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Re: How best to handle multiple-authorship commits in GIT?

From
VAValerie Aurora <valerie.aurora@gmail.com>
Date
Feb 3, 2012, 02:18 UTC
Message-ID
<CAD-XujkVK=tOtmVS90U0KAutFZ55jxsHMKuuMppXOi-H6ZY=RQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<15281.1328207789@redhat.com>
On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 10:36 AM, David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> wrote:
Show 6 quoted lines
> Valerie Aurora <valerie.aurora@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> There is a line in the kernel doc saying how this should be handled,
>> suggested by Rusty, but it's not being followed.
>
> Do you know where?

A fault in my memory - I asked Rusty for advice on a related problem and he gave me additional advice, he didn't suggest (so far as I know) the changes to the kernel docs. Here's what SubmittingPatches has to say:

"If you are a subsystem or branch maintainer, sometimes you need to slightly modify patches you receive in order to merge them, because the code is not exactly the same in your tree and the submitters'. If you stick strictly to rule (c), you should ask the submitter to rediff, but this is a totally counter-productive waste of time and energy. Rule (b) allows you to adjust the code, but then it is very impolite to change one submitter's code and make him endorse your bugs. To solve this problem, it is recommended that you add a line between the last Signed-off-by header and yours, indicating the nature of your changes. While there is nothing mandatory about this, it seems like prepending the description with your mail and/or name, all enclosed in square brackets, is noticeable enough to make it obvious that you are responsible for last-minute changes. Example :

	Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
	[lucky@maintainer.example.org: struct foo moved from foo.c to foo.h]
	Signed-off-by: Lucky K Maintainer <lucky@maintainer.example.org>

This practise is particularly helpful if you maintain a stable branch and want at the same time to credit the author, track changes, merge the fix, and protect the submitter from complaints. Note that under no circumstances can you change the author's identity (the From header), as it is the one which appears in the changelog."

And Rusty's practice as of a year or two ago is for "minor mods" to a patch, to leave the authorship the same, and add a Signed-off-by:

Signed-off-by: Some Upstream Author
Signed-off-by: Maintainer or Merger (rewrote error handling)

And for a complete (meaningful) rewrite such as David has done, he changes the commit authorship and adds a Signed-off-by for the original author.

That's existing guidelines and practice.
-VAL
Previous: David HowellsNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 6 of 11 in “How best to handle multiple-authorship commits in GIT?”
  1. David HowellsFeb 2, 2012
  2. Frans KlaverFeb 2, 2012
  3. David HowellsFeb 2, 2012
  4. Valerie AuroraFeb 2, 2012
  5. David HowellsFeb 2, 2012
  6. Valerie AuroraFeb 3, 2012
  7. Junio C HamanoFeb 3, 2012
  8. David HowellsFeb 3, 2012
  9. Junio C HamanoFeb 3, 2012
  10. Valerie AuroraFeb 3, 2012
  11. Jakub NarebskiFeb 2, 2012

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