| .. _submitchecklist: |
| |
| Linux Kernel patch submission checklist |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their |
| kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly. |
| |
| These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in |
| :ref:`Documentation/SubmittingPatches <submittingpatches>` |
| and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux kernel patches. |
| |
| |
| 1) If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares |
| that facility. Don't depend on other header files pulling in ones |
| that you use. |
| |
| 2) Builds cleanly: |
| |
| a) with applicable or modified ``CONFIG`` options ``=y``, ``=m``, and |
| ``=n``. No ``gcc`` warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors. |
| |
| b) Passes ``allnoconfig``, ``allmodconfig`` |
| |
| c) Builds successfully when using ``O=builddir`` |
| |
| 3) Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools |
| or some other build farm. |
| |
| 4) ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it |
| tends to use ``unsigned long`` for 64-bit quantities. |
| |
| 5) Check your patch for general style as detailed in |
| :ref:`Documentation/CodingStyle <codingstyle>`. |
| Check for trivial violations with the patch style checker prior to |
| submission (``scripts/checkpatch.pl``). |
| You should be able to justify all violations that remain in |
| your patch. |
| |
| 6) Any new or modified ``CONFIG`` options don't muck up the config menu. |
| |
| 7) All new ``Kconfig`` options have help text. |
| |
| 8) Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant ``Kconfig`` |
| combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower |
| pays off here. |
| |
| 9) Check cleanly with sparse. |
| |
| 10) Use ``make checkstack`` and ``make namespacecheck`` and fix any problems |
| that they find. |
| |
| .. note:: |
| |
| ``checkstack`` does not point out problems explicitly, |
| but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a |
| candidate for change. |
| |
| 11) Include :ref:`kernel-doc <kernel_doc>` to document global kernel APIs. |
| (Not required for static functions, but OK there also.) Use |
| ``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs`` to check the |
| :ref:`kernel-doc <kernel_doc>` and fix any issues. |
| |
| 12) Has been tested with ``CONFIG_PREEMPT``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT``, |
| ``CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES``, |
| ``CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP``, |
| ``CONFIG_PROVE_RCU`` and ``CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD`` all |
| simultaneously enabled. |
| |
| 13) Has been build- and runtime tested with and without ``CONFIG_SMP`` and |
| ``CONFIG_PREEMPT.`` |
| |
| 14) If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without |
| ``CONFIG_LBDAF.`` |
| |
| 15) All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled. |
| |
| 16) All new ``/proc`` entries are documented under ``Documentation/`` |
| |
| 17) All new kernel boot parameters are documented in |
| ``Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt``. |
| |
| 18) All new module parameters are documented with ``MODULE_PARM_DESC()`` |
| |
| 19) All new userspace interfaces are documented in ``Documentation/ABI/``. |
| See ``Documentation/ABI/README`` for more information. |
| Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to |
| linux-api@vger.kernel.org. |
| |
| 20) Check that it all passes ``make headers_check``. |
| |
| 21) Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation |
| failures. See ``Documentation/fault-injection/``. |
| |
| If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault |
| injection might be appropriate. |
| |
| 22) Newly-added code has been compiled with ``gcc -W`` (use |
| ``make EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W``). This will generate lots of noise, but is good |
| for finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned". |
| |
| 23) Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure |
| that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various |
| changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems. |
| |
| 24) All memory barriers {e.g., ``barrier()``, ``rmb()``, ``wmb()``} need a |
| comment in the source code that explains the logic of what they are doing |
| and why. |
| |
| 25) If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update |
| ``Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt``. |
| |
| 26) If your modified source code depends on or uses any of the kernel |
| APIs or features that are related to the following ``Kconfig`` symbols, |
| then test multiple builds with the related ``Kconfig`` symbols disabled |
| and/or ``=m`` (if that option is available) [not all of these at the |
| same time, just various/random combinations of them]: |
| |
| ``CONFIG_SMP``, ``CONFIG_SYSFS``, ``CONFIG_PROC_FS``, ``CONFIG_INPUT``, ``CONFIG_PCI``, ``CONFIG_BLOCK``, ``CONFIG_PM``, ``CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ``, |
| ``CONFIG_NET``, ``CONFIG_INET=n`` (but latter with ``CONFIG_NET=y``). |