Developer’s Certificate of Origin

v1.1:

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.

(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
    this project or the open source license(s) involved.

Then, you just add a line saying:

Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>

This line can be automatically added by git if you run the git-commit command with the -s option. Signing can made be afterword with --amend -s.

Notice that you can place your own Signed-off-by: line when forwarding somebody else’s patch with the above rules for D-C-O. Indeed you are encouraged to do so. Do not forget to place an in-body From: line at the beginning to properly attribute the change to its true author (see above).

Also notice that a real name is used in the Signed-off-by: line. Please don’t hide your real name.

If you like, you can put extra tags at the end:

Reported-by

is used to to credit someone who found the bug that the patch attempts to fix.

Acked-by

says that the person who is more familiar with the area the patch attempts to modify liked the patch.

Reviewed-by

unlike the other tags, can only be offered by the reviewer and means that she is completely satisfied that the patch is ready for application. It is usually offered only after a detailed review.

Tested-by

is used to indicate that the person applied the patch and found it to have the desired effect.

You can also create your own tag or use one that’s in common usage such as Thanks-to:, Based-on-patch-by:, or Mentored-by:.