Re: Changelogs on kernel.org

Jeff Garzik
2002-05-13T19:02:01Z

Helge Hafting wrote:

>Jeff Garzik wrote:
>
>>(speaking more to the crowd...)
>>Changeset comments need to be written as if they stand alone, without
>>any other context -- including the author. A reader should not need to
>>know that (for examples) James Simmons hacks on fbdev stuff.
>>
>
>I think it is nice to have the names. A new kernel
>might break something, It is then nice to know
>where to send the bug report. (It is usually, but not
>necessarily the maintainer that did it.)
>

Having the name is fine -- I agree it should not be removed.

However, that was not the point of my message. The point is, each
changeset comment comes with -no context at all-. If the author of the
comment assumes that, by his name, we can figure out what a comment like
"minor fixes" mean, that author is making a mistake. Each cset comment
needs to tell exactly what the change is, and should not require
knowledge of the author's identity to determine what is in the changeset.

Jeff