From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 2604 invoked by alias); 21 Sep 2002 08:26:07 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gdb-patches-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-patches-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 2597 invoked from network); 21 Sep 2002 08:26:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO balder.inter.net.il) (192.114.186.15) by sources.redhat.com with SMTP; 21 Sep 2002 08:26:06 -0000 Received: from Zaretsky ([80.230.2.40]) by balder.inter.net.il (Mirapoint Messaging Server MOS 3.1.0.58-GA) with ESMTP id BTR41128; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:24:37 +0300 (IDT) Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 01:26:00 -0000 From: "Eli Zaretskii" To: kevinb@redhat.com Message-Id: <3995-Sat21Sep2002112514+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il> CC: ac131313@ges.redhat.com, gdb-patches@sources.redhat.com In-reply-to: <1020920215822.ZM27329@localhost.localdomain> (message from Kevin Buettner on Fri, 20 Sep 2002 14:58:22 -0700) Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC] Character set support Reply-to: Eli Zaretskii References: <1020913003056.ZM15701@localhost.localdomain> <1020920003625.ZM23109@localhost.localdomain> <3D8A75F3.3040704@ges.redhat.com> <1020920071148.ZM24070@localhost.localdomain> <3D8B47E9.5020100@ges.redhat.com> <1020920215822.ZM27329@localhost.localdomain> X-SW-Source: 2002-09/txt/msg00548.txt.bz2 > Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 14:58:22 -0700 > From: Kevin Buettner > > As I stated earlier, I think it's appropriate that the following form > be used when non-trivial changes to the contributor's patch need to be > made: > > YYYY-MM-DD Committer > > From Contributor : > * somefile (somefunction): Something was done. > > OTOH, when a contributor's patch can be applied without change, I think > it's appropriate to use the following form: > > YYYY-MM-DD Contributor > > * somefile (somefunction): Something was done. > > I have consulted the GNU coding standard regarding this matter. See: > > http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_42.html#SEC42 > > According to this document, the header line says who made the change. > I suppose we could interpret this to mean the committer of the change, > but I think it's more meaningful to interpret this as the actual author > of the change. I agree with the last sentence and with the proposed forms. However, please be aware of another aspect of these entries: the legal aspect. When you mention a name of a contributor in a "From" form above, someone might understand that the contributor assigned copyright for the changes to the FSF. If that's not true (which generally means the change is either very short or trivial), you better not mention the name, lest someone like Richard Stallman looks up that name in the FSF copyright list, fails to find it, and panics thinking that parts of GDB's code come from an author who didn't assign copyright. > I've discussed this matter with Jim Blandy, and he suggested that the > following form might be useful in some cases: > > YYYY-MM-DD Contributor > > Committed by Committer . > * somefile (somefunction): Something was done. I don't think it's a good idea: it invents a new form not used anywhere in the GNU project, and Emacs won't highlight it correctly. Emacs understands "From ...", "Patches by ...", "Reported by ...", and "Suggested by ..." (with a few minor variations). See add-log.el in the Emacs distro. I suggest that we stick to these forms.