[Linux-kernel-mentees] [PATCH v3] checkpatch: add new warnings to author signoff checks.

[Joe Perches]

On Tue, 2020-10-06 at 01:37 +0530, Dwaipayan Ray wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 1:07 AM Joe Perches <joe at perches.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 2020-10-06 at 00:54 +0530, Dwaipayan Ray wrote:
> > > The author signed-off-by checks are currently very vague.
> > > Cases like same name or same address are not handled separately.
> > 
> > When you run tests for this, how many mismatches are
> > caused by name formatting changes like:
> > 
> > From: "Developer, J. Random" <jrd at bigcorp.com>
> > ...
> > Signed-off-by: "J. Random Developer" <jrd at bigcorp.com>?
> > 
> > Should these differences generate a warning?
> > 
> 
> Hi,
> I ran my tests on non merge commits between v5.7 and v5.8.
> 
> There were a total of 250 NO_AUTHOR_SIGN_OFF Warnings
> 
> 203 of these were email address mismatches.
> 32 of these were name mismatches.
> 
> So for the name mismatches, the typical cases are like:
> 
> 'From: tannerlove <tannerlove at google.com>' != 'Signed-off-by: Tanner
> Love <tannerlove at google.com>'
> 'From: "朱灿灿" <zhucancan at vivo.com>' != 'Signed-off-by: zhucancan
> <zhucancan at vivo.com>'
> 'From: Yuval Basson <ybason at marvell.com>' != 'Signed-off-by: Yuval
> Bason <ybason at marvell.com>'
> 'From: allen <allen.chen at ite.com.tw>' != 'Signed-off-by: Allen Chen
> <allen.chen at ite.com.tw>'
> 
> I didn't find the exact formatting change you mentioned in my commit range.
> But I did find something like:
> 
> 'From: "Paul A. Clarke" <pc at us.ibm.com>' != 'Signed-off-by: Paul
> Clarke <pc at us.ibm.com>'
> 
> So it's like some have parts of their names removed, some have language
> conflicts, and yet some have well different spellings, or initials,
> etc. It's like
> a wide variety of things happening here.
> 
> I think considering these, it should be warned about, and let people know
> that there might be something wrong going on.
> 
> What do you think?

Except for comments and quotes like:

	From: J. Random Developer (BigCorp) <jrd at bigcorp.com>
	Signed-off-by: "J. Random Developer" <jrd at bigcorp.com>

I think any time there's a mismatch, there
should be a warning emitted.

That includes any subaddress detail difference.