On 6/2/07, Andrew Morton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
... +The Signed-off-by: tag implies that the signer was involved in the development
---
Change "implies" to "indicates" - it's an explicit statement, not an implication. ---
+of the patch, or that he/she was in the patch's delivery path. + +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 contributed to nor forwarded the patch themselves.
--- This using plural pronouns for indefinite gender leaves one in vague territory, but I think "themself" would be better than "themselves, since "maintainer" is singular. ---
+ +Acked-by: is not as formal as Signed-off-by:. It is a record that the acker +has at least reviewed the patch and has indicated acceptance. Hence patch +mergers will sometimes manually covert an acker's "yep, looks good to me" into
--- "covert" -> "convert" ---
+an Acked-by:. + +Acked-by: does not necessarily indicate acknowledgement of the entire patch. +For example, if a patch affects multiple subsystems and has an Acked-by: from +one subsystem maintainer then this usually indicates acknowledgement of just +the part which affects that maintainer's code. Judgement should be used here. +When in doubt people should refer to the original discussion in the mailing +list archives. + + +14) The canonical patch format The canonical patch subject line is:
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