Re: [patch 1/1] document Acked-by:

Adrian Bunk
2007-06-02T14:11:50Z

On Thu, May 31, 2007 at 07:09:10PM -0700, akpm@linux-foundation.org wrote:
> From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
>
> Explain what we use Acked-by: for, and how it differs from Signed-off-by:
> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
> ---
>
> Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 15 ++++++++++++++-
> 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff -puN Documentation/SubmittingPatches~document-acked-by Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches~document-acked-by
> +++ a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> @@ -328,7 +328,20 @@ now, but you can do this to mark interna
> point out some special detail about the sign-off.
>
>
> -12) The canonical patch format
> +12) When to use Acked-by:
> +
> +The Signed-off-by: tag implies that the signer was involved in the development
> +of the patch, or that he/she was in the patch's delivery path.

The last part should be dropped: If "he/she was in the patch's delivery
path", a Signed-off-by: tag is required.

> +If a person was not directly involved in the preparation or handling of a
> +patch but wishes to signify and record their approval of it then they can
> +arrange to have an Acked-by: line added to the patch's changelog.
> +
> +Acked-by: is often used by the maintainer of the affected code when that
> +maintainer neither wrote, merged nor forwarded the patch themselves.

"merged" seems to be superfluous if you also mention "forwarded".

> +13) The canonical patch format
>
> The canonical patch subject line is:

Please mention explicitely whether Acked-by: this now considered a
formal tag like Signed-off-by:

IOW, if a maintainer says "fine with me", can I translate this to an
Acked-by: line, or do I now have to ask for an explicit Acked-by: line?

Oh, and that's not a theoretical question, this is a result of a recent
flamewar^Wdiscussion on this list...

cu
Adrian

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