On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 10:30 AM Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Newcomers to the kernel need to learn the different tags that are > used in commit messages and when to apply them. Acked-by is sometimes > misunderstood, since the documentation did not really clarify (up to > the previous commit) when it should be used, especially compared to > Reviewed-by. > > The previous commit already clarified who the usual providers of Acked-by > tags are, with examples. Thus provide a clarification paragraph for > the comparison with Reviewed-by, and give a couple examples reusing the > cases given above, in the previous commit. > > Acked-by: Shuah Khan <skhan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Acked-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx> > Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@xxxxxxxxxx> > --- > Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 6 ++++++ > 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+) > > diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst > index c7a28af235f7..7b0ac7370cb1 100644 > --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst > +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst > @@ -480,6 +480,12 @@ mergers will sometimes manually convert an acker's "yep, looks good to me" > into an Acked-by: (but note that it is usually better to ask for an > explicit ack). > > +Acked-by: is also less formal than Reviewed-by:. For instance, maintainers may > +use it to signify that they are OK with a patch landing, but they may not have > +reviewed it as thoroughly as if a Reviewed-by: was provided. Similarly, a key > +user may not have carried out a technical review of the patch, yet they may be > +satisfied with the general approach, the feature or the user-facing interface. > + > Acked-by: does not necessarily indicate acknowledgement of the entire patch. > For example, if a patch affects multiple subsystems and has an Acked-by: from > one subsystem maintainer then this usually indicates acknowledgement of just > -- > 2.48.0 > This doesn't make sense as a distinction. What defines "thoroughly"? To be honest, I think you should go the other way and become okay with people sending Reviewed-by tags when people have looked over a patch and consider it good to land. To me, Acked-by mostly makes sense as a tag for people who *won't* review the code, not for those who *will*. Blending Acked-by and Reviewed-by just creates confusion. -- 真実はいつも一つ！/ Always, there's only one truth!
