Re: [bug-inetutils] regarding "Reported by ..." in ChangeLog

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   address@hidden (Alfred M. Szmidt) writes:

   >    I normally use "Reported by" when _I_ wrote something based on a
   >    report from someone (and I wanted to give credit to the reporter).
   >    This style is used by gnulib, coreutils and other projects.  What
   >    would you recommend instead of "Reported by" for that situation?
   >    None of the above styles seems appropriate to me, as it would then
   >    look like the reporter wrote the patch (be it tiny or not).
   >
   > In that case, I would mention them in THANKS.  The main reason for the
   > "name field" in the ChangeLog is for copyright reasons.  If a person
   > only reported a bug, they have no claim to copyright over the patch.

   Right.  If we put "Reported by foo" in the comment describing the
   change, the "name field" would still accurately describe who the
   copyright holder is.  The reporter should preferrably get
   acknowledged in THANKS as well.  However, I believe it is useful to
   have the name of the reporter in the ChangeLog too, to follow why
   someone did something.

I've never used the field, I find it very distracting and not needed.
The "why" should be in the comment relating to the change, the name of
a report doesn't really help there.