adding reviewed-by tags (semi)automatically

[Andrew Bartlett]

On Wed, 2012-11-07 at 22:06 +0100, Michael Adam wrote:
> Update:
> 
> This version of the commit-msg and prepare-commit-msg
> add a "Signed-off-by" tag for the author if the variable
> SIGN is set in the environment. This is sometimes handy
> when applying a patch of another author who forgot to
> add his sign-off and you want to push the patch with
> signoff and review tags:
> 
> REVIEW=1 SIGN=1 git am patchfile
> 
> or
> 
> REVIEW=1 SIGN=1 git ci --amend
> 
> for amending.
> 
> (It works without setting REVIEW, too, of course.)
> 
> Cheers - Michael
> 

I wish to sound a note of warning about this.  I know you did this for
me once, by specifically asking on IRC, but Signed-Off-By is a very
specific statement with a specific legal meaning (our developer
certificate of origin).  Indeed, we are using Reviewed-by to avoid
mixing that meaning with the origin of the code. 

It isn't currently required of those who are contributing as
individuals, so often it's not there.  Adding someone else's
signed-off-by should be a rare event, not an every-day, because it
places the burden on yourself to have long-term records of how you
obtained that permission.  I think it's better to have the patch go in
without it, than to muddy the audit trail if subsequently you were not
be able to come up with the signoff permission during in some review.

Of course, adding your OWN Signed-Off-By tag, indicating that the patch
was submitted by the person named for inclusion using --sign-off is a
different thing entirely. 

Andrew Bartlett

-- 
Andrew Bartlett                                http://samba.org/~abartlet/
Authentication Developer, Samba Team           http://samba.org