[U-Boot] U-Boot git usage model

Wolfgang Denk wd at denx.de
Sat Oct 13 21:06:17 CEST 2012


Dear Scott Wood,

In message <1349974486.6903.5 at snotra> you wrote:
>
> Is this documented anywhere?
> 
> http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/DevelopmentProcess says, "U-Boot has  
> adopted the Linux kernel signoff policy".
> 
> Actual behavior is probably inconsistent between custodians.

This is documented, see previous discussions.

We're referring to linux/Documentation/SubmittingPatches .

Unfortunaltely this leaves room to interpretation, and depending on
thier own interpretation people behave differently.

To me the most interesting part of this document is this section:

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

In my interpretation this means that one should add a SoB line of one
creates or modifies a patch.  Just applying it from some published and
recoded form does not include any such modification, so why should I
add my SoB when applying a patch from PW for example?



Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
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diagnostics say it's fine buddy, so it's a software problem."


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