pr open {prID}
  

• pr draft {prID} [--comment] - transition open draft, disables RSS notifications

  ssh {url} pr draft {prID}
  

• pr edit {prID} {title} - rename a PR

  ssh {url} pr edit {prID} "new title"
  

• pr summary {prID} - show metadata, patchsets, and patches for a PR

  ssh {url} pr summary {prID}
  

• pr ls [repo] [--draft|--open|--active|--inactive|--mine] - list PRs

  ssh {url} pr ls {repo} --open
  

issue - text-only patch requests

• issue create {repo} [--title] - submit a new issue from stdin (starts as open)

  echo "steps to reproduce..." | ssh {url} issue create {repo} --title "bug: crash on startup"
  

ps - manage patchsets

• ps rm {patchsetID} - remove a patchset and its patches (creator only)

  ssh {url} ps rm ps-{patchsetID}
  

print - print patches for checkout

• print pr-{prID} - print the latest patchset for a PR

  ssh {url} print pr-{prID} | git am -3
  

• print ps-{patchsetID} - print a specific patchset

  ssh {url} print ps-{patchsetID} | git am -3
  

logs - event history

• logs [--pr ID] [--pubkey] - list event logs, optionally filtered to a PR or your own activity

  ssh {url} logs --pr {prID}
  

self-hosting

patchbin needs a patchbin.toml config file and a data directory (for the sqlite db and SSH host keys).

Copy or create a patchbin.toml file inside a ./data directory:

mkdir -p data
cp patchbin.toml ./data/patchbin.toml
vim ./data/patchbin.toml

docker-compose

The included docker-compose.yml pulls the published image and mounts a local data directory:

services:
  patchbin:
    image: ghcr.io/picosh/pico/patchbin:latest
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ./data/patchbin/data:/app/data

Place patchbin.toml inside ./data/patchbin/data, then run:

docker compose up -d

docker image

Run the image directly, mounting your data directory to /app/data:

docker run -d -v ./data:/app/data ghcr.io/picosh/pico/patchbin:latest

patchbin.toml must live inside the mounted ./data directory, since that's the default config path the binary looks for.

from go source

Clone the repo, then build and run the binary:

make build
./build/patchbin --config ./data/patchbin.toml

Or without the Makefile:

go build -o ./build/patchbin ./cmd/patchbin
./build/patchbin --config ./data/patchbin.toml

done

Access the SSH app:

ssh -p 2222 localhost help

Access the web app:

curl localhost:3000