linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] doc: add suggestions about good practises for maintainers

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Message-Id: <20080603152546.e6fb915e.randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
Date:	Tue, 3 Jun 2008 15:25:46 -0700
From:	Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@...cle.com>
To:	Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
Cc:	torvalds@...ux-foundation.org,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] doc: add suggestions about good practises for
 maintainers

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 07:34:46 +0200 Willy Tarreau wrote:

> Linus,
> 
> I'm proposing the following add-on to SubmittingPatches. I think
> it clarifies the situation for maintainers and back-porters.
> 
> Regards,
> Willy
> --
> 
> >From 1bf91b1072323ae3150c8962f36092b5b8528c48 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
> Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 00:20:28 +0200
> Subject: doc: add suggestions about good practises for maintainers
> 
> Suggest how to deal with patch modifications caused by
> merging or back-porting when you're a maintainer.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
> ---
>  Documentation/SubmittingPatches |   46 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> index 9c93a03..6e7183b 100644
> --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> @@ -327,6 +327,52 @@ Some people also put extra tags at the end.  They'll just be ignored for
>  now, but you can do this to mark internal company procedures or just
>  point out some special detail about the sign-off. 
>  
> +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@...eloper.example.org>
> +	[lucky@...ntainer.example.org: struct foo moved from foo.c to foo.h]
> +	Signed-off-by: Lucky K Maintainer <lucky@...ntainer.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 ciscumstances

                                                                 circumstances

> +you can change the author's identity (the From header), as it is the one

   can you change

> +which appears in the changelog.
> +
> +Special note to back-porters. It seems to be a common and useful practise

                   back-porters:

> +to insert an indication of the origin of a patch at the top of the commit
> +message (just after the subject line) to facilitate tracking. For instance,
> +here's what we see in 2.6-stable :
> +
> +    Date:   Tue May 13 19:10:30 2008 +0000
> +
> +        SCSI: libiscsi regression in 2.6.25: fix nop timer handling
> +
> +        commit 4cf1043593db6a337f10e006c23c69e5fc93e722 upstream
> +
> +And here's what appears in 2.4 :
> +
> +    Date:   Tue May 13 22:12:27 2008 +0200
> +
> +        wireless, airo: waitbusy() won't delay
> +
> +        [backport of 2.6 commit b7acbdfbd1f277c1eb23f344f899cfa4cd0bf36a]
> +
> +Whatever the format, this information provides a valuable help to people
> +tracking your trees, and to people trying to trouble-shoot bugs in your
> +tree.
> +
>  
>  13) When to use Acked-by: and Cc:
>  
> -- 

---
~Randy
--
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