From: Krzysztof Kozlowski Date: Wed, 20 May 2026 15:48:47 +0000 (+0200) Subject: docs: submitting-patches: Clarify that "reviewer" is a person X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=48c3876a6a6f78578ccd0fec71ef67fd6a3fd6f5;p=thirdparty%2Fkernel%2Flinux.git docs: submitting-patches: Clarify that "reviewer" is a person Common understanding of word "Reviewer" is: a person performing a review work [1]. Tools are not persons, thus cannot be reviewers in this term. Also tools cannot make statements and cannot take responsibility for the review. Our docs already clearly mark that "Reviewed-by" must come from a person: - "By offering my Reviewed-by: tag, I state that:" Usage of first person "I" and word "state" - "A Reviewed-by tag is *a statement of opinion* that the patch is an appropriate modification of the kernel without any remaining serious" Only a person can make a statement of opinion. - "Any interested reviewer (who has done the work) can offer a Reviewed-by" A person can offer a tag thus above does not grant the tool permission to offer a tag. However this might not be enough, so let's clarify that only a person with a known identity can state the "Reviewer's statement of oversight". Link: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reviewer [1] Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman Cc: Vlastimil Babka Cc: Andrew Morton Cc: David Hildenbrand Cc: Linus Torvalds Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) Acked-by: Randy Dunlap Reviewed-by: Mark Brown Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman Signed-off-by: Krzysztof Kozlowski Reviewed-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Message-ID: <20260520154846.162170-2-krzysztof.kozlowski@oss.qualcomm.com> --- diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst index d7290e208e72d..cc6a1f73d7f20 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst @@ -581,12 +581,12 @@ By offering my Reviewed-by: tag, I state that: A Reviewed-by tag is a statement of opinion that the patch is an appropriate modification of the kernel without any remaining serious -technical issues. Any interested reviewer (who has done the work) can -offer a Reviewed-by tag for a patch. This tag serves to give credit to -reviewers and to inform maintainers of the degree of review which has been -done on the patch. Reviewed-by: tags, when supplied by reviewers known to -understand the subject area and to perform thorough reviews, will normally -increase the likelihood of your patch getting into the kernel. +technical issues. Any interested reviewer (who has done the work and is a +person with known identity) can offer a Reviewed-by tag for a patch. This tag +serves to give credit to reviewers and to inform maintainers of the degree of +review which has been done on the patch. Reviewed-by: tags, when supplied by +reviewers known to understand the subject area and to perform thorough reviews, +will normally increase the likelihood of your patch getting into the kernel. Both Tested-by and Reviewed-by tags, once received on mailing list from tester or reviewer, should be added by author to the applicable patches when sending