Re: [linuxsh-dev] Drop-In tree updates

[Tom R. <tr...@ke...>]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 10:35:01PM -0600, M. R. Brown wrote:
> * Tom Rini <tr...@ke...> on Thu, Dec 06, 2001:
> 
> > 
> > Er, having an $(ARCH) tree makes sure that said $(ARCH) actually has a
> > useable tree.  It's always good to try and sync up with
> > Linus/Marcelo/Alan, but you don't want to be sending every diff to them
> > either.  In the ideal world, kernel.org works for the 95% case for
> > $(ARCH) and gets updated from the community tree.
> 
> Call me unorthadox, but, why not?  You see hundreds of small patches on
> lkml daily.  Why can't we be in that flurry as well?

How many of those get picked up?  Alan was pretty good about it, and
hopefully Marcelo will be too.  But also how many of those are for the
same system?

> Who says that arch
> changes must come in one big lump?  According to Linus, they're less likely
> to be accepted if they do come in large sizes.

It all falls under 'Zen and the art of getting your patch to Linus' I
think.  There are no real rule.  I've seen Linus ignore 5 small
incremental patches and then pick them up when someone else resends 'em
as one large patch.  I've also gotten 5 small patches in.  And sometimes
you can't break changes down all that much (at least in unstable/dev
stuff).

> > You can't just 'send off a diff', you need to create it, test it a bit,
> > and hope it doesn't cause any problems.  And then that
> > Linus/Marcelo/Alan doesn't loose it in a flood of other patches/emails.
> 
> Um, couldn't "sending a diff off" be interpreted as the 3 steps you just
> listed? :)

Well yes, but they do entail a bit more than what robert implied anyhow.
It usually takes some twisting of clue-enabled users to test things too.

> > Working in 2.5 is a non-issue for the moment.  2.5 won't work on x86 for 
> > a while. Hell, I imagine it'll take a while before Linus doesn't drop 
> > other arch patches on the floor.
> 
> I think everyone can agree on that.  But we still need to get changes for
> 2.4.x out...

Most definatly.

-- 
Tom Rini (TR1265)
http://gate.crashing.org/~trini/