Docs: Update recipient information in SubmittingPatches

SubmittingPatches had two sections on selecting recipients; both were
showing their age.  Unify them into a single section that more closely
reflects how we do things now.

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
This commit is contained in:
Jonathan Corbet 2014-12-23 08:49:18 -07:00
parent 7994cc15d8
commit ccae8616ec

View File

@ -250,68 +250,68 @@ You should be able to justify all violations that remain in your
patch.
5) Select e-mail destination.
5) Select the recipients for your patch.
----------------------------------------
Look through the MAINTAINERS file and the source code, and determine
if your change applies to a specific subsystem of the kernel, with
an assigned maintainer. If so, e-mail that person. The script
scripts/get_maintainer.pl can be very useful at this step.
You should always copy the appropriate subsystem maintainer(s) on any patch
to code that they maintain; look through the MAINTAINERS file and the
source code revision history to see who those maintainers are. The
script scripts/get_maintainer.pl can be very useful at this step. If you
cannot find a maintainer for the subsystem your are working on, Andrew
Morton (akpm@linux-foundation.org) serves as a maintainer of last resort.
If no maintainer is listed, or the maintainer does not respond, send
your patch to the primary Linux kernel developer's mailing list,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org. Most kernel developers monitor this
e-mail list, and can comment on your changes.
You should also normally choose at least one mailing list to receive a copy
of your patch set. linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org functions as a list of
last resort, but the volume on that list has caused a number of developers
to tune it out. Look in the MAINTAINERS file for a subsystem-specific
list; your patch will probably get more attention there. Please do not
spam unrelated lists, though.
Many kernel-related lists are hosted on vger.kernel.org; you can find a
list of them at http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html. There are
kernel-related lists hosted elsewhere as well, though.
Do not send more than 15 patches at once to the vger mailing lists!!!
Linus Torvalds is the final arbiter of all changes accepted into the
Linux kernel. His e-mail address is <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>.
He gets a lot of e-mail, so typically you should do your best to -avoid-
sending him e-mail.
He gets a lot of e-mail, and, at this point, very few patches go through
Linus directly, so typically you should do your best to -avoid-
sending him e-mail.
Patches which are bug fixes, are "obvious" changes, or similarly
require little discussion should be sent or CC'd to Linus. Patches
which require discussion or do not have a clear advantage should
usually be sent first to linux-kernel. Only after the patch is
discussed should the patch then be submitted to Linus.
If you have a patch that fixes an exploitable security bug, send that patch
to security@kernel.org. For severe bugs, a short embargo may be considered
to allow distrbutors to get the patch out to users; in such cases,
obviously, the patch should not be sent to any public lists.
Patches that fix a severe bug in a released kernel should be directed
toward the stable maintainers by putting a line like this:
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
6) Select your CC (e-mail carbon copy) list.
into your patch.
Unless you have a reason NOT to do so, CC linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org.
Note, however, that some subsystem maintainers want to come to their own
conclusions on which patches should go to the stable trees. The networking
maintainer, in particular, would rather not see individual developers
adding lines like the above to their patches.
Other kernel developers besides Linus need to be aware of your change,
so that they may comment on it and offer code review and suggestions.
linux-kernel is the primary Linux kernel developer mailing list.
Other mailing lists are available for specific subsystems, such as
USB, framebuffer devices, the VFS, the SCSI subsystem, etc. See the
MAINTAINERS file for a mailing list that relates specifically to
your change.
Majordomo lists of VGER.KERNEL.ORG at:
<http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html>
If changes affect userland-kernel interfaces, please send
the MAN-PAGES maintainer (as listed in the MAINTAINERS file)
a man-pages patch, or at least a notification of the change,
so that some information makes its way into the manual pages.
Even if the maintainer did not respond in step #5, make sure to ALWAYS
copy the maintainer when you change their code.
If changes affect userland-kernel interfaces, please send the MAN-PAGES
maintainer (as listed in the MAINTAINERS file) a man-pages patch, or at
least a notification of the change, so that some information makes its way
into the manual pages. User-space API changes should also be copied to
linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
For small patches you may want to CC the Trivial Patch Monkey
trivial@kernel.org which collects "trivial" patches. Have a look
into the MAINTAINERS file for its current manager.
Trivial patches must qualify for one of the following rules:
Spelling fixes in documentation
Spelling fixes which could break grep(1)
Spelling fixes for errors which could break grep(1)
Warning fixes (cluttering with useless warnings is bad)
Compilation fixes (only if they are actually correct)
Runtime fixes (only if they actually fix things)
Removing use of deprecated functions/macros (eg. check_region)
Removing use of deprecated functions/macros
Contact detail and documentation fixes
Non-portable code replaced by portable code (even in arch-specific,
since people copy, as long as it's trivial)
@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ Trivial patches must qualify for one of the following rules:
7) No MIME, no links, no compression, no attachments. Just plain text.
6) No MIME, no links, no compression, no attachments. Just plain text.
Linus and other kernel developers need to be able to read and comment
on the changes you are submitting. It is important for a kernel
@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ you to re-send them using MIME.
See Documentation/email-clients.txt for hints about configuring
your e-mail client so that it sends your patches untouched.
8) E-mail size.
7) E-mail size.
When sending patches to Linus, always follow step #7.
@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ server, and provide instead a URL (link) pointing to your patch.
9) Name your kernel version.
8) Name your kernel version.
It is important to note, either in the subject line or in the patch
description, the kernel version to which this patch applies.
@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ Linus will not apply it.
10) Don't get discouraged. Re-submit.
9) Don't get discouraged. Re-submit.
After you have submitted your change, be patient and wait. If Linus
likes your change and applies it, it will appear in the next version
@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ When in doubt, solicit comments on linux-kernel mailing list.
11) Include PATCH in the subject
10) Include PATCH in the subject
Due to high e-mail traffic to Linus, and to linux-kernel, it is common
convention to prefix your subject line with [PATCH]. This lets Linus
@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ e-mail discussions.
12) Sign your work
11) Sign your work
To improve tracking of who did what, especially with patches that can
percolate to their final resting place in the kernel through several
@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ tracking your trees, and to people trying to troubleshoot bugs in your
tree.
13) When to use Acked-by: and Cc:
12) When to use Acked-by: and Cc:
The Signed-off-by: tag indicates that the signer was involved in the
development of the patch, or that he/she was in the patch's delivery path.
@ -525,7 +525,7 @@ person it names. This tag documents that potentially interested parties
have been included in the discussion
14) Using Reported-by:, Tested-by:, Reviewed-by:, Suggested-by: and Fixes:
13) Using Reported-by:, Tested-by:, Reviewed-by:, Suggested-by: and Fixes:
The Reported-by tag gives credit to people who find bugs and report them and it
hopefully inspires them to help us again in the future. Please note that if
@ -585,7 +585,7 @@ which stable kernel versions should receive your fix. This is the preferred
method for indicating a bug fixed by the patch. See #2 above for more details.
15) The canonical patch format
14) The canonical patch format
------------------------------
This section describes how the patch itself should be formatted. Note
@ -599,7 +599,8 @@ The canonical patch subject line is:
The canonical patch message body contains the following:
- A "from" line specifying the patch author.
- A "from" line specifying the patch author (only needed if the person
sending the patch is not the author).
- An empty line.
@ -706,7 +707,7 @@ See more details on the proper patch format in the following
references.
16) Sending "git pull" requests
15) Sending "git pull" requests
-------------------------------
If you have a series of patches, it may be most convenient to have the