Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] Documentation: best practices for using Link trailers

From: Michael Ellerman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 14:27:34 +1000

Konstantin Ryabitsev <[email-masked]> writes:
> Based on multiple conversations, most recently on the ksummit mailing
> list [1], add some best practices for using the Link trailer, such as:
>
> - how to use markdown-like bracketed numbers in the commit message to
> indicate the corresponding link
> - when to use lore.kernel.org vs patch.msgid.link domains
>
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20240617-arboreal-industrious-hedgehog-5b84ae@meerkat # [1]
> Signed-off-by: Konstantin Ryabitsev <[email-masked]>
> ---
>  Documentation/process/maintainer-tip.rst | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++--------
>  1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-tip.rst b/Documentation/process/maintainer-tip.rst
> index 64739968afa6..ba312345d030 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-tip.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-tip.rst
> @@ -372,17 +372,31 @@ following tag ordering scheme:
>  
>   - Link: ``https://link/to/information``
>  
> -   For referring to an email on LKML or other kernel mailing lists,
> -   please use the lore.kernel.org redirector URL::
> +   For referring to an email posted to the kernel mailing lists, please
> +   use the lore.kernel.org redirector URL::
>  
> -     https://lore.kernel.org/r/email-message@id
> +     Link: https://lore.kernel.org/email-message-id@here
>  
> -   The kernel.org redirector is considered a stable URL, unlike other email
> -   archives.
> +   This URL should be used when referring to relevant mailing list
> +   topics, related patch sets, or other notable discussion threads.
> +   A convenient way to associate ``Link:`` trailers with the commit
> +   message is to use markdown-like bracketed notation, for example::
>  
> -   Maintainers will add a Link tag referencing the email of the patch
> -   submission when they apply a patch to the tip tree. This tag is useful
> -   for later reference and is also used for commit notifications.
> +     A similar approach was attempted before as part of a different
> +     effort [1], but the initial implementation caused too many
> +     regressions [2], so it was backed out and reimplemented.
> +
> +     Link: https://lore.kernel.org/some-msgid@here # [1]
> +     Link: https://bugzilla.example.org/bug/12345  # [2]

Does it actually make sense to use the Link: prefix here? These sort of
links are part of the prose, they're not something a script can download
and make any sense of.

I see some existing usage of the above style, but equally there's lots
of examples of footnote-style links without the Link: tag, eg:

commit 40b561e501768ef24673d0e1d731a7b9b1bc6709
Merge: d9f843fbd45e 31611cc8faa0
Author: Arnd Bergmann <[email-masked]>
Date:   Mon Apr 29 22:29:44 2024 +0200

    Merge tag 'tee-ts-for-v6.10' of https://git.linaro.org/people/jens.wiklander/linux-tee into soc/drivers

    TEE driver for Trusted Services

    This introduces a TEE driver for Trusted Services [1].

    Trusted Services is a TrustedFirmware.org project that provides a
    framework for developing and deploying device Root of Trust services in
    FF-A [2] Secure Partitions. The project hosts the reference
    implementation of Arm Platform Security Architecture [3] for Arm
    A-profile devices.

    ...

    [1] https://www.trustedfirmware.org/projects/trusted-services/
    [2] https://developer.arm.com/documentation/den0077/
    [3] https://www.arm.com/architecture/security-features/platform-security

The above style is standard markdown style for reference links (or as
standard as markdown gets).

cheers