Re: [PATCH] Fix random fast-import errors when compiled with NO_MMAP

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 18, 2008, 10:57 UTC
Message-ID: <7v8x2nflkj.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20080118094553.GB22052@hashpling.org>

Charles Bailey <charles@hashpling.org> writes:

> Sorry, I thought that Acked-by was an acceptable tag for people not
> involved in the development path of a patch.  I don't want to add a
> "Tested-by" as I am not a fast-import user and I am *only* reporting
> the success of the test suite, not any real-world testing.

It still counts as "Tested-by:". Earlier you saw breakage and now you see it fixed in your environment, to which neither I nor Shawn have access to. That's a good verification that the patch fixed the issue for you and your feedback was very much appreciated (your timely initial breakage report even more so).

Acked-by: is usually given by people who are the most familiar
with the code being affected (or at least by the ones more
familiar than the patch's author), in order to let me and the
world know that he thinks the contents of the patch makes sense.
IOW, the patch was checked by somebody who knows the existing
code well enough to catch any subtleties in the existing code
that might have been broken if the patch's author was not
careful.  It just felt slightly funny that anybody is giving an
Acked-by: to a patch Shawn made to fast-import.c, which is his
brainchild ;-).

Signed-off-by is about the kosherness from software license point of view, while Acked-by and Tested-by are about the correctness.