"Locale Updater" listed under contributors section

[Wallacoloo]

In the Help -> About -> Involved textbox which lists all authors of LMMS ordered by commit count, along with their email address, there is an author called "Locale updater" with no email listed. This seems like an accident.

Similarly, there is a "Ubuntu <ubuntu@ubuntu-1204.(none)>" user, whom I would suspect was somebody who didn't set up their git id correctly.

This data is generated inside CMakeList.txt via the shell script git shortlog -sne | cut -c8-.

Should the script be modified to filter out these specific "authors" via a blacklist? It could easily be done by piping the output into something like sed '/Locale updater <>/d ; /Ubuntu <ubuntu@ubuntu-1204.(none)>/d''.

[midi-pascal]

Hum... I think "Ubuntu <ubuntu@ubuntu-1204.(none)>" is me 👎
I am not very efficient with git and recently discovered how to setup this when committing.
And "pascal <pascal@TDE.(none)>" is me, too!
What a shame :(

[Wallacoloo]

"Locale updater" appears to originate in a commit @lukas-w made back in January: 85fb0ac

I do not know if it's possible to map ownership of that commit back to him, or if he'd even think it's worth the effort.

The "Ubuntu" author comes from these commits (reverse-chronological):

1. f601e01
2. 8288185
3. 74e53f8
4. 40f6409
5. d95fea2
6. c01799e
7. bca5ce8 (commit message here has some hints)
8. 858033c

A bit of digging shows that all the "Ubuntu <ubuntu@ubuntu-1204.(none)>" are actually likely from @tresf, so you're in the clear @midi-pascal ;-) number 1 and 2 originate in #1236, number 3 and 4 from #1143, number 5 from #1142, number 6 from #1141, number 7 from #1015 and #896 (reference) and number 8 from #969.

I hope I don't come off as trying to blame anyone for making mistakes here - I'm just trying to track down the owners of these commits so we can figure out what to do. Luckily, all the authors appear to still be active. @lukas-w, @tresf, seeing as how you're the owners of these commits, what do you think we should do?

I found some useful info for dealing with commits that are not linked to users correctly.

@tresf since your commits have an email address associated with them, you might be able to claim ownership of them by simply associating that email address with github: https://help.github.com/articles/adding-an-email-address-to-your-github-account/ however, since the email address is invalid, that may not work.

I found a guide on how to change the author information for a previous commit, but it appears that would require rewriting the entire history of the repository, which is very much undesirable.

[midi-pascal]

@Wallacoloo At least I am clear for one of the two since the other one - "pascal <pascal@TDE.(none)>" - is me for sure. I remember the commits I made with this name.
Sorry to have polluted the contributors list.

[Wallacoloo]

My recommendation: since the authors of these commits already appear elsewhere in the github repository with their correct email/name, they are still credited on the CONTRIBUTORS list. By simply blacklisting the invalid author data from the CONTRIBUTORS list generation, we fix the relevant portion of the issue, but every author of LMMS who ought to be credited will still show up on the list.

The only downside to doing this over fixing the commits is that the CONTRIBUTORS list is ordered by commit-count, and you're all not being credited for a few of them. This amounts to only 0.4% of @lukas-w's commits and 2.5% of @tresf's commits, and your order on the list isn't effected.

@midi-pascal, unfortunately the "pascal <pascal@TDE.(none)>" authorname contains 80% of your commits, and so you are placed lower on the CONTRIBUTORS list than you should be. But if you want your old authorname to be blacklisted, and to only have "midi-pascal midi-pascal@videotron.ca" shown on the list, we could do that.

[midi-pascal]

@Wallacoloo Since it is my mistake, I cannot complain but if my old author name does not cause any problems I prefer to not have it blacklisted. I already mentioned it in my CV for a job...

[Wallacoloo]

@midi-pascal I don't have a problem with that. I only really have a problem with things being listed on there that are obviously not people (i.e. "Locale Updater" and "Ubuntu .,.")

[midi-pascal]

@Wallacoloo 👍

[tresf]

In terms of "Ubuntu".... For some strange reason despite using the proper un/pw, this happens (happenned?) when the VM of choice didn't have the account info entered in git CLI. Without rewriting history, the best approach IMO is to filter it out completely forever. I'm sure one of my 10/VMs will continue to do this in the future, so filtering it out is the most accurate thing to do without writing a hard coded workaround.

Lukas and I seem to be the most affected and we have enough properly accredited commits so that it won't put us to this bottom of the credits, so it is safe to filter out. Thanks for the attention to detail.

We may also allow some combination of addresses for those that have changed addresses over time. I think Vesa is listed several times because of this reason. 👍

[tresf]

Just read about midi-pascal... If we can combine (the non-generics) at compile time, that would be ideal. Several addresses are bound to change, so that would be a well received addition, if feasible.

[lukas-w]

Using "Locale Updater" as an author was not an accident. :)
I used that author in 85fb0ac because all I did was run cmake update-locales, so all changes in the commit were made by a program, but is still has ~80,000 additions/deletions. I didn't want to credit myself (or any person) with that.

[lukas-w]

When an author has used different addresses over time, adding them to the .mailmap file should fix the author being listed several times.

[tresf]

When an author has used different addresses over time, adding them to the .mailmap file should fix the author being listed several times.

👍

[midi-pascal]

@lukas-w 👍 This is great! May I add my two entries myself in this file?

[Wallacoloo]

@midi-pascal Please do!

[midi-pascal]

@Wallacoloo Done! :-)

[Wallacoloo]

So should we go ahead and map Locale Updater <> to anonymous <>, and <ubuntu@ubuntu-1204.(none)> back to @tresf? (Or would you prefer the latter also be mapped to anonymous in case somebody else mistakenly commits under the same generic email?)

[Wallacoloo]

Sorry for closing - hit the wrong button :P

[tresf]

Well, <ubuntu@ubuntu-1204.(none)> is certainly me (it's how I name my VMs) so that's safe to keep I think as it is unlikely someone will use that exact same username and hostname to commit back to GitHub on our project. :)

[tresf]

So, yes, what you said. 👍

[Wallacoloo]

Alright, I was able to take care of yours @tresf through #2142 , but I couldn't figure out how to do anything with the Locale updater, since it doesn't have an actual email address. Neither anonymous <> Locale updater <> nor anonymous <> <> (which is a bit riskier) actually do anything.

[Wallacoloo]

Scratch that. By adding an extra space, I was able to get anonymous < > Locale updater <> to work. @lukas-w if you can take a look at the proposed change and chime in when you get the chance, 'twould be appreciated.

[tresf]

You can put <support@lmms.io> if you'd like. It's valid.

[Wallacoloo]

@tresf if somebody sends a letter to that email address, will it actually reach anyone?

[tresf]

It is intended to arrive at lmms.service@gmail.com, our service account. I tested it and it doesn't appear to be forwarding at this exact moment when I send to it, but it was asked to be configured as a forwarding address by our hosting provider, as was webmaster and notifications, respectively.

[tresf]

In terms of which inbox receives a copy, just me last I checked, although a few others have access to the inbox.

[Wallacoloo]

Ok, I changed it to support@lmms.io. Should probably migrate any remaining discussion to the PR (#2142). Still want to get approval from @lukas-w before merging.

[lukas-w]

I approve. ;-)