From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from bedivere.hansenpartnership.com (bedivere.hansenpartnership.com [96.44.175.130]) by mx.groups.io with SMTP id smtpd.web09.17126.1608420874914877318 for ; Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:34:35 -0800 Authentication-Results: mx.groups.io; dkim=pass header.i=@hansenpartnership.com header.s=20151216 header.b=xx/aGdfj; spf=pass (domain: hansenpartnership.com, ip: 96.44.175.130, mailfrom: james.bottomley@hansenpartnership.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by bedivere.hansenpartnership.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9498E12802DD; Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:34:30 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=hansenpartnership.com; s=20151216; t=1608420870; bh=tyf85BNcNZsVn0Ym/3rjtlGkfgoLytMSp+/mzPCjFTs=; h=Message-ID:Subject:From:To:Date:In-Reply-To:References:From; b=xx/aGdfj3YvRTFob/ohSdCEmCtTvHT3ldIKdxJWT261N9kIcI1kt5/fSMNyG8mwAW cyZaTvrg0chwS9RWQuxVDkccnb5GReD5ManwgyEucNc04F2KeC2+NwEqJC6KmqEz2a /kKtcooymYbilsm3tAujDG5fCO5sQHlfjHexbHNg= Received: from bedivere.hansenpartnership.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (bedivere.hansenpartnership.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id aI_wpUgRrIcQ; Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:34:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from jarvis.int.hansenpartnership.com (c-73-35-198-56.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [73.35.198.56]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by bedivere.hansenpartnership.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 1E514128028B; Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:34:30 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=hansenpartnership.com; s=20151216; t=1608420870; bh=tyf85BNcNZsVn0Ym/3rjtlGkfgoLytMSp+/mzPCjFTs=; h=Message-ID:Subject:From:To:Date:In-Reply-To:References:From; b=xx/aGdfj3YvRTFob/ohSdCEmCtTvHT3ldIKdxJWT261N9kIcI1kt5/fSMNyG8mwAW cyZaTvrg0chwS9RWQuxVDkccnb5GReD5ManwgyEucNc04F2KeC2+NwEqJC6KmqEz2a /kKtcooymYbilsm3tAujDG5fCO5sQHlfjHexbHNg= Message-ID: <1fdc0edd747d58cd1a09c1d5fd0f0a22b83d4f45.camel@HansenPartnership.com> Subject: Re: [kernel.org users] b4: encouraging using the cover letter in merge commits? From: "James Bottomley" To: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo Cc: Jonathan Corbet , toke@toke.dk, Konstantin Ryabitsev , users@linux.kernel.org, tools@linux.kernel.org, Jens Axboe Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:34:24 -0800 In-Reply-To: <20201219221730.GD363602@kernel.org> References: <87y2hum0t0.fsf@toke.dk> <20201219114529.42058976@lwn.net> <20201219115716.416fa2df@lwn.net> <12042294a3996c27d4f595f26bc1f54c1a4543a2.camel@HansenPartnership.com> <20201219204832.GA363602@kernel.org> <20201219214351.GC363602@kernel.org> <20201219221730.GD363602@kernel.org> User-Agent: Evolution 3.34.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Sat, 2020-12-19 at 19:17 -0300, Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo wrote: > Em Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 01:57:06PM -0800, James Bottomley escreveu: > > On Sat, 2020-12-19 at 18:43 -0300, Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo wrote: > > > But we are digressing, assuming what is in the cover letter is > > > not what should be in individual commits but has value, why not > > > have it preserved upstream? > > > Because on its own it's incomplete and we have other mechanisms to > > keep the full historical record. > > I agree that link tags points to the relevant discussion, and I hope > that where that is preserved is available as long as the main repo is > available, but that is only a hope, as it is disjoint from the main > repository, keeping such valuable information in the main repository > is still important IMHO. OK, so I think we see the email archives in different ways. I see them as a thing, like the repo, which will always be there. Even if kernel.org gets sold off by the LF and we lose lore, there are a bunch of internet heritage and archive projects making sure our history will be preserved. The link tag, since it's based on the msgid, will always be usable through them. I think you see this as less certain, hence the need to save the cover letter, so in essence this comes down to *who* should preserve the information. > Its not like having cover letters in the main repository will cause > major disruption or excessive overhead. I'm not saying no-one should do it, I'm saying preserving cover letters in merge commits is incompatible with the current linear workflow and that link tags with that workflow provides a superset of the information in the cover letter so there's no reason for anyone using the linear workflow to move to a merge commit workflow. James