From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from ms.lwn.net (ms.lwn.net [45.79.88.28]) by mx.groups.io with SMTP id smtpd.web12.13104.1608403531589044697 for ; Sat, 19 Dec 2020 10:45:32 -0800 Authentication-Results: mx.groups.io; dkim=pass header.i=@lwn.net header.s=20201203 header.b=LLKHbKz4; spf=pass (domain: lwn.net, ip: 45.79.88.28, mailfrom: corbet@lwn.net) Received: from lwn.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ms.lwn.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 73EE29AC; Sat, 19 Dec 2020 18:45:30 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Filter: OpenDKIM Filter v2.11.0 ms.lwn.net 73EE29AC DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=lwn.net; s=20201203; t=1608403530; bh=BPBD2QfXrEXeUbKzbB9F4oA0iuKDoE/L6FSsA9RXcQE=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:In-Reply-To:References:From; b=LLKHbKz4kh+aeJm7LVQ+UerQ0tAnsMcxzUI8A+WjtRjthZt0bFZTZOYlm7mvlbNzV kWpe4ALnGQnIKg0xB8NXVurVj10xLX3R80B/0Dej2J2GXBYtZ+D8rG/Ye7p1y8zCdw mHsD/KY+OejdRpayBHcNwlZ5XNj+TglqoxKa2IE4P9MC8EdRNC2deeM5YSr+bdaon0 MVNMx5lUvCBpVevSgE0v/3geiFZ5dRi6UJe6Z2lBrNicfF0h0XokTrSFzs1a7BvTMv WJyDpdjAfaTakd1cFSK5+8fds8Lv0Q+iVQiGRMUGv2Wi1EXJa0jkFX1Pl23tHgzaxX Sm2ngrl4VxgJw== Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 11:45:29 -0700 From: "Jonathan Corbet" To: "James Bottomley" Cc: toke@toke.dk, Konstantin Ryabitsev , users@linux.kernel.org, tools@linux.kernel.org, Jens Axboe , Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo Subject: Re: [kernel.org users] b4: encouraging using the cover letter in merge commits? Message-ID: <20201219114529.42058976@lwn.net> In-Reply-To: References: <877dpeol5w.fsf@toke.dk> <87y2hum0t0.fsf@toke.dk> Organization: LWN.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sat, 19 Dec 2020 09:03:36 -0800 "James Bottomley" wrote: > I've got to say that creating a spurious merge for the cover letter > looks even more tortuous than creating an empty commit. What > advantages does this have over the existing link tag practice which is > the one that we now use instead of the empty commit? I do that too when I have a significant series with information in the cover that seems like it should be preserved; it's easy enough to do. I like the merge commit because it clearly ties the cover letter with the series of patches it describes; an empty commit or link tag wouldn't do that. jon