Re: [PATCH v4] docs: Clarify the usage and sign-off requirements for Co-developed-by
From: Joe Perches
Date: Fri Mar 22 2019 - 13:03:15 EST
On Fri, 2019-03-22 at 08:57 -0700, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> The documentation for Co-developed-by is a bit light on details, e.g. it
> doesn't explicitly state that:
>
> - Multiple Co-developed-by tags are perfectly acceptable
> - Co-developed-by and Signed-off-by must be paired together
> - SOB ordering should still follow standard sign-off procedure
>
> Lack of explicit direction has resulted in developers taking a variety
> of approaches, often lacking any intent whatsoever, e.g. scattering SOBs
> willy-nilly, collecting them all at the end or the beginning, etc...
> Tweak the wording to make it clear that multiple co-authors are allowed,
> and document the expectation that standard sign-off procedures are to
> be followed.
>
> The use of "original author" has also led to confusion as many patches
> don't have just one "original" author, e.g. when multiple developers
> are involved from the genesis of the patch. Remove all usage of
> "original" and instead call out that Co-developed-by is simply a way to
> provide attribution in addition to the From tag, i.e. neither tag is
> intended to imply anything with regard to who did what.
>
> Provide examples to (hopefully) eliminate any ambiguity.
Please add the checkpatch bit to this at the same time.