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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001
2 How to Get Your Change Into the Linux Kernel
3 or
4 Care And Operation Of Your Linus Torvalds
5
6
7
8For a person or company who wishes to submit a change to the Linux
9kernel, the process can sometimes be daunting if you're not familiar
10with "the system." This text is a collection of suggestions which
11can greatly increase the chances of your change being accepted.
12
Randy Dunlapbc7455f2006-07-30 03:03:45 -070013Read Documentation/SubmitChecklist for a list of items to check
14before submitting code. If you are submitting a driver, also read
15Documentation/SubmittingDrivers.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070016
17
18
19--------------------------------------------
20SECTION 1 - CREATING AND SENDING YOUR CHANGE
21--------------------------------------------
22
23
24
251) "diff -up"
26------------
27
28Use "diff -up" or "diff -uprN" to create patches.
29
30All changes to the Linux kernel occur in the form of patches, as
31generated by diff(1). When creating your patch, make sure to create it
32in "unified diff" format, as supplied by the '-u' argument to diff(1).
33Also, please use the '-p' argument which shows which C function each
34change is in - that makes the resultant diff a lot easier to read.
35Patches should be based in the root kernel source directory,
36not in any lower subdirectory.
37
38To create a patch for a single file, it is often sufficient to do:
39
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070040 SRCTREE= linux-2.6
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070041 MYFILE= drivers/net/mydriver.c
42
43 cd $SRCTREE
44 cp $MYFILE $MYFILE.orig
45 vi $MYFILE # make your change
46 cd ..
47 diff -up $SRCTREE/$MYFILE{.orig,} > /tmp/patch
48
49To create a patch for multiple files, you should unpack a "vanilla",
50or unmodified kernel source tree, and generate a diff against your
51own source tree. For example:
52
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070053 MYSRC= /devel/linux-2.6
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070054
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070055 tar xvfz linux-2.6.12.tar.gz
56 mv linux-2.6.12 linux-2.6.12-vanilla
57 diff -uprN -X linux-2.6.12-vanilla/Documentation/dontdiff \
58 linux-2.6.12-vanilla $MYSRC > /tmp/patch
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070059
60"dontdiff" is a list of files which are generated by the kernel during
61the build process, and should be ignored in any diff(1)-generated
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070062patch. The "dontdiff" file is included in the kernel tree in
632.6.12 and later. For earlier kernel versions, you can get it
64from <http://www.xenotime.net/linux/doc/dontdiff>.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070065
66Make sure your patch does not include any extra files which do not
67belong in a patch submission. Make sure to review your patch -after-
68generated it with diff(1), to ensure accuracy.
69
70If your changes produce a lot of deltas, you may want to look into
71splitting them into individual patches which modify things in
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070072logical stages. This will facilitate easier reviewing by other
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070073kernel developers, very important if you want your patch accepted.
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070074There are a number of scripts which can aid in this:
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070075
76Quilt:
77http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt
78
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070079Andrew Morton's patch scripts:
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -080080http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/
81Instead of these scripts, quilt is the recommended patch management
82tool (see above).
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -070083
84
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070085
862) Describe your changes.
87
88Describe the technical detail of the change(s) your patch includes.
89
90Be as specific as possible. The WORST descriptions possible include
91things like "update driver X", "bug fix for driver X", or "this patch
92includes updates for subsystem X. Please apply."
93
94If your description starts to get long, that's a sign that you probably
95need to split up your patch. See #3, next.
96
97
98
993) Separate your changes.
100
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800101Separate _logical changes_ into a single patch file.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700102
103For example, if your changes include both bug fixes and performance
104enhancements for a single driver, separate those changes into two
105or more patches. If your changes include an API update, and a new
106driver which uses that new API, separate those into two patches.
107
108On the other hand, if you make a single change to numerous files,
109group those changes into a single patch. Thus a single logical change
110is contained within a single patch.
111
112If one patch depends on another patch in order for a change to be
113complete, that is OK. Simply note "this patch depends on patch X"
114in your patch description.
115
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800116If you cannot condense your patch set into a smaller set of patches,
117then only post say 15 or so at a time and wait for review and integration.
118
119
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700120
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -07001214) Style check your changes.
122
123Check your patch for basic style violations, details of which can be
124found in Documentation/CodingStyle. Failure to do so simply wastes
Linus Nilssonf56d35e2007-07-21 17:49:06 +0200125the reviewers time and will get your patch rejected, probably
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -0700126without even being read.
127
128At a minimum you should check your patches with the patch style
Andre Haupta570ab62007-09-11 15:23:47 -0700129checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl). You should
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -0700130be able to justify all violations that remain in your patch.
131
132
133
1345) Select e-mail destination.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700135
136Look through the MAINTAINERS file and the source code, and determine
137if your change applies to a specific subsystem of the kernel, with
138an assigned maintainer. If so, e-mail that person.
139
140If no maintainer is listed, or the maintainer does not respond, send
141your patch to the primary Linux kernel developer's mailing list,
142linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org. Most kernel developers monitor this
143e-mail list, and can comment on your changes.
144
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800145
146Do not send more than 15 patches at once to the vger mailing lists!!!
147
148
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700149Linus Torvalds is the final arbiter of all changes accepted into the
Linus Torvalds99ddcc72007-01-23 14:22:35 -0800150Linux kernel. His e-mail address is <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>.
151He gets a lot of e-mail, so typically you should do your best to -avoid-
152sending him e-mail.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700153
154Patches which are bug fixes, are "obvious" changes, or similarly
155require little discussion should be sent or CC'd to Linus. Patches
156which require discussion or do not have a clear advantage should
157usually be sent first to linux-kernel. Only after the patch is
158discussed should the patch then be submitted to Linus.
159
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700160
161
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -07001626) Select your CC (e-mail carbon copy) list.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700163
164Unless you have a reason NOT to do so, CC linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org.
165
166Other kernel developers besides Linus need to be aware of your change,
167so that they may comment on it and offer code review and suggestions.
168linux-kernel is the primary Linux kernel developer mailing list.
169Other mailing lists are available for specific subsystems, such as
170USB, framebuffer devices, the VFS, the SCSI subsystem, etc. See the
171MAINTAINERS file for a mailing list that relates specifically to
172your change.
173
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800174Majordomo lists of VGER.KERNEL.ORG at:
175 <http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html>
176
Paul Jackson1caf1f02005-07-31 22:34:48 -0700177If changes affect userland-kernel interfaces, please send
178the MAN-PAGES maintainer (as listed in the MAINTAINERS file)
179a man-pages patch, or at least a notification of the change,
180so that some information makes its way into the manual pages.
181
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700182Even if the maintainer did not respond in step #4, make sure to ALWAYS
183copy the maintainer when you change their code.
184
185For small patches you may want to CC the Trivial Patch Monkey
Kees Cookf62870d2006-01-03 13:33:31 +0100186trivial@kernel.org managed by Adrian Bunk; which collects "trivial"
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700187patches. Trivial patches must qualify for one of the following rules:
188 Spelling fixes in documentation
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700189 Spelling fixes which could break grep(1)
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700190 Warning fixes (cluttering with useless warnings is bad)
191 Compilation fixes (only if they are actually correct)
192 Runtime fixes (only if they actually fix things)
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700193 Removing use of deprecated functions/macros (eg. check_region)
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700194 Contact detail and documentation fixes
195 Non-portable code replaced by portable code (even in arch-specific,
196 since people copy, as long as it's trivial)
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700197 Any fix by the author/maintainer of the file (ie. patch monkey
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700198 in re-transmission mode)
Kees Cookf62870d2006-01-03 13:33:31 +0100199URL: <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/bunk/trivial/>
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -0700200
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700201
202
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -07002037) No MIME, no links, no compression, no attachments. Just plain text.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700204
205Linus and other kernel developers need to be able to read and comment
206on the changes you are submitting. It is important for a kernel
207developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard e-mail
208tools, so that they may comment on specific portions of your code.
209
210For this reason, all patches should be submitting e-mail "inline".
211WARNING: Be wary of your editor's word-wrap corrupting your patch,
212if you choose to cut-n-paste your patch.
213
214Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not.
215Many popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME
216attachment as plain text, making it impossible to comment on your
217code. A MIME attachment also takes Linus a bit more time to process,
218decreasing the likelihood of your MIME-attached change being accepted.
219
220Exception: If your mailer is mangling patches then someone may ask
221you to re-send them using MIME.
222
223
Kirill Korotaev683e91c2006-09-29 02:01:47 -0700224WARNING: Some mailers like Mozilla send your messages with
225---- message header ----
226Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
227---- message header ----
228The problem is that "format=flowed" makes some of the mailers
229on receiving side to replace TABs with spaces and do similar
230changes. Thus the patches from you can look corrupted.
231
232To fix this just make your mozilla defaults/pref/mailnews.js file to look like:
233pref("mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed", false); // RFC 2646=======
234pref("mailnews.display.disable_format_flowed_support", true);
235
236
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700237
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -07002388) E-mail size.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700239
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -0700240When sending patches to Linus, always follow step #7.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700241
242Large changes are not appropriate for mailing lists, and some
243maintainers. If your patch, uncompressed, exceeds 40 kB in size,
244it is preferred that you store your patch on an Internet-accessible
245server, and provide instead a URL (link) pointing to your patch.
246
247
248
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -07002499) Name your kernel version.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700250
251It is important to note, either in the subject line or in the patch
252description, the kernel version to which this patch applies.
253
254If the patch does not apply cleanly to the latest kernel version,
255Linus will not apply it.
256
257
258
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -070025910) Don't get discouraged. Re-submit.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700260
261After you have submitted your change, be patient and wait. If Linus
262likes your change and applies it, it will appear in the next version
263of the kernel that he releases.
264
265However, if your change doesn't appear in the next version of the
266kernel, there could be any number of reasons. It's YOUR job to
267narrow down those reasons, correct what was wrong, and submit your
268updated change.
269
270It is quite common for Linus to "drop" your patch without comment.
271That's the nature of the system. If he drops your patch, it could be
272due to
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700273* Your patch did not apply cleanly to the latest kernel version.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700274* Your patch was not sufficiently discussed on linux-kernel.
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700275* A style issue (see section 2).
276* An e-mail formatting issue (re-read this section).
277* A technical problem with your change.
278* He gets tons of e-mail, and yours got lost in the shuffle.
279* You are being annoying.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700280
281When in doubt, solicit comments on linux-kernel mailing list.
282
283
284
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -070028511) Include PATCH in the subject
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700286
287Due to high e-mail traffic to Linus, and to linux-kernel, it is common
288convention to prefix your subject line with [PATCH]. This lets Linus
289and other kernel developers more easily distinguish patches from other
290e-mail discussions.
291
292
293
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -070029412) Sign your work
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700295
296To improve tracking of who did what, especially with patches that can
297percolate to their final resting place in the kernel through several
298layers of maintainers, we've introduced a "sign-off" procedure on
299patches that are being emailed around.
300
301The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for the
302patch, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have the right to
303pass it on as a open-source patch. The rules are pretty simple: if you
304can certify the below:
305
Linus Torvaldscbd83da2005-06-13 17:51:55 -0700306 Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700307
308 By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
309
310 (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
311 have the right to submit it under the open source license
312 indicated in the file; or
313
314 (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
315 of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
316 license and I have the right under that license to submit that
317 work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
318 by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
319 permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
320 in the file; or
321
322 (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
323 person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
324 it.
325
Linus Torvaldscbd83da2005-06-13 17:51:55 -0700326 (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
327 are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
328 personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
329 maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
330 this project or the open source license(s) involved.
331
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700332then you just add a line saying
333
Alexey Dobriyan9fd55592005-06-25 14:59:34 -0700334 Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700335
Greg KHaf45f322006-09-12 20:35:52 -0700336using your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)
337
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700338Some people also put extra tags at the end. They'll just be ignored for
339now, but you can do this to mark internal company procedures or just
340point out some special detail about the sign-off.
341
342
Andrew Morton0f44cd22007-06-08 13:46:45 -070034313) When to use Acked-by:
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -0700344
Andrew Morton0f44cd22007-06-08 13:46:45 -0700345The Signed-off-by: tag indicates that the signer was involved in the
346development of the patch, or that he/she was in the patch's delivery path.
347
348If a person was not directly involved in the preparation or handling of a
349patch but wishes to signify and record their approval of it then they can
350arrange to have an Acked-by: line added to the patch's changelog.
351
352Acked-by: is often used by the maintainer of the affected code when that
353maintainer neither contributed to nor forwarded the patch.
354
355Acked-by: is not as formal as Signed-off-by:. It is a record that the acker
356has at least reviewed the patch and has indicated acceptance. Hence patch
357mergers will sometimes manually convert an acker's "yep, looks good to me"
358into an Acked-by:.
359
360Acked-by: does not necessarily indicate acknowledgement of the entire patch.
361For example, if a patch affects multiple subsystems and has an Acked-by: from
362one subsystem maintainer then this usually indicates acknowledgement of just
363the part which affects that maintainer's code. Judgement should be used here.
364 When in doubt people should refer to the original discussion in the mailing
365list archives.
366
367
36814) The canonical patch format
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -0700369
Paul Jackson75f84262005-10-02 18:01:42 -0700370The canonical patch subject line is:
371
Paul Jacksond6b9acc2005-10-03 00:29:10 -0700372 Subject: [PATCH 001/123] subsystem: summary phrase
Paul Jackson75f84262005-10-02 18:01:42 -0700373
374The canonical patch message body contains the following:
375
376 - A "from" line specifying the patch author.
377
378 - An empty line.
379
380 - The body of the explanation, which will be copied to the
381 permanent changelog to describe this patch.
382
383 - The "Signed-off-by:" lines, described above, which will
384 also go in the changelog.
385
386 - A marker line containing simply "---".
387
388 - Any additional comments not suitable for the changelog.
389
390 - The actual patch (diff output).
391
392The Subject line format makes it very easy to sort the emails
393alphabetically by subject line - pretty much any email reader will
394support that - since because the sequence number is zero-padded,
395the numerical and alphabetic sort is the same.
396
Paul Jacksond6b9acc2005-10-03 00:29:10 -0700397The "subsystem" in the email's Subject should identify which
398area or subsystem of the kernel is being patched.
399
400The "summary phrase" in the email's Subject should concisely
401describe the patch which that email contains. The "summary
402phrase" should not be a filename. Do not use the same "summary
Randy Dunlap66effdc2007-05-09 02:33:42 -0700403phrase" for every patch in a whole patch series (where a "patch
404series" is an ordered sequence of multiple, related patches).
Paul Jacksond6b9acc2005-10-03 00:29:10 -0700405
406Bear in mind that the "summary phrase" of your email becomes
407a globally-unique identifier for that patch. It propagates
408all the way into the git changelog. The "summary phrase" may
409later be used in developer discussions which refer to the patch.
410People will want to google for the "summary phrase" to read
411discussion regarding that patch.
412
413A couple of example Subjects:
414
415 Subject: [patch 2/5] ext2: improve scalability of bitmap searching
416 Subject: [PATCHv2 001/207] x86: fix eflags tracking
Paul Jackson75f84262005-10-02 18:01:42 -0700417
418The "from" line must be the very first line in the message body,
419and has the form:
420
421 From: Original Author <author@example.com>
422
423The "from" line specifies who will be credited as the author of the
424patch in the permanent changelog. If the "from" line is missing,
425then the "From:" line from the email header will be used to determine
426the patch author in the changelog.
427
428The explanation body will be committed to the permanent source
429changelog, so should make sense to a competent reader who has long
430since forgotten the immediate details of the discussion that might
431have led to this patch.
432
433The "---" marker line serves the essential purpose of marking for patch
434handling tools where the changelog message ends.
435
436One good use for the additional comments after the "---" marker is for
437a diffstat, to show what files have changed, and the number of inserted
438and deleted lines per file. A diffstat is especially useful on bigger
439patches. Other comments relevant only to the moment or the maintainer,
440not suitable for the permanent changelog, should also go here.
Randy Dunlap58591e82006-01-08 01:04:52 -0800441Use diffstat options "-p 1 -w 70" so that filenames are listed from the
442top of the kernel source tree and don't use too much horizontal space
443(easily fit in 80 columns, maybe with some indentation).
Paul Jackson75f84262005-10-02 18:01:42 -0700444
445See more details on the proper patch format in the following
446references.
447
448
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -0700449
450
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700451-----------------------------------
452SECTION 2 - HINTS, TIPS, AND TRICKS
453-----------------------------------
454
455This section lists many of the common "rules" associated with code
456submitted to the kernel. There are always exceptions... but you must
457have a really good reason for doing so. You could probably call this
458section Linus Computer Science 101.
459
460
461
4621) Read Documentation/CodingStyle
463
464Nuff said. If your code deviates too much from this, it is likely
465to be rejected without further review, and without comment.
466
Keiichi Kii5ab3bd52007-10-26 15:51:44 +0900467One significant exception is when moving code from one file to
468another -- in this case you should not modify the moved code at all in
Andy Whitcroftde7d4f02007-07-15 23:37:22 -0700469the same patch which moves it. This clearly delineates the act of
470moving the code and your changes. This greatly aids review of the
471actual differences and allows tools to better track the history of
472the code itself.
473
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -0700474Check your patches with the patch style checker prior to submission
Andy Whitcroftde7d4f02007-07-15 23:37:22 -0700475(scripts/checkpatch.pl). The style checker should be viewed as
476a guide not as the final word. If your code looks better with
477a violation then its probably best left alone.
478
479The checker reports at three levels:
480 - ERROR: things that are very likely to be wrong
481 - WARNING: things requiring careful review
482 - CHECK: things requiring thought
483
484You should be able to justify all violations that remain in your
485patch.
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -0700486
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700487
488
4892) #ifdefs are ugly
490
491Code cluttered with ifdefs is difficult to read and maintain. Don't do
492it. Instead, put your ifdefs in a header, and conditionally define
493'static inline' functions, or macros, which are used in the code.
494Let the compiler optimize away the "no-op" case.
495
496Simple example, of poor code:
497
498 dev = alloc_etherdev (sizeof(struct funky_private));
499 if (!dev)
500 return -ENODEV;
501 #ifdef CONFIG_NET_FUNKINESS
502 init_funky_net(dev);
503 #endif
504
505Cleaned-up example:
506
507(in header)
508 #ifndef CONFIG_NET_FUNKINESS
509 static inline void init_funky_net (struct net_device *d) {}
510 #endif
511
512(in the code itself)
513 dev = alloc_etherdev (sizeof(struct funky_private));
514 if (!dev)
515 return -ENODEV;
516 init_funky_net(dev);
517
518
519
5203) 'static inline' is better than a macro
521
522Static inline functions are greatly preferred over macros.
523They provide type safety, have no length limitations, no formatting
524limitations, and under gcc they are as cheap as macros.
525
526Macros should only be used for cases where a static inline is clearly
527suboptimal [there a few, isolated cases of this in fast paths],
528or where it is impossible to use a static inline function [such as
529string-izing].
530
531'static inline' is preferred over 'static __inline__', 'extern inline',
532and 'extern __inline__'.
533
534
535
5364) Don't over-design.
537
538Don't try to anticipate nebulous future cases which may or may not
Randy Dunlap84da7c02005-06-28 20:45:30 -0700539be useful: "Make it as simple as you can, and no simpler."
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700540
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800541
542
543----------------------
544SECTION 3 - REFERENCES
545----------------------
546
547Andrew Morton, "The perfect patch" (tpp).
548 <http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt>
549
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700550Jeff Garzik, "Linux kernel patch submission format".
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800551 <http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html>
552
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700553Greg Kroah-Hartman, "How to piss off a kernel subsystem maintainer".
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800554 <http://www.kroah.com/log/2005/03/31/>
555 <http://www.kroah.com/log/2005/07/08/>
556 <http://www.kroah.com/log/2005/10/19/>
Xose Vazquez Pereze1b114e2006-01-14 12:57:41 +0100557 <http://www.kroah.com/log/2006/01/11/>
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800558
Randy Dunlapbc7455f2006-07-30 03:03:45 -0700559NO!!!! No more huge patch bombs to linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org people!
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800560 <http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=112112749912944&w=2>
561
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700562Kernel Documentation/CodingStyle:
Qi Yong4db29c12007-06-12 13:06:49 +0800563 <http://users.sosdg.org/~qiyong/lxr/source/Documentation/CodingStyle>
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800564
Pavel Machek8e9cb8f2006-09-29 02:01:29 -0700565Linus Torvalds's mail on the canonical patch format:
Xose Vazquez Perez5b0ed2c2006-01-08 01:02:49 -0800566 <http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/4/7/183>
567--