Re: Pseudonymous commits

From: Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu>
Date: Mar 25, 2010, 04:39 UTC
Message-ID: <4BA51E6B-7325-465A-B23E-7F3C5BF87700@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <4BAADF34.3080806@gmail.com>

On Mar 24, 2010, at 11:57 PM, Mike.lifeguard wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> 
> Git gives attribution by a "name" and an "email" - however several
> contributors I work with are uncomfortable giving that information. I
> can easily use a pseudonym (I do so for myself), but is there any way to
> not have an email? Or shall I just use "not@real.email"?

Most projects want some kind of way of communicator with their contributors; and some kind of accountability with their contributors.  Otherwise, how do you know whether said contributor isn't a Chinese intelligence agent trying to insert a backdoor into your program by submitting change using techniques demonstrated by the Underhanded C contest[1]?  :-)

[1] http://underhanded.xcott.com/

Of course, someone can easily claim any random name, and it's not hard to get a mail account; you could pick a random name like "Mike Lifeguard", and get a gmail account, for example.  :-)   On the Internet, no one knows whether you are a dog.  (Or a Chinese secret agent.  :-)

But if someone isn't willing to give even an e-mail address, I would think even the most lax project would probably want to think twice about whether to accept patches from this contributor....

-- Ted