From 388f9b20f98d4792f72091acac5031a99370827d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dan Carpenter Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2016 17:43:15 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] Documentation/process/howto: Only send regression fixes after -rc1 The original text was not clear if white space or other harmless patches should be merged in -rc kernels. The discussion at Kernel Summit said that we should be more strict about sending regression fixes only. Signed-off-by: Dan Carpenter Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet --- Documentation/process/howto.rst | 19 ++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/process/howto.rst b/Documentation/process/howto.rst index 449ca1f199f4..1260f60d4cb9 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/howto.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/howto.rst @@ -267,15 +267,16 @@ process is as follows: is using git (the kernel's source management tool, more information can be found at https://git-scm.com/) but plain patches are also just fine. - - After two weeks a -rc1 kernel is released it is now possible to push - only patches that do not include new features that could affect the - stability of the whole kernel. Please note that a whole new driver - (or filesystem) might be accepted after -rc1 because there is no - risk of causing regressions with such a change as long as the change - is self-contained and does not affect areas outside of the code that - is being added. git can be used to send patches to Linus after -rc1 - is released, but the patches need to also be sent to a public - mailing list for review. + - After two weeks a -rc1 kernel is released and the focus is on making the + new kernel as rock solid as possible. Most of the patches at this point + should fix a regression. Bugs that have always existed are not + regressions, so only push these kinds of fixes if they are important. + Please note that a whole new driver (or filesystem) might be accepted + after -rc1 because there is no risk of causing regressions with such a + change as long as the change is self-contained and does not affect areas + outside of the code that is being added. git can be used to send + patches to Linus after -rc1 is released, but the patches need to also be + sent to a public mailing list for review. - A new -rc is released whenever Linus deems the current git tree to be in a reasonably sane state adequate for testing. The goal is to release a new -rc kernel every week.