On Mon, 21 Oct 2024 at 20:10, Daniel P. Berrangé <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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.
This all makes sense to me -- we've never really had our own independent take on the DCO, we just followed what the kernel did. I have cc'd people listed in MAINTAINERS under "project policy" and the more active members of the Leadership Committee to bring it to a slightly wider circle of attention. Unless there are any objections over the course of the next week, I think we should commit this change, so it has my Acked-by: Peter Maydell <[email protected]> > [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 <[email protected]> > --- > .gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py | 5 ++++- > docs/devel/submitting-a-patch.rst | 7 ++++++- > 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py b/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py > index 632c8bcce8..6a06afffe5 100755 > --- a/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py > +++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/check-dco.py > @@ -79,7 +79,10 @@ > > 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. > > 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 ``[email protected]`` > - 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. Grammar nit: should be "who". > + > 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 > -- thanks -- PMM
