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Our submission guidelines require people to use their real name, but this is not always suitable for various reasons. For people who are transgender or non-binary and are transitioning or who think they might want to transition, it can be a major obstacle and cause major discomfort to require the use of their real name. This is made worse by the fact that Git provides no way to change names built into history, so the use of a deadname is forever. Our code of conduct states that we "pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community," and changing this policy is one way we can improve things for contributors. In addition, there are some developers who are so widely known pseudonymously that they have a Wikipedia page with their handle and no real name. It would seem silly to reject patches from people who are known and respected in their open-source community just because they don't wish to share a real name. There are also other good reasons why people might operate pseudonymously: because they or their family members are well known and they wish to protect their privacy, because of current or past harassment or retaliation or fear of that happening in the future, or because of concerns about unwanted attention from government officials or other authority figures. As much as possible, we want to welcome contributions from anyone who is willing to participate positively in our community without having them worry about their safety or privacy. In all of these cases, we should allow people to proceed using a preferred name or pseudonymously if, in their best judgment, that's the right thing to do. State that it is common to use a real name but explicitly mention that contributors who are not comfortable doing so or prefer to operate pseudonymously or under a preferred name can proceed otherwise, provided the name is distinctive, identifying, and not misleading. For instance, using U+2060 (WORD JOINER) as one's ID would likely be distinctive but not identifying, since most people would have trouble reading it due to its zero-width nature. We prohibit identities which are misleading, since our goal is to create a community which works together with a common goal, and misleading or deceiving others is not conducive to good community or compatible with our code of conduct, nor is it compatible with making a legal assertion about the provenance of one's code. Explicitly prohibit anonymous contributions to ensure that we have some line of provenance to a known (if pseudonymous) author who might be able to respond to questions about it. Explain that this is the reason we have this policy to help contributors understand the rationale better. Use "some form of your real name" since some current contributors use shortened forms of their name or use initials, which have always been considered acceptable. This helps guide people who would be fine using their real name but have misconfigured `user.name` thinking it is intended to be a username or is used for authentication (despite our documentation to the contrary), but also allows for a variety of circumstances where the contributor would feel more comfortable not doing so. Note that this policy is the same as that of the Linux kernel[0] and the CNCF[1], as well as many smaller projects. The Linux kernel patch was Acked-by one of the Linux Foundation's lawyers, Michael Dolan, so it appears these changes have had legal review. Additionally, retain the section header ID for ease of linking across versions. [0] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d4563201f33a022fc0353033d9dfeb1606a88330 [1] https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/659fd32c86dc/dco-guidelines.md Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Git - fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.
See Documentation/gittutorial.adoc to get started, then see
Documentation/giteveryday.adoc for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-<commandname>.adoc for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the
documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.adoc
(man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is
installed).
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission and Documentation/CodingGuidelines).
Those wishing to help with error message, usage and informational message
string translations (localization l10) should see po/README.md
(a po file is a Portable Object file that holds the translations).
To subscribe to the list, send an email to git+subscribe@vger.kernel.org (see https://subspace.kernel.org/subscribing.html for details). The mailing list archives are available at https://lore.kernel.org/git/, https://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.
Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the Git Security mailing list git-security@googlegroups.com.
The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (depending on your mood):
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks