git/Documentation/signoff-option.txt
Bradley M. Kuhn 3abd4a67d9 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 3f971fc425 (Documentation updates,
2005-08-14), is "Add Signed-off-by line".  Commit 6f855371a5 (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
<xmqqy2k1dfoh.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com> 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" <tytso@mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Bradley M. Kuhn <bkuhn@sfconservancy.org>
Acked-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2020-10-20 11:57:40 -07:00

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ifdef::git-commit[]
-s::
endif::git-commit[]
--signoff::
--no-signoff::
Add a `Signed-off-by` trailer by the committer at the end of the commit
log message. The meaning of a signoff depends on the project
to which you're committing. For example, it may certify that
the committer has the rights to submit the work under the
project's license or agrees to some contributor representation,
such as a Developer Certificate of Origin.
(See http://developercertificate.org for the one used by the
Linux kernel and Git projects.) Consult the documentation or
leadership of the project to which you're contributing to
understand how the signoffs are used in that project.
+
The --no-signoff option can be used to countermand an earlier --signoff
option on the command line.