Re: [PATCH 39/39] docs: explicitly permit a "commonly known identity" with SoB

["Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com>]

On Thu, Nov 21, 2024 at 04:58:06PM +0000, Alex Bennée wrote:
> From: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
> 
> The docs for submitting a patch describe using your "Real Name" with
> the Signed-off-by line. Although somewhat ambiguous, this has often
> been interpreted to mean someone's legal name.
> 
> In recent times, there's been a general push back[1] against the notion
> that use of Signed-off-by in a project automatically requires / implies
> the use of legal ("real") names and greater awareness of the downsides.
> 
> Full discussion of the problems of such policies is beyond the scope of
> this commit message, but at a high level they are liable to marginalize,
> disadvantage, and potentially result in harm, to contributors.
> 
> TL;DR: there are compelling reasons for a person to choose distinct
> identities in different contexts & a decision to override that choice
> should not be taken lightly.
> 
> A number of key projects have responded to the issues raised by making
> it clear that a contributor is free to determine the identity used in
> SoB lines:
> 
>  * Linux has clarified[2] that they merely expect use of the
>    contributor's "known identity", removing the previous explicit
>    rejection of pseudonyms.
> 
>  * CNCF has clarified[3] that the real name is simply the identity
>    the contributor chooses to use in the context of the community
>    and does not have to be a legal name, nor birth name, nor appear
>    on any government ID.
> 
> Since we have no intention of ever routinely checking any form of ID
> documents for contributors[4], realistically we have no way of knowing
> anything about the name they are using, except through chance, or
> through the contributor volunteering the information. IOW, we almost
> certainly already have people using pseudonyms for contributions.
> 
> This proposes to accept that reality and eliminate unnecessary friction,
> by following Linux & the CNCF in merely asking that a contributors'
> commonly known identity, of their choosing, be used with the SoB line.
> 
> [1] Raised in many contexts at many times, but a decent overall summary
>     can be read at https://drewdevault.com/2023/10/31/On-real-names.html
> [2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d4563201f33a022fc0353033d9dfeb1606a88330
> [3] https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/659fd32c86dc/dco-guidelines.md
> [4] Excluding the rare GPG key signing parties for regular maintainers
> 
> Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
> Acked-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
> Acked-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>
> Reviewed-by: Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@linaro.org>
> Reviewed-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>
> Acked-by: Richard Henderson <richard.henderson@linaro.org>
> Message-Id: <20241021190939.1482466-1-berrange@redhat.com>
> Signed-off-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>


Acked-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>

> ---
>  docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst | 7 ++++++-
>  .gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py         | 5 ++++-
>  2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst b/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
> index 83e9092b8c..10b062eec2 100644
> --- a/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
> +++ b/docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst
> @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ one-shot fix, the bare minimum we ask is that:
>  
>     * - Check
>       - Reason
> -   * - Patches contain Signed-off-by: Real Name <author@email>
> +   * - Patches contain Signed-off-by: Your Name <author@email>
>       - States you are legally able to contribute the code. See :ref:`patch_emails_must_include_a_signed_off_by_line`
>     * - Sent as patch emails to ``qemu-devel@nongnu.org``
>       - The project uses an email list based workflow. See :ref:`submitting_your_patches`
> @@ -335,6 +335,11 @@ include a "From:" line in the body of the email (different from your
>  envelope From:) that will give credit to the correct author; but again,
>  that author's Signed-off-by: line is mandatory, with the same spelling.
>  
> +The name used with "Signed-off-by" does not need to be your legal name,
> +nor birth name, nor appear on any government ID. It is the identity you
> +choose to be known by in the community, but should not be anonymous,
> +nor misrepresent whom you are.
> +
>  There are various tooling options for automatically adding these tags
>  include using ``git commit -s`` or ``git format-patch -s``. For more
>  information see `SubmittingPatches 1.12
> diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py b/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py
> index d221b16bd5..70dec7d6ee 100755
> --- a/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py
> +++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py
> @@ -78,7 +78,10 @@
>  
>  To indicate acceptance of the DCO every commit must have a tag
>  
> -  Signed-off-by: REAL NAME <EMAIL>
> +  Signed-off-by: YOUR NAME <EMAIL>
> +
> +where "YOUR NAME" is your commonly known identity in the context
> +of the community.
>  
>  This can be achieved by passing the "-s" flag to the "git commit" command.
>  
> -- 
> 2.39.5