Re: [PATCH] docs: submitting-patches: Clarify half-baked review tags

[Weijie Yuan]

Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> On 05/11/2026 09:34, Weijie Yuan wrote:
> > Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > 
> >> Refactoring of driver subsystems or some core driver parts often come
> >> with change of the actual drivers.  If that happens within one patch,
> >> people giving "Reviewed-by" tag only to piece of the patch, like one
> >> driver, and ignoring entire rest including the main concept of the
> >> patch, are not really reviewing "the patch".
> >>
> >> As explained in Submitting Patches document, the "Reviewer's statement
> >> of oversight" is for patch:
> >>
> >>   (a) I have carried out a technical review of this patch to
> >>       evaluate its appropriateness and readiness for inclusion into
> >>       the mainline kernel.
> >>
> >> The sentence is complete, meaning it does not allow implicit variations
> >> "this patch or part of this patch".
> > 
> > Agreed.
> > 
> >> Reviewing pieces of patch while ignoring the main part of it, is
> >> much closer to Acknowledgment, thus Ack, and "Reviewed-by" credit should
> >> not be applicable.
> > 
> > But in this case, I suspect that your "Acked-by" trailer will still be
> > interpreted as an ack of the entire patch in future git logs, rather
> > than a partial ack and/or a partial review.
> > 
> 
> Which would be fine, Acked-by has that meaning and no one really counts
> Acks or tracks Acks for any metrics or patch quality purposes.

;-) Also makes sense.

(I just posted my last one and found that v2 was also posted, what a
coincidence.)

Thanks!