From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: linux-next: Signed-off-by missing for commit in the rdma tree Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2017 09:42:54 -0700 Message-ID: References: <20170901075046.557e345c@canb.auug.org.au> <78c70af4-21d0-94f2-6a2d-a832f24d23f4@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Return-path: Received: from mail-io0-f173.google.com ([209.85.223.173]:36783 "EHLO mail-io0-f173.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752702AbdIBQm4 (ORCPT ); Sat, 2 Sep 2017 12:42:56 -0400 In-Reply-To: <78c70af4-21d0-94f2-6a2d-a832f24d23f4@redhat.com> Sender: linux-next-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: To: Doug Ledford Cc: Stephen Rothwell , Linux-Next Mailing List , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Mike Marciniszyn , Kaike Wan , Dennis Dalessandro , John Fleck On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 5:06 AM, Doug Ledford wrote: > On 8/31/2017 5:50 PM, Stephen Rothwell wrote: >> Hi Doug, >> >> Commit >> >> 4b9796b0a6fb ("IB/hfi1: Use accessor to determine ring size") >> >> is missing a Signed-off-by from its author. >> > > What's the best way to fix this? I can rebase, but I know Linus hates > that. What about git note? We don't end up using (or forwarding) git notes, so that won't help. Generally, the answer to missing sign-offs is "don't do that again" if it's not something major and there isn't a _pattern_ of it happening. In this case, it's a one-liner patch from a developer who has lots of other sign-offs, from a company that is very aware of his work and the GPL, and an active contributor. so it's not like it has any legal implications. If it was some big important patch from a more questionable source, and we'd be worried about covering the legal side, it would be a different issue. As it is, it falls under "mistakes happen, not a big deal, try to avoid it in the future". If it *was* a bigger issue and you really want to make sure that the chain is there for new contributors etc, rebasing to fix sign-offs ends up being the best (still bad) solution. Linus