Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH] mailmap: add a mailmap file to DPDK

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 05:38:43PM +0200, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> 20/10/2020 17:32, Bruce Richardson:
> > On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 05:17:58PM +0200, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> > > 20/10/2020 17:03, Bruce Richardson:
> > > > On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 04:29:18PM +0200, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> > > > > 20/10/2020 15:07, Bruce Richardson:
> > > > > > Since a number of contributors to DPDK have submitted patches to
> > > > > > DPDK under more than one email address, we should maintain a
> > > > > > mailmap file to properly track their commits using "shortlog". It
> > > > > > also helps fix up any mangled names, for example, with
> > > > > > surname/firstname reversed, or with incorrect capitalization.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I agree it helps fixing typos in names, that's why I have such file.
> > > > > To be really useful, we should add every contributors.
> > > > 
> > > > Surely not every contributor has multiple email addresses or their
> > > > emails in multiple formats?
> > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Signed-off-by: Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com> ---
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > while this list is almost certainly incomplete, this should serve
> > > > > > as a reasonable start-point for building a more complete one.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Do you want me to write a v2?
> > > > > 
> > > > Feel free to. However, I think the contents should be limited to only
> > > > those that need to be there.
> > > 
> > > Misunderstanding then.  The other usage I'm looking at, is your last
> > > sentence above: " It also helps fix up any mangled names, for example,
> > > with surname/firstname reversed, or with incorrect capitalization.  "
> > > This usage requires to have everyone listed.
> > >
> > I've only ever noticed a few instances in DPDK where people's names differ
> > a little - for example, I think there is one instance in hundreds of
> > commits from me where my surname is missing a capital letter, and three
> > instances of surname/firstname reversal, and all of those are from 2014 or
> > earlier.
> > 
> > If most people's names are consistent in the repo then there is no need to
> > add them. I'd view adding for cases like this to be on an as-needed basis,
> > and largely leave it up to people to contribute names to the list when they
> > see a problem. I would not think that there is any need to pro-actively add
> > people to the list in case their name gets messed up in future, especially
> > since, thanks to your work, the use of names has become much more
> > consistent over the years.
> 
> Yes it is because of Ferruh, David and myself fixing names.
> I would prefer this check done in advance by contributors
> and other maintainers. That's why I would like to share
> a script and a big database of names which could be the mailmap.
> 
That does make more sense, but I still find it strange to have to store the
names of each contributor in the mailmap file to achieve this? If we have
the few incorrect names stored here, can we not dynamically get the list of
contributors from "shortlog"?

/Bruce