Tracability in git commits

[Richard Purdie <rpurdie@rpsys.net>]

Hi,

I've been wondering about whether its possible to provide some degree of
traceability of commits to a shared git repository. The potential
nightmare scenario is one developer making a commit pretending to be
someone else.

Assuming a shared server using something like gitosis each set of
commits is made under a certain ssh ID and what I'd like is to be able
to validate that against the commits so we could tell that commits A-D
were made by ID Z.

I see a repository as a linear progression of commits and merges.

The simplest security check would check each commit/merge on this linear
progression and make sure it matches the ssh ID. The problem is where
someone merges in some external tree, someone else pulls it and pushes
it, only fast forward merges are made and the ssh 'ID' no longer matches
the ID of the merge which is in the linear path.

Someone mentioned some patches that are on the mailing list atm and the
idea of never allowing fast forward merges. Would the "never" policy of
fast forward merges solve this problem? Is there a simpler way to
address this or are there problems I'm not seeing?

Regards,

Richard