[v2,2/3] maint: Tweak comments in mailmap regarding SPF

Commit Message

Eric Blake Sept. 27, 2023, 2:38 p.m. UTC

From: Eric Blake <[e-mail]>

Documenting that we should not add new lines to work around SPF
rewrites sounds foreboding; the intent is instead that new lines here
are okay, but indicate a second problem elsewhere in our build process
that we should also consider fixing at the same time, to keep the
section from growing without bounds.  While we have been doing that
for qemu-devel for a while, we jut recently fixed that for qemu-block:
https://git.linaro.org/people/pmaydell/misc-scripts.git/commit/?id=f9a317392

Mentioning DMARC alongside SPF may also help people grep for this
scenario, as well as documenting the 'git config' workaround that can
be used by submitters to avoid the munging issue in the first place.

Note the subtelty: 'git commit' sets authorship information based on
user.name and user.email (where name is usually unquoted); while 'git
format-patch' includes a body 'From:' line only when sendemail.from is
present but differs from authorship information.  Hence the use of
quotes in sendemail.from (not a semantic change to email, but enough
of a difference to add the body 'From:').

Fixes: 3bd2608d ("maint: Add .mailmap entries for patches claiming list authorship")
CC: Andrey Drobyshev <[e-mail]>
Cc: Peter Maydell <[e-mail]>
Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <[e-mail]>
---

Once again, sending this patch to the list with my git config
temporarily changed.  I used a command line:
 git config sendemail.from '"Eric Blake" <eblakeWredhat.com>'
which turned into this in my .git/config:
[sendemail]
  from = \"Eric Blake\" <[e-mail]>

My editor window in 'git send-email' doesn't show the body from line,
but hopefully the list archives do (that is, the addition of a body
From appears to be a post-processing step done by git after my editor
window closes but before the final mail is actually shoved out my MUA)
---
 .mailmap | 14 +++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Comments

Eric Blake Sept. 27, 2023, 2:51 p.m. UTC | #1

On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 09:38:18AM -0500, Eric Blake wrote:
> From: Eric Blake <[e-mail]>
> 
> Documenting that we should not add new lines to work around SPF
> rewrites sounds foreboding; the intent is instead that new lines here
> are okay, but indicate a second problem elsewhere in our build process
> that we should also consider fixing at the same time, to keep the
> section from growing without bounds.  While we have been doing that
> for qemu-devel for a while, we jut recently fixed that for qemu-block:
> https://git.linaro.org/people/pmaydell/misc-scripts.git/commit/?id=f9a317392
> 
> Mentioning DMARC alongside SPF may also help people grep for this
> scenario, as well as documenting the 'git config' workaround that can
> be used by submitters to avoid the munging issue in the first place.
> 
> Note the subtelty: 'git commit' sets authorship information based on

subtlety

> user.name and user.email (where name is usually unquoted); while 'git
> format-patch' includes a body 'From:' line only when sendemail.from is

s/format-patch/send-email/

The comments in the patch proper were correct, but the commit message
needs a tweak.  Based on my testing, 'git send-email --annotate'
invokes the editor on the output of an implicit 'git format-patch',
which does not have a body from line yet; it is the post-processing
step of send-email that finally adds it.

> present but differs from authorship information.  Hence the use of
> quotes in sendemail.from (not a semantic change to email, but enough
> of a difference to add the body 'From:').
> 
> Fixes: 3bd2608d ("maint: Add .mailmap entries for patches claiming list authorship")
> CC: Andrey Drobyshev <[e-mail]>
> Cc: Peter Maydell <[e-mail]>
> Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <[e-mail]>
> ---
> 
> Once again, sending this patch to the list with my git config
> temporarily changed.  I used a command line:
>  git config sendemail.from '"Eric Blake" <eblakeWredhat.com>'
> which turned into this in my .git/config:
> [sendemail]
>   from = \"Eric Blake\" <[e-mail]>
> 
> My editor window in 'git send-email' doesn't show the body from line,
> but hopefully the list archives do (that is, the addition of a body
> From appears to be a post-processing step done by git after my editor
> window closes but before the final mail is actually shoved out my MUA)

Yay, it appears to have worked!

https://patchew.org/search?q=project%3AQEMU+from%3ABlake

lists this series under 'Eric Blake' rather than '[e-mail]';
and inspecting the mail headers shows that the "" were indeed present
in the headers, while git inserted a body From because it was not
identical to the actual commit authorship without quotes.

> ---
>  .mailmap | 14 +++++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/.mailmap b/.mailmap
> index 04a7feb005b..fadf6e74506 100644
> --- a/.mailmap
> +++ b/.mailmap
> @@ -40,7 +40,19 @@ Nick Hudson <[e-mail]> [e-mail] <[e-mail]>
>  # for the cvs2svn initialization commit e63c3dc74bf.
> 
>  # Next, translate a few commits where mailman rewrote the From: line due
> -# to strict SPF, although we prefer to avoid adding more entries like that.
> +# to strict SPF and DMARC.  Usually, our build process should be flagging
> +# commits like these before maintainer merges; if you find the need to add
> +# a line here, please also report a bug against the part of the build
> +# process that let the mis-attribution slip through in the first place.
> +#
> +# If the mailing list munges your emails, use:
> +#   git config sendemail.from '"Your Name" <[e-mail]>'
> +# the use of "" in that line will differ from the typically unquoted
> +# 'git config user.name', which in turn is sufficient for 'git send-email'
> +# to add an extra From: line in the body of your email that takes
> +# precedence over any munged From: in the mail's headers.
> +# See https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/166515
> +# and https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2023-09/msg06784.html
>  Ed Swierk <[e-mail]> Ed Swierk via Qemu-devel <[e-mail]>
>  Ian McKellar <[e-mail]> Ian McKellar via Qemu-devel <[e-mail]>
>  Julia Suvorova <[e-mail]> Julia Suvorova via Qemu-devel <[e-mail]>
> -- 
> 2.41.0
>

Peter Maydell Sept. 27, 2023, 2:55 p.m. UTC | #2

On Wed, 27 Sept 2023 at 15:40, Eric Blake <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> From: Eric Blake <[e-mail]>
>
> Documenting that we should not add new lines to work around SPF
> rewrites sounds foreboding; the intent is instead that new lines here
> are okay, but indicate a second problem elsewhere in our build process
> that we should also consider fixing at the same time, to keep the
> section from growing without bounds.  While we have been doing that
> for qemu-devel for a while, we jut recently fixed that for qemu-block:
> https://git.linaro.org/people/pmaydell/misc-scripts.git/commit/?id=f9a317392
>
> Mentioning DMARC alongside SPF may also help people grep for this
> scenario, as well as documenting the 'git config' workaround that can
> be used by submitters to avoid the munging issue in the first place.
>
> Note the subtelty: 'git commit' sets authorship information based on
> user.name and user.email (where name is usually unquoted); while 'git
> format-patch' includes a body 'From:' line only when sendemail.from is
> present but differs from authorship information.  Hence the use of
> quotes in sendemail.from (not a semantic change to email, but enough
> of a difference to add the body 'From:').
>
> Fixes: 3bd2608d ("maint: Add .mailmap entries for patches claiming list authorship")
> CC: Andrey Drobyshev <[e-mail]>
> Cc: Peter Maydell <[e-mail]>
> Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <[e-mail]>
> ---

Reviewed-by: Peter Maydell <[e-mail]>

thanks
-- PMM

Patch

diff --git a/.mailmap b/.mailmap
index 04a7feb005b..fadf6e74506 100644
--- a/.mailmap
+++ b/.mailmap
@@ -40,7 +40,19 @@  Nick Hudson <[e-mail]> [e-mail] <[e-mail]>
 # for the cvs2svn initialization commit e63c3dc74bf.

 # Next, translate a few commits where mailman rewrote the From: line due
-# to strict SPF, although we prefer to avoid adding more entries like that.
+# to strict SPF and DMARC.  Usually, our build process should be flagging
+# commits like these before maintainer merges; if you find the need to add
+# a line here, please also report a bug against the part of the build
+# process that let the mis-attribution slip through in the first place.
+#
+# If the mailing list munges your emails, use:
+#   git config sendemail.from '"Your Name" <[e-mail]>'
+# the use of "" in that line will differ from the typically unquoted
+# 'git config user.name', which in turn is sufficient for 'git send-email'
+# to add an extra From: line in the body of your email that takes
+# precedence over any munged From: in the mail's headers.
+# See https://lists.openembedded.org/g/openembedded-core/message/166515
+# and https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2023-09/msg06784.html
 Ed Swierk <[e-mail]> Ed Swierk via Qemu-devel <[e-mail]>
 Ian McKellar <[e-mail]> Ian McKellar via Qemu-devel <[e-mail]>
 Julia Suvorova <[e-mail]> Julia Suvorova via Qemu-devel <[e-mail]>