Here's a new version of the patch-tags document. I've incorporated
comments from Randy Dunlap, Stefan Richter, and Neil Brown, though I
have retained, for now, the more verbose process discussion that Neil
didn't like.
Comments?
jon
--
Document the tags used with kernel patches
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
diff --git a/Documentation/00-INDEX b/Documentation/00-INDEX
index 43e89b1..fa1518b 100644
--- a/Documentation/00-INDEX
+++ b/Documentation/00-INDEX
@@ -284,6 +284,8 @@ parport.txt
- how to use the parallel-port driver.
parport-lowlevel.txt
- description and usage of the low level parallel port functions.
+patch-tags
+ - description of the tags which can be added to patches
pci-error-recovery.txt
- info on PCI error recovery.
pci.txt
diff --git a/Documentation/patch-tags b/Documentation/patch-tags
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d955fa2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/patch-tags
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+Patches headed for the mainline may contain a variety of tags documenting
+who played a hand in (or was at least aware of) its progress. All of these
+tags have the form:
+
+ Something-done-by: Full name <email@address> [optional random stuff]
+
+These tags are:
+
+From: The original author of the patch. This tag will ensure
+ that credit is properly given when somebody other than the
+ original author submits the patch.
+
+Signed-off-by: A person adding a Signed-off-by tag is attesting that the
+ patch is, to the best of his or her knowledge, legally able
+ to be merged into the mainline and distributed under the
+ terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2. See
+ the Developer's Certificate of Origin, found in
+ Documentation/SubmittingPatches, for the precise meaning of
+ Signed-off-by. This tag assures upstream maintainers that
+ the provenance of the patch is known and allows the origin
+ of the patch to be reviewed should copyright questions
+ arise.
+
+Acked-by: The person nam...
