Re: [PATCH 1/2] hw/vfio/migration: Remove unused 'exec/ram_addr.h' header

[Alex Williamson]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 16:04:16 +0000
Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 at 15:46, Alex Williamson
> <alex.williamson@redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:32:57 +0100
> > Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@linaro.org> wrote:
> >  
> > > Signed-off-by: Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@linaro.org>  
> >
> > Empty commit logs are a pet peeve of mine, there must be some sort of
> > motivation for the change, something that changed to make this
> > possible, or perhaps why this was never necessary.  Thanks,  
> 
> I generally agree, but "this file doesn't actually need to
> include this header" seems straightforward enough that the commit
> subject says everything you'd want to say about it.
> The underlying reason is going to be one of:
>  * this used to be needed, but somewhere along the line the
>    thing the file needs moved to a different header
>  * this used to be needed, but the code in the file changed
>    and no longer uses the thing the header was providing
>  * this was never needed, and the include was just cut-n-pasted
>    from a different file when the file was originally written
> 
> Tracking down which of those is the case for every single
> "file is including unnecessary headers" cleanup seems like
> a lot of work trawling through git histories and doesn't
> really provide any interesting information.

OTOH, not providing any justification shows a lack of due diligence.
Even a justification to the extent of "This passes gitlab CI across all
architectures after removing the include" or copying from the cover
letter to explain that this include is the only reason the file is
built per target would be an improvement.

I find that empty commit logs create a barrier to entry for
participation in a project, there is always some motivation that can
help provide a better commit that doesn't force an undue burden on the
submitter.  Thanks,

Alex