Re: [PATCH] mailmap: Remove PhilMD redirect entries

["Daniel P. Berrangé" <berrange@redhat.com>]

On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 09:20:49AM +0300, Manos Pitsidianakis wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 10:52 PM Philippe Mathieu-Daudé
> <philmd@linaro.org> wrote:
> >
> > Our ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl uses git .mailmap as a fallback:
> >
> >   $ ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl -h
> >   usage: ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl [options] patchfile
> >          ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl [options] -f file|directory
> >
> >     --git-fallback => use git when no exact MAINTAINERS pattern (default: 1)
> >     --git-since => git history to use (default: 1-year-ago)
> >     --mailmap => use .mailmap file (default: 1)
> >     ...
> >
> >   Default options:
> >     [--email --nogit --git-fallback --m --r --n --l --multiline
> >      --pattern-depth=0 --remove-duplicates --rolestats]
> >
> > (see the '--git-fallback' used as default option).
> >
> > Per gitmailmap(5) man page:
> >
> >   ... the file .mailmap [...] is used to map author and
> >   committer names and email addresses to canonical real
> >   names and email addresses.
> >
> > I added my entries in the "replace old addresses by a more recent
> > one" section for this script use case, but we have been doing a
> > good cleanup at having all files covered in MAINTAINERS, so with
> > retrospective these entries aren't needed anymore (besides, using
> > them retroactively credits all my contributions to the latest
> > employer).
> >
> 
> 
> Hey Philippe,
> 
> As I posted here
> https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/3104a00e-4c13-4bf7-95a0-1f2840bec50d@linaro.org/T/#t
> 
> > People who wish to use git log for employer attribution reasons must
> > use --no-mailmap.
> 
> mailmap is for updating names/emails, not attribution. I do not think
> your patch is necessary.

Attribution of committers to employers is something that is very
much a loose heuristic that only works for relatively recent commits.

Beyond .mailmap, the data we have in contrib/gitdm only ever reflects
our current point-in-time understanding of employers. For cases where
we map personal email addresses to employers, we are not keeping a
historical record as people change jobs, so all historical commits
from a personal email address get associated with the newest employer.

IOW if you want to attribute accurately, you need to look at the state
of contrib/gitdm & .mailmap, as they were when the commit you want to
attribute was merged.


With regards,
Daniel
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