[Zlib-devel] zlib 1.2.5.1 baseline

[Mark Adler]

On Sep 11, 2011, at 12:27 PM, <jbowler at acm.org> <jbowler at acm.org> wrote:
> Mark said:
>> My preference (not demand) is that the patches be in an email with something you
>> write preceding it that provides some context to the group.  Like why these patches
>> should be included, what motivated you to write these patches, that I should ignore the
>> last seven similar patches that you sent, what tangled series of unfortunate events led
>> to the discovery of the problem and the patch, what dreadful consequences will ensue if
>> the patch is not applied, and what amazing performance benefits will be realized when
>> the patch is applied -- the sort of stuff that would probably not be in the commit message itself.
> 
> If you intend to use git am to apply the patches then additional comments in the email will simply get lost.  Maybe there is an option to avoid this, but it's work.
> 
> It will be much easier for you, assuming you want to apply the patches without edits, to ask for all the explanation to be in the commit message.

Yes, you can put as much information as you like in the commit.  The more the better.  If all of the kind of context that I talked about is in the commit itself, great.  If not, then I would like context in the email that contains the patch.   I will leave what's in the commit in the commit, and I will leave what's in the email in the email.  You may not feel like putting the history of the world in the commit, which is fine by me.  Or there may be things you would like to say that are not value-added to be recorded in the eternal history of the commit.  Comments such as how this patch is obviously better than the patch from that other guy, comments about the parentage of the benevolent dictator, etc.

Mark