Signed-off-by

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Last updated: Jun 30, 2018
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Similarly to the Linux kernel development, each DAOS contributor should adhere to the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO). This means developers making contributions certify that they wrote the patch or have the right to pass it on. To certify this, a Signed-off-by: line containing the real name of the contributor (not an alias) must be included at the bottom of each commit comment:

commit b8ed437fabab25febf3b99f66caadc6f0eaab9bc
Author: Jane Doe <jane@daos.io>
Date:   Thu Jul 23 14:26:00 2015 +0800

    DAOS-100 pool: add new feature

    Add awesome new feature to the pool service.

    Change-Id: Ic3f3362da091dd80e8ea19b2df291a4a3c9f91cc
    Signed-off-by: Jane Doe <jane@daos.io>

With the -s/--signoff option, git-commit automatically appends a Signed-off-by: line to the log message with the currently-configured Git account and email (from the ~/.gitconfig or .git/config entries for name= and email=).

Adding this line means that the contributor certifies the following:

Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
    have the right to submit it under the open source license
    indicated in the file; or

(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
    of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
    license and I have the right under that license to submit that
    work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
    by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
    permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
    in the file; or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
    it.

(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
    this project or the open source license(s) involved.

Subsequent developers who co-author or otherwise help shepherd the contribution also add their own attestation so it’s not unusual to end up with a commit message which looks like:

commit 067e922af48c0d9b45da507b5800c3951076c4e9
Author: Jane Doe <jane@daos.io>
Date:   Thu Jul 23 14:26:00 2015 +0800

    DAOS-100 container: add new feature

    Add awesome new feature to the container service.

    Change-Id: Idf6b303b1560346392b0eb645dac96ec195c4206
    Signed-off-by: Jane Doe <jane@daos.io>
    Signed-off-by: John Smith <jsmith@randomcorporate.com>
    Signed-off-by: Richard Roe <rich@daos.io>

Changes submitted to one of the DAOS repositories without the Signed-off-by: line will be rejected.