Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 1 Jun 2007 20:37:27 -0400 (EDT) | From | "John Anthony Kazos Jr." <> | Subject | Re: [patch 1/1] document Acked-by: |
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> > I think the comment had to do with the concept that ACK/NAK implies > > authority. If you're not the maintainer, it's rude to imply that you > > are. Obvious, test reports (good or bad!) are always welcome. > > Well, I understand a test is a different thing, an experiment to > see if the patch works or not, while ack/etc. is just opinion > of someone who reads the patch without actually using it. > > I think ack/etc doesn't, in any way, imply being the maintainer, > though it imply that the "acker" has actually read the code, > understands it, and believes it's correct (or not, and why). > > If we want to differentiate between "authoritative" and > "non-authoritative" opinions (and the name and email address > aren't enough) then I think we need to state that explicite > (perhaps something like "Acked-by: FIRST M. LAST <addr>, XXX > subsystem maintainer" would suffice).
"Acked-by:" does not mean "I like this" but rather "I approve of this". Someone who is not a maintainer is encouraged to speak of like and dislike, in great detail, but has no position at all to approve or disapprove of it going in.
If I put "Acked-by: John..." on a patch of any kind, even trivial, it would look incredibly stupid, because I'm just some guy messing around with the kernel. A tactful response to me doing that from any actual kernel bigwig would be, "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you are not part of the kernel patch flow." Similarly, a tactful response to me NACKing a patch would be, "I appreciate your concern, but you are in no position to remove a patch from the stream. Your comments will be considered and implemented or countered by an actual maintainer."
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