FORK-003

Baseline Tags

Every patch line identifies its unpatched starting source SHA with a `v+patch.baseline` tag.

Status: Draft
Version: 0.1.0
Pack: OSERA-SP-0.1.0 candidate
Ratified: Not ratified
Fitness: Required check
Category: Fork Management
Applies to: Patch providers, Enterprise recipients
Machine-readable: YAML / JSON

Structured Requirements

FORK-003.REQ-001 MUST automated

Patch providers must tag the unpatched baseline source commit using v+patch.baseline.

Check	Severity	Evidence
FORK-003.CHECK-001 Baseline tag exists and resolves to a commit	blocking	baseline_tag, baseline_commit

Requirement

Patch providers MUST tag the commit that represents the unpatched baseline source state for a patched version.

The tag MUST use the form:

v<VERSION>+patch.baseline

This tag scheme applies regardless of the upstream project tag convention.

Rationale

Recipients need an unambiguous starting point for source comparison, provenance review, and audit evidence.

The +patch.baseline suffix is deliberately a source baseline marker. It does not identify an official patched release or artifact. Official OSERA patched releases are defined by REL-003 and use +osera-patch.NNN for signed artifacts claiming OSERA-SP-0.1.0 alignment.

The <VERSION> segment in v<VERSION>+patch.baseline SHOULD correspond to the source branch version in FORK-002 and the upstream version segment in the official patched-release identifier defined by REL-003.

Evidence

Patch evidence SHOULD include the baseline tag, the commit SHA it resolves to, and the corresponding upstream version or artifact.

Observed OSERA examples

Public OSERA repositories currently include baseline tags such as:

backpatch-spring-framework: v5.3.39+backpatch.baseline
backpatch-gson: v2.8.8+backpatch.baseline
backpatch-activemq: v5.14.5+backpatch.baseline
backpatch-logback: v1.2.9+backpatch.baseline

These observed tags are legacy/proof-of-concept evidence that predates the proposed +patch.baseline convention.