Derrick Stolee [off-list ref] writes:

Since I started the line of "this isn't a bad idea" I'll follow up with
the historical search. Here are previous attempts from 2018 [1], 2015 [2],
2010 [3].

Thanks,
-Stolee

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180204020318.4363-1-chenjingpiao@gmail.com/ (local)
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/1435217454-5718-1-git-send-email-cmarcelo@gmail.com/ (local)
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/git/alpine.LNX.2.00.1001131635510.16395@vqena.qenxr.bet.am/ (local)

Thanks.  In an earlier thread, we did

https://lore.kernel.org/git/20090401175153.GA90421@macbook.lan/ (local)

to which I said "... the wording we can update if somebody can come
up with a better one" in its follow-up.  Perhaps it's time for us to
be that somebody to help everybody to be on the same page.

Here is my attempt, starting from what I wrote in

https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqtw9m5s5m.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com/ (local)

-- >8 --
Subject: commit -s: document why commit.signoff option will not be added


Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <redacted>
---

 As I said in https://lore.kernel.org/git/7veiw69p26.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org/ (local)
 I have a mixed feeling about this.  To projects that use the same
 definition of what SoB means, not adding the configuration ever is
 the right thing to do, but Git is to be used by other projects, and
 some of them may use SoB with a completely different meaning that
 has no legal weight---and to them, lack of such an automation may
 be a bug.  So ...

 Documentation/git-commit.txt | 7 +++++++
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-commit.txt b/Documentation/git-commit.txt
index ced5a9beab..1909551087 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-commit.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-commit.txt

@@ -171,6 +171,13 @@ The `-m` option is mutually exclusive with `-c`, `-C`, and `-F`.
 	the rights to submit this work under the same license and
 	agrees to a Developer Certificate of Origin
 	(see http://developercertificate.org/ for more information).
++
+As it makes it harder to argue against one who tells the court "that
+log message ends with a SoB by person X but it is very plausible
+that it was done by inertia without person X really intending to
+certify what DCO says, and the SoB is meaningless." to more
+publicized ways to add SoB automatically, Git does not (and will not)
+have a configuration variable to enable it by default.
 
 -n::
 --no-verify::