llvm dev - Jan 2020 - Attribution of patches when committing for someone else

Hi All,

While committing a patch today for someone who currently lacks commit access, I
realized I had forgotten the 'Patch by' line and reverted &
re-committed to add it. However, while doing so I wondered if our current policy
on this still makes sense.

Our policy at http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#commit-messages
<http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#commit-messages> currently
contains these two points:
> Separate the commit message into title, body and, if you’re not the
original author, a “Patch by” attribution line (see below).
> Attribution of Changes should be in a separate line, after the end of the
body, as simple as “Patch by John Doe.”. This is how we officially handle
attribution, and there are automated processes that rely on this format.
Given that we now use git which tracks the author and the commiter separately.
Does it still make sense to add these 'Patch by' lines? Or should we
update the policy so that it refers to making sure the author field has the
correct attribution. In my opinion, we should update the policy.
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On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 6:57 PM Daniel Sanders via llvm-dev <
llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> While committing a patch today for someone who currently lacks commit
> access, I realized I had forgotten the 'Patch by' line and reverted
&
> re-committed to add it. However, while doing so I wondered if our current
> policy on this still makes sense.
>
> Our policy at http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#commit-messages
currently
> contains these two points:
> > Separate the commit message into title, body and, if you’re not the
> original author, a “Patch by” attribution line (see below).
> > Attribution of Changes should be in a separate line, after the end of
> the body, as simple as “Patch by John Doe.”. This is how we officially
> handle attribution, and there are automated processes that rely on this
> format.
>
> Given that we now use git which tracks the author and the commiter
> separately. Does it still make sense to add these 'Patch by' lines?
Or
> should we update the policy so that it refers to making sure the author
> field has the correct attribution. In my opinion, we should update the
> policy.
>
+1 : we should change the doc to indicate to use instead `git commit
--amend --author="name/nickname <email>"` .


-- 
Mehdi
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On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 9:57 PM Daniel Sanders via llvm-dev
<llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> While committing a patch today for someone who currently lacks commit
access, I realized I had forgotten the 'Patch by' line and reverted
& re-committed to add it. However, while doing so I wondered if our current
policy on this still makes sense.
>
> Our policy at http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#commit-messages
currently contains these two points:
> > Separate the commit message into title, body and, if you’re not the
original author, a “Patch by” attribution line (see below).
> > Attribution of Changes should be in a separate line, after the end of
the body, as simple as “Patch by John Doe.”. This is how we officially handle
attribution, and there are automated processes that rely on this format.
>
> Given that we now use git which tracks the author and the commiter
separately. Does it still make sense to add these 'Patch by' lines? Or
should we update the policy so that it refers to making sure the author field
has the correct attribution. In my opinion, we should update the policy.
+1 for updating the policy. FWIW, I had assumed attribution rules
changed when we switched to git and had access to --author when
committing, so I've already stopped adding "Patch by" to the
commit
log in those cases.

~Aaron
> _______________________________________________
> LLVM Developers mailing list
> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> https://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev

On 1/9/20 8:09 AM, Aaron Ballman via llvm-dev wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 9:57 PM Daniel Sanders via llvm-dev
> <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> While committing a patch today for someone who currently lacks commit
access, I realized I had forgotten the 'Patch by' line and reverted
& re-committed to add it. However, while doing so I wondered if our current
policy on this still makes sense.
>>
>> Our policy at http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#commit-messages
currently contains these two points:
>>> Separate the commit message into title, body and, if you’re not the
original author, a “Patch by” attribution line (see below).
>>> Attribution of Changes should be in a separate line, after the end
of the body, as simple as “Patch by John Doe.”. This is how we officially handle
attribution, and there are automated processes that rely on this format.
>> Given that we now use git which tracks the author and the commiter
separately. Does it still make sense to add these 'Patch by' lines? Or
should we update the policy so that it refers to making sure the author field
has the correct attribution. In my opinion, we should update the policy.
> +1 for updating the policy.

+1

   -Hal

> FWIW, I had assumed attribution rules
> changed when we switched to git and had access to --author when
> committing, so I've already stopped adding "Patch by" to the
commit
> log in those cases.
>
> ~Aaron
>
>> _______________________________________________
>> LLVM Developers mailing list
>> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
>> https://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
> _______________________________________________
> LLVM Developers mailing list
> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> https://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
-- 
Hal Finkel
Lead, Compiler Technology and Programming Languages
Leadership Computing Facility
Argonne National Laboratory