[openstack-dev] Proposal to recognize indirect contributions to our code base

Thierry Carrez thierry at openstack.org
Tue Nov 12 09:58:03 UTC 2013


Nicolas Barcet wrote:
> [...]
> To enable this, we are proposing that the commit text of a patch may
> include a 
>    sponsored-by: <sponsorname>
> line which could be used by various tools to report on these commits.
> [...] 

This proposal raises several questions.

(1) Is it a good idea to allow giving credit to patch sponsors

On one hand, this encourages customers of OpenStack service companies to
fund sending back bugfixes and features upstream. On the other, it
(slightly) discourages them to get involved more directly in OpenStack,
and exposes company-specific information in a place where only
individual contributors were exposed before.

I'm not sure we really need to encourage sending bugfixes upstream.
People who don't do it will lose in the end... So this is the smart move
for them, and they should realize that.

In summary, I see how adding this would be beneficial to the OpenStack
service companies... not entirely convinced of the technical benefit for
the OpenStack open source projects.


(2) Is the commit message the right place to track this

Commit messages may contain anything, as long as the reviewers accept it
:) I'm slightly concerned by the use of (technical) commit messages to
convey company-specific credits... but I agree that would be the most
convenient place to track this.


(3) Is this something the Technical Committee can actually mandate

This obviously needs buy-in from the PTLs of the various programs, and
by extension their core reviewer teams. We can definitely encourage them
to accept commit messages containing that information, but unless we can
come up with a good reason why this would make OpenStack technically
better, I don't see us being able to enforce it across the board...

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)



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