linux-kernel - Re: merging other repos into linux-2.6

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Message-ID: <4909EC14.4070905@s5r6.in-berlin.de>
Date:	Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:17:08 +0100
From:	Stefan Richter <stefanr@...6.in-berlin.de>
To:	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
CC:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: merging other repos into linux-2.6

Greg KH wrote:
> In working with some of the current out-of-tree drivers, some of them
> are asking if they could keep their past development history when
> merging the code into the main kernel tree.
> 
> Now normally we don't do this for new drivers, just dropping them in in
> one big patch, or sometimes multiple patches to get it through email
> filters.
> 
> The comedi group (data acquisition subsystem for Linux) have their whole
> history going back to 2000 in a git tree (well, a cvs->git repo.)
> 
> I was wondering if it would be acceptable to graft their tree into the
> linux-2.6 tree (after moving the files to the proper location) to keep
> their whole old history alive.
> 
> Now what good that old history would do, I really don't know and can't
> think of a solid reason to need it, other than to give proper authorship
> credit for the various individual drivers and parts of the code (which
> is good to have at tims.)
[...]

There can be other reasons to keep the history in /some/ publicly
accessible repo (maybe not in the mainline though):
  - Changelogs sometimes explain why something was written in a
    specific way, which may not be obvious from the code or comments.
  - Some modifications during mainline merge preparation, e.g.
    simplifications, may turn out undesirable later and one wants to
    revert some of such modifications.
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-==--- =-=- ====-
http://arcgraph.de/sr/
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