Re: [GIT PULL] new mailmap file for the linux kernel git repository

[Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 05:01:39PM +0200, Philipp Riemer wrote:
> 2012/5/16 Jiri Kosina <jkosina@suse.cz>:
> > On Wed, 16 May 2012, Greg KH wrote:
> >
> >> > In my work I considered the following aspects:
> >> > * Typos in names
> >> > * Typos in mails
> >> > * Mapping of ambiguous mail adresses (e.g. {aa@bb.cc, aa@home.bb.cc,
> >> > aa@laptop.bb.cc,...} becomes {aa@bb.cc})
> >> > * Mapping of names to entries with only email information
> >> > * Harmonization of position and style of last name (no more all-caps
> >> > names like "First LAST" or those of "Last, First")
> >> > * No initials in names if not necessary
> >> > * Conversion of email addresses to lower case
> >> >
> >> > Why did I do this? One reason for that is a missing configuration of
> >> > Git -- leading to a combination of the name of user (login) and
> >> > computer (e.g. "me@mybox.local"). Of course this is not a real mail
> >> > address and most users realize and fix this fact pretty fast.
> >> > Nevertheless there is at least one commit with wrong data in the
> >> > codebase. Another reason is spelling. When skimming through the vast
> >> > list of author names and email addresses one can find many
> >> > typographical errors such as ".con" instead of ".com" or missing
> >> > letters. Over time also these get fixed -- but the wrong data is
> >> > visible.
> >> >
> >> > I am pretty confident that I coalesced the data of most of the
> >> > ambiguous users. But despite having spent so many hours in finding and
> >> > matching these entries, this work (that I did primarily for my thesis)
> >> > might be helpful for other researchers as well, such as e.g. Wang Chen
> >> > as the maintainer of the Linux Kernel Patch Statistic
> >> > <http://www.remword.com/kps_result/> or Greg, Jonthan, etc. as the
> >> > authors of "Who writes Linux"
> >> > <http://go.linuxfoundation.org/who-writes-linux-2012>...
> >> >
> >> > Hence, please integrate this file into the official Linux Kernel repository.
> >>
> >> You forgot a signed-off-by: line which is required for a patch to be
> >> accepted :(
> >
> > While Greg is at this, the changelogs also really don't really follow the
> > kernel changelog standards (line wrapping, etc.).
> >
> > --
> > Jiri Kosina
> > SUSE Labs
> 
> Thank you both for your fast feedback. I really appreciate it.
> 
> Since this is my first contribution to the Linux Kernel I am not
> pretty sure what I have to do. Is there anywhere a guideline how I get
> a "signed-off"? I sent the mail to the addresses I found via
> `scripts/get_maintainer.pl -f .mailmap` since I expected those people
> to be somehow interested in this file. What other steps can I take?

Please read the file, Documentation/SubmittingPatches for what the line,
"Signed-off-by:" means and what you are agreeing to there, as well as
how to properly submit a patch for inclusion in the kernel.

> I don't understand the point regarding the changelog standards -- what
> do you mean with that? I changed the .mailmap file and oriented myself
> on what was already there... How can I improve the file to fit to the
> Linux standards? Some hints?

Read the above file :)

Hope this helps,

greg k-h