[Ksummit-2012-discuss] [ATTEND] stable kernel stuff and grumpy maintainers [bisection/rebase/-next]

Luck, Tony tony.luck at intel.com
Wed Jun 20 17:19:46 UTC 2012


> Automated tests on multiple configs are done in linux-next, but by the 
> time they reach linux-next, it might be too late.

This is why I suggested that "-rc5" should be declared as the rebase
deadline for trees feeding into linux-next ... and that maintainers
should be ENCOURAGED TO REBASE for any issue where it makes sense.

It is common for build problems to show up with combinations of
CONFIG options that were not tested by the submitter[1].  Some
maintainers will do the right thing (IMHO) and fold the fix
for problems into the original patch series so we do not have
a bisection break.  Others have seen the "Don't rebase" flames
that Linus throws out from time to time and have taken that to
mean that every rebase is evil - those maintainers will tack the
fix on the top of their tree ... potentially far from the commit
that caused the problem.

I don't think that rebasing should cause significant problems for
linux-next ... it is a fresh merge of all the source trees each
day on top of a moving base of where Linus' tree happens to have
moved to.

-Tony

[1] we have far too many config options for this to ever be solved:
    $ make allyesconfig
    $ grep -c CONFIG .config
    5872
Even those people with h/w that does 25,000 kernel builds per day can't make
any dent in the full set of all possible CONFIG combinations.



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