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Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -07001Everything you ever wanted to know about Linux 2.6 -stable releases.
2
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -08003Rules on what kind of patches are accepted, and which ones are not, into the
4"-stable" tree:
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -07005
6 - It must be obviously correct and tested.
Matt LaPlante84eb8d02006-10-03 22:53:09 +02007 - It cannot be bigger than 100 lines, with context.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -07008 - It must fix only one thing.
9 - It must fix a real bug that bothers people (not a, "This could be a
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080010 problem..." type thing).
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070011 - 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 Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080013 security issue, or some "oh, that's not good" issue. In short, something
14 critical.
15 - No "theoretical race condition" issues, unless an explanation of how the
16 race can be exploited is also provided.
Matt LaPlante84eb8d02006-10-03 22:53:09 +020017 - It cannot contain any "trivial" fixes in it (spelling changes,
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080018 whitespace cleanups, etc).
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070019 - It must be accepted by the relevant subsystem maintainer.
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080020 - It must follow the Documentation/SubmittingPatches rules.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070021
22
23Procedure for submitting patches to the -stable tree:
24
25 - Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to
26 stable@kernel.org.
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080027 - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the
28 queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few
29 days, according to the developer's schedules.
30 - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by
31 other developers.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070032 - Security patches should not be sent to this alias, but instead to the
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080033 documented security@kernel.org address.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070034
35
36Review cycle:
37
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080038 - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be
39 sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of
40 the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to
41 the linux-kernel mailing list.
42 - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070043 - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080044 members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and
45 members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue.
46 - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the
47 latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen.
48 - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the
49 security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070050 Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure.
51
52
Matt LaPlante5d3f0832006-11-30 05:21:10 +010053Review committee:
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070054
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080055 - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for
56 this task, and a few that haven't.