Re: [PATCH] Add short author date to Fixes tag

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From: Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]>
To: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <[email protected]>, Mark Brown <[email protected]>, 
	Sasha Levin <[email protected]>, Geert Uytterhoeven <[email protected]>, 
	Jacob Keller <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], 
	Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]>, Theodore Ts'o <[email protected]>, 
	Andy Whitcroft <[email protected]>, Joe Perches <[email protected]>, 
	Dwaipayan Ray <[email protected]>, Lukas Bulwahn <[email protected]>, 
	Andrew Morton <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], 
	[email protected], [email protected], Andrew Lunn <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add short author date to Fixes tag
Message-ID: <aZ9p2RMrJL1mQ10w@devuan>
References: <aZ4_sBIy8rOUL59Q@devuan>
 <2026022531-tightness-rare-6a14@gregkh>
 <aZ87Z24f9HZsofGl@devuan>
 <2026022539-commotion-huskiness-8736@gregkh>
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <2026022539-commotion-huskiness-8736@gregkh>

Hi Greg,

On 2026-02-25T13:23:24-0800, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > Commit date also doesn't matter.  If I commit a fix to one of my
> > > branches today, but Linus pulls it in in 2 years from now, what would
> > > that date really show to anyone?
> >=20
> > I think this is a bit confused.
> >=20
> > If you commit a fix for a commit that is in Linus's tree, your Fixes tag
> > will refer to the mainline commit, and the Fixes tag will remain valid
> > if the fix is pulled by Linus in the future, because it will continue to
> > refer to the same commit with the same hash and date.
>=20
> But we do not need the date!  It provides no additional information that
> we can't just look up if we really need it.
>=20
> The HASH ("text") format does 2 things, it provides an id we can use to
> look up more, and the text is there to give humans a hint if they don't
> want or need to look it up.

The date gives more information to humans to decide if the commit is
important to look up.  Sometimes, a subject can be ambiguous to the
human, even if it's not ambiguous to a machine.  The date can help give
some context to a human.  For example, one could relate a commit to a
series that was merged around that date.

The date uses few characters, so it's not too expensive in terms of
space.  You may even take some space back by dropping a few characters
=66rom the hash.  Also, by having a fixed-width, it doesn't distract much,
as all subjects will still be aligned, so the eyes can jump it easily if
not interesting (just like the hash).

I appreciate seeing the date in my Fixes tags elsewhere, as it avoids
looking up some commits, which I would look up if I hadn't seen the
date.

Secondarily, it helps with the ID, in case it becomes ambiguous.  But
I started using it for the human part of it.

>  There is no need to include anything else,
> let's keep it simple please.

Okay; I won't insist.


Have a lovely night!
Alex

>=20
> thanks,
>=20
> greg k-h

--=20
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>

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