Re: [git patches] libata updates, GPG signed (but see admin notes)

From: Junio C Hamano <junio@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 5, 2011, 23:49 UTC
Message-ID: <7vsjm2870k.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <CA+55aFy0gA0ROSyE03h6Lw0zn4B4j-oEFBmffOcWs6NfyYy8JA@mail.gmail.com>

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> writes:

> So I'd really like some way to not see it.
>
> Ted suggested a NUL character in the commit message in front of the
> "hidden content". What do you think?

You do not have to resort to NUL; we could just stuff whatever you do not need to see but needs to be left *intact* in the new header fields just like the embedded GPG signatures are stored in signed commits.

By the time the integrator is presented the merge commit template, we would have:

 1. The merge title (e.g. "Merge tag for-linus of git://.../rusty.git/");

 2. Payload of the signed tag (or just "annotated tag"), which is used to
    convey meaningful topic description from the lieutenant;

 3. The signature in the tag, if the tag is not just merely annotated, but
    is signed;

 4. The output from GPG verification of the above (only when 3. is
    available); and

 5. The traditional "merge summary", if merge.log is enabled.

The 10-patch series I sent earlier appends 2 and 3 with "tag:" prefix and 4 with "# " prefix in the commit log template, but it does not have to be that way. We could arrange things so that we put only 1, 2, 4 (still with "# " prefix because this is meant to help you verify the authenticity, not for later third-party audit, and to be stripped away with stripspace before the commit is made) and 5 in the commit log template, and the original signed tag contents (only when the tag is signed, not merely annotated) in a separate file MERGE_SIG in $GIT_DIR/ next to MERGE_MSG, and teach "git commit" to pick it up and stuff it in a new header field.

That way, the integrator can use the message 2 for the commit log message and is free to typofix it, without breaking later third-party audit which would use what is taken literally from the signed tag and stored in the new header field, because the integrator's editor would never touch the latter.