jdaugherty commented on issue #15376: URL: https://github.com/apache/grails-core/issues/15376#issuecomment-3879077486
Some background on why this file was added: Grails is an old enough project that we have multiple contributors that are the "same" person over the years. The `.mailmap` file is a [feature](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitmailmap) of git to group those contributors into one logical committer. This allows us to see who has contributed significantly by running `git shortlog -esn --all`. As part of joining the ASF, we need to track contributors so we can approach them to become committers & add them to our POM after a certain number of commits. We generated this file based on the git history. We also logically grouped people based on their GitHub id where possible so it's easier for us to identify people in PRs that contribute by running the previous mentioned git command. We originally discussed the sensitivity of [this](https://github.com/apache/grails-core/pull/15274) change in our weekly meeting. It was deemed acceptable since this information was generated from the git history & it can be fetched by running various git commands in a checked out project. The reason this file was primarily checked in is due to automation. We intend to automate the process of finding possible contributors that need to become committers or be considered for the PMC. This automation would including adding the person to the pom files by default. At this time, the PMC has decided to not rewrite history to remove people's emails, but we have removed the file from future releases. We are exploring other options for automation, including a private version of this file so it's not readily findable by web crawlers. -- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: [email protected]
