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is harmful and a lot of the text looks really out of date.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Section 5 is a bit outdated (diff -u?!).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 <kuba@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Message-ID: <20230630171550.128296-1-kuba@kernel.org>
This commit is contained in:
Jakub Kicinski 2023-06-30 10:15:50 -07:00 committed by Jonathan Corbet
parent c398488dab
commit b45d8f3871
2 changed files with 9 additions and 78 deletions

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@ -51,6 +51,13 @@ mind:
working toward the creation of the best kernel they can; they are not working toward the creation of the best kernel they can; they are not
trying to create discomfort for their employers' competitors. trying to create discomfort for their employers' competitors.
- Be prepared for seemingly silly requests for coding style changes
and requests to factor out some of your code to shared parts of
the kernel. One job the maintainers do is to keep things looking
the same. Sometimes this means that the clever hack in your driver
to get around a problem actually needs to become a generalized
kernel feature ready for next time.
What all of this comes down to is that, when reviewers send you comments, What all of this comes down to is that, when reviewers send you comments,
you need to pay attention to the technical observations that they are you need to pay attention to the technical observations that they are
making. Do not let their form of expression or your own pride keep that making. Do not let their form of expression or your own pride keep that

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@ -1,81 +1,5 @@
List of maintainers and how to submit kernel changes List of maintainers
==================================================== ===================
Please try to follow the guidelines below. This will make things
easier on the maintainers. Not all of these guidelines matter for every
trivial patch so apply some common sense.
Tips for patch submitters
-------------------------
1. Always *test* your changes, however small, on at least 4 or
5 people, preferably many more.
2. Try to release a few ALPHA test versions to the net. Announce
them onto the kernel channel and await results. This is especially
important for device drivers, because often that's the only way
you will find things like the fact version 3 firmware needs
a magic fix you didn't know about, or some clown changed the
chips on a board and not its name. (Don't laugh! Look at the
SMC etherpower for that.)
3. Make sure your changes compile correctly in multiple
configurations. In particular check that changes work both as a
module and built into the kernel.
4. When you are happy with a change make it generally available for
testing and await feedback.
5. Make a patch available to the relevant maintainer in the list. Use
``diff -u`` to make the patch easy to merge. Be prepared to get your
changes sent back with seemingly silly requests about formatting
and variable names. These aren't as silly as they seem. One
job the maintainers (and especially Linus) do is to keep things
looking the same. Sometimes this means that the clever hack in
your driver to get around a problem actually needs to become a
generalized kernel feature ready for next time.
PLEASE check your patch with the automated style checker
(scripts/checkpatch.pl) to catch trivial style violations.
See Documentation/process/coding-style.rst for guidance here.
PLEASE CC: the maintainers and mailing lists that are generated
by ``scripts/get_maintainer.pl.`` The results returned by the
script will be best if you have git installed and are making
your changes in a branch derived from Linus' latest git tree.
See Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst for details.
PLEASE try to include any credit lines you want added with the
patch. It avoids people being missed off by mistake and makes
it easier to know who wants adding and who doesn't.
PLEASE document known bugs. If it doesn't work for everything
or does something very odd once a month document it.
PLEASE remember that submissions must be made under the terms
of the Linux Foundation certificate of contribution and should
include a Signed-off-by: line. The current version of this
"Developer's Certificate of Origin" (DCO) is listed in the file
Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst.
6. Make sure you have the right to send any changes you make. If you
do changes at work you may find your employer owns the patch
not you.
7. When sending security related changes or reports to a maintainer
please Cc: security@kernel.org, especially if the maintainer
does not respond. Please keep in mind that the security team is
a small set of people who can be efficient only when working on
verified bugs. Please only Cc: this list when you have identified
that the bug would present a short-term risk to other users if it
were publicly disclosed. For example, reports of address leaks do
not represent an immediate threat and are better handled publicly,
and ideally, should come with a patch proposal. Please do not send
automated reports to this list either. Such bugs will be handled
better and faster in the usual public places. See
Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst for details.
8. Happy hacking.
Descriptions of section entries and preferred order Descriptions of section entries and preferred order
--------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------