From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.3 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED,RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3,RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 1687 invoked from network); 2 Nov 2020 01:16:49 -0000 Received: from mother.openwall.net (195.42.179.200) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 2 Nov 2020 01:16:49 -0000 Received: (qmail 30093 invoked by uid 550); 2 Nov 2020 01:16:45 -0000 Mailing-List: contact musl-help@lists.openwall.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-ID: Reply-To: musl@lists.openwall.com Received: (qmail 30060 invoked from network); 2 Nov 2020 01:16:44 -0000 Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2020 20:16:32 -0500 From: Rich Felker To: musl@lists.openwall.com Message-ID: <20201102011630.GQ534@brightrain.aerifal.cx> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Subject: [musl] Authorship/attribution and stalled patches It came to my attention that there are a few patches in limbo where, after some discussion, it seems I was waiting for an updated patch from the contributor to apply, and it never appeared. I could and should just make the changes myself (this would have been more efficient to begin with), but I'm not sure what to do about authorship/attribution in that situation, and it probably deserves community input. A while back, I started trying to make better use of git commit authorship to credit contributors, rather than just mentioning "patch by X" or "based on patch/idea by X" in commit messages. However I still don't have a clear feel for how this should work in the case where the patch is modified before being applied. Are there established norms for the degree to which a patch should be modified while leaving the author intact, or should it just always be converted to commit authorship by the person who makes the final changes, with original author in the description? It's really a tradeoff between potential misattribution of mistakes or changes the original author might not like, and failure to credit, and I don't know where the right balance is. Rich