Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Everything you ever wanted to know about Linux 2.6 -stable releases. |
| 2 | |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 3 | Rules on what kind of patches are accepted, and which ones are not, into the |
| 4 | "-stable" tree: |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 5 | |
| 6 | - It must be obviously correct and tested. |
Matt LaPlante | 84eb8d0 | 2006-10-03 22:53:09 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 7 | - It cannot be bigger than 100 lines, with context. |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 8 | - It must fix only one thing. |
| 9 | - It must fix a real bug that bothers people (not a, "This could be a |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 10 | problem..." type thing). |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | - It must fix a problem that causes a build error (but not for things |
| 12 | marked CONFIG_BROKEN), an oops, a hang, data corruption, a real |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 13 | security issue, or some "oh, that's not good" issue. In short, something |
| 14 | critical. |
Josh Boyer | 79cd80a1 | 2008-10-24 10:10:42 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 15 | - New device IDs and quirks are also accepted. |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 16 | - No "theoretical race condition" issues, unless an explanation of how the |
| 17 | race can be exploited is also provided. |
Matt LaPlante | 84eb8d0 | 2006-10-03 22:53:09 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 18 | - It cannot contain any "trivial" fixes in it (spelling changes, |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 19 | whitespace cleanups, etc). |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 20 | - It must follow the Documentation/SubmittingPatches rules. |
Stefan Richter | 959fb1c | 2010-04-01 22:01:52 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 21 | - It or an equivalent fix must already exist in Linus' tree (upstream). |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 22 | |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Procedure for submitting patches to the -stable tree: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | - Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to |
Josh Boyer | 5fa2242 | 2011-10-17 21:16:39 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 27 | stable@vger.kernel.org. You must note the upstream commit ID in the |
| 28 | changelog of your submission. |
Stefan Richter | 959fb1c | 2010-04-01 22:01:52 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 29 | - To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag |
Josh Boyer | 5fa2242 | 2011-10-17 21:16:39 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 30 | Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org |
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior | 8e9b936 | 2009-12-06 12:24:31 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 31 | in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to |
| 32 | the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author |
| 33 | or subsystem maintainer. |
| 34 | - If the patch requires other patches as prerequisites which can be |
| 35 | cherry-picked than this can be specified in the following format in |
| 36 | the sign-off area: |
| 37 | |
Josh Boyer | 5fa2242 | 2011-10-17 21:16:39 -0400 | [diff] [blame] | 38 | Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x: a1f84a3: sched: Check for idle |
| 39 | Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x: 1b9508f: sched: Rate-limit newidle |
| 40 | Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x: fd21073: sched: Fix affinity logic |
| 41 | Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x |
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior | 8e9b936 | 2009-12-06 12:24:31 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 42 | Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> |
| 43 | |
| 44 | The tag sequence has the meaning of: |
| 45 | git cherry-pick a1f84a3 |
| 46 | git cherry-pick 1b9508f |
| 47 | git cherry-pick fd21073 |
| 48 | git cherry-pick <this commit> |
| 49 | |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 50 | - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the |
| 51 | queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few |
| 52 | days, according to the developer's schedules. |
| 53 | - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by |
Stefan Richter | 46cdf871 | 2008-02-08 23:26:02 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 54 | other developers and by the relevant subsystem maintainer. |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 55 | - Security patches should not be sent to this alias, but instead to the |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 56 | documented security@kernel.org address. |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 57 | |
| 58 | |
| 59 | Review cycle: |
| 60 | |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 61 | - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be |
| 62 | sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of |
| 63 | the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to |
| 64 | the linux-kernel mailing list. |
| 65 | - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch. |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 66 | - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 67 | members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and |
| 68 | members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue. |
| 69 | - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the |
| 70 | latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen. |
| 71 | - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the |
| 72 | security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle. |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 73 | Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | |
Matt LaPlante | 5d3f083 | 2006-11-30 05:21:10 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 76 | Review committee: |
Greg KH | fc185d9 | 2005-07-29 12:14:34 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 77 | |
Jesper Juhl | e48e990 | 2006-01-09 20:53:59 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 78 | - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for |
| 79 | this task, and a few that haven't. |