1 2(Copied from the Linux Kernel's Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst) 3 4Sign your work - the Developer's Certificate of Origin 5------------------------------------------------------ 6 7The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for the 8patch, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have the right to 9pass it on as an open-source patch. The rules are pretty simple: if you 10can certify the below: 11 12Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1 13^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 14 15By making a contribution to this project, I certify that: 16 17 (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I 18 have the right to submit it under the open source license 19 indicated in the file; or 20 21 (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best 22 of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source 23 license and I have the right under that license to submit that 24 work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part 25 by me, under the same open source license (unless I am 26 permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated 27 in the file; or 28 29 (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other 30 person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified 31 it. 32 33 (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution 34 are public and that a record of the contribution (including all 35 personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is 36 maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with 37 this project or the open source license(s) involved. 38 39then you just add a line saying:: 40 41 Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <[email protected]> 42 43using your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.) 44 45Some people also put extra tags at the end. They'll just be ignored for 46now, but you can do this to mark internal company procedures or just 47point out some special detail about the sign-off. 48