[PATCH v2] docs: 5.Posting.rst: describe Fixes: and Link: tags

* [PATCH v2] docs: 5.Posting.rst: describe Fixes: and Link: tags
@ 2022-01-04 16:53 Thorsten Leemhuis
  2022-01-06 22:29 ` Jonathan Corbet
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Thorsten Leemhuis @ 2022-01-04 16:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-doc
  Cc: workflows, Linux Kernel Mailing List, Konstantin Ryabitsev,
	Jonathan Corbet, Randy Dunlap

Explain Fixes: and Link: tags in Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst,
which are missing in this file for unknown reasons and only described in
Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.

Signed-off-by: Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info>
CC: Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@linuxfoundation.org>
---
Lo! If there is still a chance I'd like to get this patch into v5.17, as
during my work as regression tracker I noticed quite a few developers
seem to be unaware how the Link: tag should be used. Maybe in parts
that's because Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst doesn't describe it
yet, which described things from a another different angle than
Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.

Ciao, Thorsten

v2:
- A few small fixes and changes as suggested by Randy and Jon (thx!)
  during review

v1:
- First version as stand alone patch. It used to be the first patch of
  this series that got abandoned after RFC/v2:
  https://lore.kernel.org/all/cover.1639042966.git.linux@leemhuis.info/
  Patch itself is unchanged, patch description slightly changed. Might
  later submit other changes from that series separately, too, still
  unsure.
---
 Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst | 29 ++++++++++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst b/Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst
index 855a70b80269..bd36ecb29409 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/5.Posting.rst
@@ -197,14 +197,29 @@ the build process, for example, or editor backup files) in the patch.  The
 file "dontdiff" in the Documentation directory can help in this regard;
 pass it to diff with the "-X" option.
 
-The tags mentioned above are used to describe how various developers have
-been associated with the development of this patch.  They are described in
-detail in
-the :ref:`Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst <submittingpatches>`
-document; what follows here is a brief summary.  Each of these lines has
-the format:
+The tags already briefly mentioned above are used to provide insights how
+the patch came into being. They are described in detail in the
+:ref:`Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst <submittingpatches>`
+document; what follows here is a brief summary.
 
-::
+One tag is used to refer to earlier commits which introduced problems fixed by
+the patch::
+
+	Fixes: 1f2e3d4c5b6a ("The first line of the commit specified by the first 12 characters of its SHA-1 ID")
+
+Another tag is used for linking web pages with additional backgrounds or
+details, for example a report about a bug fixed by the patch or a document
+with a specification implemented by the patch::
+
+	Link: https://example.com/somewhere.html  optional-other-stuff
+
+Many maintainers when applying a patch also add this tag to link to the
+latest public review posting of the patch; often this is automatically done
+by tools like b4 or a git hook like the one described in
+'Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst'.
+
+A third kind of tag is used to document who was involved in the development of
+the patch. Each of these uses this format::
 
 	tag: Full Name <email address>  optional-other-stuff
 

base-commit: b36064425a18e29a3bad9c007b4dd1223f8aadc5
-- 
2.31.1


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