Linus Torvalds and the Linux kernel development team have adopted a contribution tracking system, under which developers digitally sign patches to acknowledge their right to contribute them. The system will help track contributions and ensure proper developer credit, according to the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), which oversees Linux development.

The system is based on a digital signature called a Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO). All contributors are called upon to “sign off” on a submission before it may be considered for inclusion in the kernel. The DCO ensures that appropriate attribution is given to developers of original contributions and derivative works, as well to those contributors who receive submissions and pass them, unchanged, up the kernel tree, according to the OSDL.

“We've always had transparency, peer review, pride, and personal responsibility behind our open source development method,” Torvalds notes. “With the DCO, we're trying to document the process. We want to make it simpler to link submitted code to its contributors. It's like signing your own work.”

“The Linux development process has worked well for more than 10 years, but with its success has come new challenges,” said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. “The measure we announce today goes a long way toward eliminating doubt surrounding the origin of Linux code, and does so without placing any undue burden on the development community.”

OSDL has committed to providing resources to ensure that contributions made to the kernel adhere to the DCO and the process improvements. The Lab will review the content of the contributions to confirm that submissions to the kernel have been signed off by contributors in accordance with the DCO. In addition, OSDL plans to launch an educational campaign for developers and end users on the DCO and the process improvements.

The full text of the DCO is:

Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.0

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I have the right to submit it under the open source license indicated in the file; or

(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license and I have the right under that license to submit that work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under the same open source license (unless I am permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated in the file; or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified it.

 
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