From 3abd4a67d912e0c0980aa34def6ea55ebde84947 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Bradley M. Kuhn" Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 18:03:55 -0700 Subject: Documentation: stylistically normalize references to Signed-off-by: Ted reported an old typo in the git-commit.txt and merge-options.txt. Namely, the phrase "Signed-off-by line" was used without either a definite nor indefinite article. Upon examination, it seems that the documentation (including items in Documentation/, but also option help strings) have been quite inconsistent on usage when referring to `Signed-off-by`. First, very few places used a definite or indefinite article with the phrase "Signed-off-by line", but that was the initial typo that led to this investigation. So, normalize using either an indefinite or definite article consistently. The original phrasing, in Commit 3f971fc425b (Documentation updates, 2005-08-14), is "Add Signed-off-by line". Commit 6f855371a53 (Add --signoff, --check, and long option-names. 2005-12-09) switched to using "Add `Signed-off-by:` line", but didn't normalize the former commit to match. Later commits seem to have cut and pasted from one or the other, which is likely how the usage became so inconsistent. Junio stated on the git mailing list in a preference to leave off the colon. Thus, prefer `Signed-off-by` (with backticks) for the documentation files and Signed-off-by (without backticks) for option help strings. Additionally, Junio argued that "trailer" is now the standard term to refer to `Signed-off-by`, saying that "becomes plenty clear that we are not talking about any random line in the log message". As such, prefer "trailer" over "line" anywhere the former word fits. However, leave alone those few places in documentation that use Signed-off-by to refer to the process (rather than the specific trailer), or in places where mail headers are generally discussed in comparison with Signed-off-by. Reported-by: "Theodore Y. Ts'o" Signed-off-by: Bradley M. Kuhn Acked-by: Taylor Blau Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/git-revert.txt | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'Documentation/git-revert.txt') diff --git a/Documentation/git-revert.txt b/Documentation/git-revert.txt index 044276e9da..bb92a4a451 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-revert.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-revert.txt @@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ effect to your index in a row. -s:: --signoff:: - Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message. + Add a `Signed-off-by` trailer at the end of the commit message. See the signoff option in linkgit:git-commit[1] for more information. --strategy=:: -- cgit v1.2.3