threads / patch / 54888

patchSubmittingPatches: tighten wording on "sign-off" procedure

Subject: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: tighten wording on "sign-off" procedure

## tl;dr

5 messages between Dec 28, 2020 and Jan 7, 2021. Diffs are folded; open one to read it.

replies: 4people: 3as markdown or json

Junio C Hamano· Dec 28, 2020, 10:39 UTC · lore

The text says "if you can certify DCO then you add a Singed-off-by trailer". But it does not say anything about people who cannot certify. A natural reading may be that if you cannot certify, you do not add the trailer, but it shouldn't hurt to be overly explicit.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
Show changes to diff +1 −1
diff --git c/Documentation/SubmittingPatches w/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index d12094bac5..b091730771 100644
--- c/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ w/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -307,35 +307,35 @@ wrote the patch or have the right to pass it on under the same license
 as ours, by "signing off" your patch.  Without sign-off, we cannot
 accept your patches.
 
-If you can certify the below D-C-O:
+If (and only if) you can certify the below D-C-O:
 
 [[dco]]
 .Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
 ____
 By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

 a. The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
    have the right to submit it under the open source license
    indicated in the file; or

 b. The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
    of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
    license and I have the right under that license to submit that
    work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
    by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
    permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
    in the file; or

 c. The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
    it.

 d. I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
    this project or the open source license(s) involved.
 ____

 you add a "Signed-off-by" trailer to your commit, that looks like
 this:
Felipe Contreras· Dec 28, 2020, 14:09 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

RE: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: tighten wording on "sign-off" procedure

Junio C Hamano wrote:
> The text says "if you can certify DCO then you add a Singed-off-by
> trailer".  But it does not say anything about people who cannot
> certify.  A natural reading may be that if you cannot certify, you
> do not add the trailer, but it shouldn't hurt to be overly explicit.

It doesn't matter if a person *can* certify, what matters is if the person *does* certify.

In a weeding ceremony when asked "do you take this woman to be your wife?", the answer that is looked for is not "I can".

Do you or don't you? Is the question.
Show 10 quoted lines
> diff --git c/Documentation/SubmittingPatches w/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> index d12094bac5..b091730771 100644
> --- c/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> +++ w/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> @@ -307,35 +307,35 @@ wrote the patch or have the right to pass it on under the same license
>  as ours, by "signing off" your patch.  Without sign-off, we cannot
>  accept your patches.
>  
> -If you can certify the below D-C-O:
> +If (and only if) you can certify the below D-C-O:
If you certify the bellow D-C-O:
>  [[dco]]
>  .Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
>  ____
-- 
Felipe Contreras
Junio C Hamano· Dec 28, 2020, 19:19 UTC · re: Felipe Contreras · lore

Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: tighten wording on "sign-off" procedure

Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>> -If you can certify the below D-C-O:
>> +If (and only if) you can certify the below D-C-O:
>
> If you certify the bellow D-C-O:
Yes, dropping "can" would be a good clarification, I would think, too.
>
>>  [[dco]]
>>  .Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
>>  ____
Derrick Stolee· Dec 28, 2020, 15:19 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: tighten wording on "sign-off" procedure

On 12/28/2020 5:39 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> The text says "if you can certify DCO then you add a Singed-off-by
> trailer".  But it does not say anything about people who cannot
> certify.  A natural reading may be that if you cannot certify, you
> do not add the trailer, but it shouldn't hurt to be overly explicit.
This is a good change.

Thanks, -Stolee

Junio C Hamano· Jan 7, 2021, 23:38 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

[PATCH v2] SubmittingPatches: tighten wording on "sign-off" procedure

The text says "if you can certify DCO then you add a Signed-off-by trailer". But it does not say anything about people who cannot or do not want to certify. A natural reading may be that if you do not certify, you must not add the trailer, but it shouldn't hurt to be overly explicit.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
Show changes to Documentation/SubmittingPatches +1 −1
diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index d12094bac5..0452db2e67 100644
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ wrote the patch or have the right to pass it on under the same license
 as ours, by "signing off" your patch.  Without sign-off, we cannot
 accept your patches.
 
-If you can certify the below D-C-O:
+If (and only if) you certify the below D-C-O:
 
 [[dco]]
 .Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

-- 
2.30.0-274-g31e3a2ed96

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