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kuba-mooJonathan Corbet
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docs: remove the tips on how to submit patches from MAINTAINERS
Having "how to submit patches" in MAINTAINTERS seems out of place. We have a whole section of documentation about it, duplication is harmful and a lot of the text looks really out of date. Sections 1, 2 and 4 look really, really old and not applicable to the modern process. Section 3 is obvious but also we have build bots now. Section 5 is a bit outdated (diff -u?!). But I like the part about factoring out shared code, so add that to process docs. Section 6 is unnecessary? Section 7 is covered by more appropriate docs. Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Randy Dunlap <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Dan Williams <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]>
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Documentation/process/6.Followthrough.rst

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working toward the creation of the best kernel they can; they are not
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trying to create discomfort for their employers' competitors.
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- Be prepared for seemingly silly requests for coding style changes
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and requests to factor out some of your code to shared parts of
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the kernel. One job the maintainers do is to keep things looking
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the same. Sometimes this means that the clever hack in your driver
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to get around a problem actually needs to become a generalized
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kernel feature ready for next time.
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What all of this comes down to is that, when reviewers send you comments,
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you need to pay attention to the technical observations that they are
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making. Do not let their form of expression or your own pride keep that

MAINTAINERS

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List of maintainers and how to submit kernel changes
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====================================================
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Please try to follow the guidelines below. This will make things
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easier on the maintainers. Not all of these guidelines matter for every
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trivial patch so apply some common sense.
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Tips for patch submitters
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-------------------------
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1. Always *test* your changes, however small, on at least 4 or
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5 people, preferably many more.
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2. Try to release a few ALPHA test versions to the net. Announce
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them onto the kernel channel and await results. This is especially
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important for device drivers, because often that's the only way
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you will find things like the fact version 3 firmware needs
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a magic fix you didn't know about, or some clown changed the
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chips on a board and not its name. (Don't laugh! Look at the
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SMC etherpower for that.)
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3. Make sure your changes compile correctly in multiple
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configurations. In particular check that changes work both as a
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module and built into the kernel.
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4. When you are happy with a change make it generally available for
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testing and await feedback.
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5. Make a patch available to the relevant maintainer in the list. Use
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``diff -u`` to make the patch easy to merge. Be prepared to get your
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changes sent back with seemingly silly requests about formatting
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and variable names. These aren't as silly as they seem. One
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job the maintainers (and especially Linus) do is to keep things
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looking the same. Sometimes this means that the clever hack in
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your driver to get around a problem actually needs to become a
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generalized kernel feature ready for next time.
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PLEASE check your patch with the automated style checker
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(scripts/checkpatch.pl) to catch trivial style violations.
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See Documentation/process/coding-style.rst for guidance here.
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PLEASE CC: the maintainers and mailing lists that are generated
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by ``scripts/get_maintainer.pl.`` The results returned by the
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script will be best if you have git installed and are making
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your changes in a branch derived from Linus' latest git tree.
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See Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst for details.
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PLEASE try to include any credit lines you want added with the
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patch. It avoids people being missed off by mistake and makes
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it easier to know who wants adding and who doesn't.
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PLEASE document known bugs. If it doesn't work for everything
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or does something very odd once a month document it.
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PLEASE remember that submissions must be made under the terms
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of the Linux Foundation certificate of contribution and should
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include a Signed-off-by: line. The current version of this
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"Developer's Certificate of Origin" (DCO) is listed in the file
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Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.
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6. Make sure you have the right to send any changes you make. If you
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do changes at work you may find your employer owns the patch
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not you.
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7. When sending security related changes or reports to a maintainer
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please Cc: [email protected], especially if the maintainer
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does not respond. Please keep in mind that the security team is
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a small set of people who can be efficient only when working on
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verified bugs. Please only Cc: this list when you have identified
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that the bug would present a short-term risk to other users if it
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were publicly disclosed. For example, reports of address leaks do
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not represent an immediate threat and are better handled publicly,
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and ideally, should come with a patch proposal. Please do not send
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automated reports to this list either. Such bugs will be handled
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better and faster in the usual public places. See
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Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst for details.
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8. Happy hacking.
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List of maintainers
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===================
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Descriptions of section entries and preferred order
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---------------------------------------------------

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