Re: [PATCH 2/6] SubmittingPatches: discuss non-ident trailers

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 10:02:46PM +0200, Kristoffer Haugsbakk wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 12, 2026, at 13:35, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 11, 2026 at 12:22:45AM +0200,
> > kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com wrote:
> >> diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> >> index 0b12badf86d..51c308a89a8 100644
> >> --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> >> +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> >> @@ -474,7 +474,10 @@ These are the common trailers in use:
> >>
> >>  While you can also create your own trailer if the situation warrants it, we
> >>  encourage you to instead use one of the common trailers in this project
> >> -highlighted above.
> >> +highlighted above. A trailer that credits someone might be more likely
> >> +to be accepted since these are the most common ones. But another kind of
> >> +trailer might be relevant, for example to link to an issue tracker
> >> +belonging to a downstream project that is affected by a bug in Git.
> >
> > Hm, I wonder whether this is a bit too vague to really be helpful for a
> > newcomer. Instead of alluding to such trailers, wouldn't it be
> > preferable if we added those as actual examples to the list of known
> > trailers and then tell folks that they can invent their own ones if
> > there is a good reason to do so?
> 
> Honestly there are so few non-ident trailers that I don’t think they can
> be listed as common trailers:
> 
> 1. The Git project doesn’t need them (e.g. no bug tracker)
> 2. They seem mostly for use by other projects (bug trackers again)
> 
> With this list:
> 
>     git log --format='%(trailers:only,keyonly)' | sort | uniq
> 
> If you filter out the ident-looking ones:
> 
>     grep -v --extended-regexp -- '-[Bb]y$'
> 
> There are few left. And some can be discarded:
> 
> • Change-Id
> • Message-ID
> • Fixes (pointing to a commit)
> 
> So to address your point:
> 
> 1. Maybe this is so niche that it is not worth mentioning; or
> 2. Maybe give a concrete example like `Closes: <bug link>`?

Well, we don't use "Closes:" trailers, either. So I'd rather side with
your (1) and just not mention them at all.

Patrick