This is a short series that adds Helped-by tag to the list of accepted
tags in scripts/checkpatch.pl, and describes the intended use of this new
tag in Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.

The proposed Helped-by tag fits well to indicate someone had helped with
the development of a patch, to the level that doesn't warrant providing
a Co-developed-by tag, but is much more than it would've been indicated
by providing a Suggested-by tag.

Changes in v2:
  - Changed into a small patch series
  - Added a patch that describes the intended use of proposed Helped-by
    tag to Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst, to hopefully
    help with accepting this new tag, and to make its intended use more
    clear, as suggested by Chen-Yu [1]
  - Added a patch that reflows a bit one short paragraph in the same
    documentation file mentioned above

Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-kernel/0e1ef28710e3e49222c966f07958a9879fa4e903.1729871544.git.dsimic@manjaro.org/T/#u

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-sunxi/CAGb2v67fLPf-yKObuds3LC77gT_W_OmgSK5y2KotRC-Zn9aL7w@mail.gmail.com/

Dragan Simic (3):
  checkpatch: Make Helped-by tag supported
  docs: submitting-patches: Reflow one short paragraph
  docs: submitting-patches: Describe the use of Helped-by tag

 Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 17 ++++++++++++-----
 scripts/checkpatch.pl                        |  1 +
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> writes:

> This is a short series that adds Helped-by tag to the list of accepted
> tags in scripts/checkpatch.pl, and describes the intended use of this new
> tag in Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.
>
> The proposed Helped-by tag fits well to indicate someone had helped with
> the development of a patch, to the level that doesn't warrant providing
> a Co-developed-by tag, but is much more than it would've been indicated
> by providing a Suggested-by tag.

The documentation is meant to cover our existing conventions, rather
than to drive new ones - usually, at least.  There are exactly 11
commits in the history with Helped-by, suggesting we're not really at an
established convention at this point.  Given that there has been some
resistance to inventing new tags, are we sure that we want this one?

Thanks,

jon

Hello Jonathan,

On 2024-11-06 15:28, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> writes:
> 
>> This is a short series that adds Helped-by tag to the list of accepted
>> tags in scripts/checkpatch.pl, and describes the intended use of this 
>> new
>> tag in Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.
>> 
>> The proposed Helped-by tag fits well to indicate someone had helped 
>> with
>> the development of a patch, to the level that doesn't warrant 
>> providing
>> a Co-developed-by tag, but is much more than it would've been 
>> indicated
>> by providing a Suggested-by tag.
> 
> The documentation is meant to cover our existing conventions, rather
> than to drive new ones - usually, at least.  There are exactly 11
> commits in the history with Helped-by, suggesting we're not really at 
> an
> established convention at this point.  Given that there has been some
> resistance to inventing new tags, are we sure that we want this one?

Thanks for your response.

Of course, the documentation would be updated only if the first patch
in this series becomes accepted, i.e. if Helped-by becomes supported
in checkpatch.pl.  I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

It's usually said that necessity is mother of invention, which is the
case here.  In a few words, I've got another patch pending merging [1]
that a couple of people helped me with.  What they did is more than
what Suggested-by tags would indicate, but doesn't really warrant
Co-developed-by + Signed-off-by pairs or tags.  Having Helped-by tags
provided for both of them would fit pretty much perfectly.

It was very similar, if not the same, when it comes to the development
that led to a few commits already containing Helped-by tags. [2]  Sure,
that isn't a whole lot of such commits, but this may be a good point
to decide what to do with Helped-by tags in the future.

I'm fully aware that we may be reluctant to supporting additional tags,
because we may then end up with a whole bunch of strange tags that might
be a bit hard to understand and use properly, but I think that adding
Helped-by to the supported tag list may actually be a good thing to do.
As described above, Helped-by fits very well between the Suggested-by
tag and the Co-developed-by + Signed-off-by pair of tags, and I think
that providing the right level of attribution may be beneficial.

[1] 
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-sunxi/129f0c754d071cca1db5d207d9d4a7bd9831dff7.1726773282.git.dsimic@manjaro.org/T/#u
[2] 
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/log/?qt=grep&q=Helped-by

Dragan Simic wrote:
[..]
> I'm fully aware that we may be reluctant to supporting additional tags,
> because we may then end up with a whole bunch of strange tags that might
> be a bit hard to understand and use properly, but I think that adding
> Helped-by to the supported tag list may actually be a good thing to do.
> As described above, Helped-by fits very well between the Suggested-by
> tag and the Co-developed-by + Signed-off-by pair of tags, and I think
> that providing the right level of attribution may be beneficial.

Patch attribution is separate from giving thanks. I would much rather
someone take the time to say "Thanks" in the changelog with some
supporting text rather than boil down all the myriad ways to be thankful
into a generic tag. "git log --grep=Thanks" often yields valuable
details, beyond just attribution, on how people have helped each other
develop this global project of ours. If the introduction of Helped-by
would replace even one authentic "Thank you" note with a generic tag
then it is a net loss for the community.

Hello Dan,

On 2024-11-08 20:12, Dan Williams wrote:
> Dragan Simic wrote:
>> I'm fully aware that we may be reluctant to supporting additional 
>> tags,
>> because we may then end up with a whole bunch of strange tags that 
>> might
>> be a bit hard to understand and use properly, but I think that adding
>> Helped-by to the supported tag list may actually be a good thing to 
>> do.
>> As described above, Helped-by fits very well between the Suggested-by
>> tag and the Co-developed-by + Signed-off-by pair of tags, and I think
>> that providing the right level of attribution may be beneficial.
> 
> Patch attribution is separate from giving thanks. I would much rather
> someone take the time to say "Thanks" in the changelog with some
> supporting text rather than boil down all the myriad ways to be 
> thankful
> into a generic tag. "git log --grep=Thanks" often yields valuable
> details, beyond just attribution, on how people have helped each other
> develop this global project of ours. If the introduction of Helped-by
> would replace even one authentic "Thank you" note with a generic tag
> then it is a net loss for the community.

I do agree that writing "Thanks John for helping with..." in a patch
description would be nice, but unfortunately I've seen multiple times
that people don't enjoy writing their patch descriptions at all, and
just want to "get them out the door" as quickly as possible.

With that in mind, making Helped-by tags supported would allow such
people to at least quickly mention someone they're thankful to, which
actually wouldn't prevent anyone from saying the same more verbosely
in a patch description.