[Ksummit-2012-discuss] [ATTEND] Process issues, device model, stable

Steven Rostedt rostedt at goodmis.org
Tue Jun 19 18:12:01 UTC 2012


On Tue, 2012-06-19 at 17:52 +0000, Luck, Tony wrote:

> 
> So I fear that linux-devel would lull some people into a false sense
> of security. They'll cook their patches there for a week or two, and
> then dump them into linux-next when Linus announces "-rc7 is the last
> release candidate", and then send a please-pull a week later. If the
> patches touch some out of the mainstream area ... then they'll have
> had virtually no actual testing (beyond what the developer did).

Ideally, development should go into the linux-devel, and anything that
goes into linux-next from linux-devel should wait a full release cycle
before going to Linus's tree.

The problem is, we do not enforce any of this. It's all been more of a
"please do it this way". The only one that could possible enforce it is
Linus himself. He could say, "I'm not accepting this unless it was in
linux-next for a full release".

That is, we can give linux-next a merge window too. When the merge
window opens for mainline, that's also when you should apply your new
changes.

But due to rebasing and such, this is still more of an honor system
where any developer can still go directly to Linus, and if Linus doesn't
check (or doesn't care) then the whole process is moot.

Personally, I rather put my code into a global repository while its
under development just to see if it breaks there as well. Then I would
push it to Ingo, where he has his repo set up to be pulled into
linux-next. Then eventually, it can get into mainline.

If Linus really wanted to be draconian, he could say that he will only
pull branches from linux-next. You can get your own branch that is
automatically updated and it has to sit there unmodified for a given
amount of time, and then Linus can pull from it there. Only -rc fixes
should be pulled directly. That may force developers to cooperate.

Just look at how affective the merge window has been. When Linus said
that he will only take new changes for two weeks during the merge
window, he successfully was able to herd cats for miles.

-- Steve




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