site: git.md: document research on pseudonymous contributions.

The Guix manual[1] allows patches under pseudonymous:
    Contributors are not required to use their legal name in patches
    and on-line communication; they can use any name or pseudonym of
    their choice.
[1]https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/html_node/Contributing.html

For Guix packages that contain patches to other upstream projects we
would need to contact the upstream project to best see how to handle
that.

As for the documentation, part of it is most likely to stay specific
to GNU Boot, but other parts could be merged into Guix (which was
already checked), GRUB or other projects to simplify maintenance.

As for the GNU Boot build system, it's most likely specific to GNU
Boot or likely to be moved into Guix packages at some point. The only
problematic cases that can remain are the move of the build logic
inside upstream project or for transforming hacks into autotools
contributions.

But in any case when contributions that could be merged in projects
that weren't checked are made, the GNU Boot maintainers and/or
followers of the GNU Boot patches mailing list could simply mention
the issue and look up the upstream policy with regard to pseudonymous
contributions, and if that doesn't work out, work with upstream
projects to find a solution.

Signed-off-by: Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo@cyberdimension.org>
Acked-by: Adrien 'neox' Bourmault <neox@gnu.org>
This commit is contained in:
Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli 2024-05-01 18:29:00 +02:00
parent c97a4d903a
commit 5b58977b5e
Signed by: GNUtoo
GPG Key ID: 5F5DFCC14177E263
1 changed files with 25 additions and 10 deletions

View File

@ -113,18 +113,33 @@ Many projects using free software licenses do accept contributions
from anyone but in many cases they also need to be able to track the from anyone but in many cases they also need to be able to track the
copyright ownership of the contributions for various reasons. copyright ownership of the contributions for various reasons.
This usually makes anonymous or pseudonymous contributions more This usually makes anonymous or pseudonymous contributions to the code
complicated, but that doesn't make them impossible. more complicated, but that doesn't make them impossible.
If you want to contribute anonymously or pseudonymously the best way The main difficulty for GNU Boot is that GNU boot wants to contribute
is to contact us publicly (for instance on our mailing list, using a some of its changes to other projects it reuses such as Coreboot,
mail and name that you use only for that) so we could look into it and GRUB, Guix, and so we need GNU Boot code or documentation
try to find ways that work for GNU Boot but also potentially for other contributions to be compatible with the way other projects track
upstream projects as well and this way enable you to contribute to a copyright ownership.
wide variety of projects under free licenses with way less friction.
Note that for patches, the contributions that you make are publicly Because of that, if you want to contribute anonymously or
recorded, in a Git repository which everyone can access. pseudonymously the best way is to contact us publicly (for instance on
our mailing list, using a mail and name that you use only for that) so
we could look into it and try to find ways that work for GNU Boot but
also potentially for other upstream projects as well and this way
enable you to contribute to a wide variety of projects under free
licenses with way less friction.
We already looked into it for various cases, and pseudonymous
contributions should not have any special issues for contributing to
most of the GNU Boot documentation/website and for translating them,
for Guix packages, and for most parts of the GNU Boot build system. As
for contributions that include patches to other upstream projects like
Coreboot, we would need to look into it.
Note that if you send patches to GNU Boot, the contributions that you
make are publicly recorded, in a Git repository which everyone can
access.
And these contributions include a name, an email address and even a And these contributions include a name, an email address and even a
precise date in which the contribution was made. It is relatively easy precise date in which the contribution was made. It is relatively easy