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Jesper Juhl8b7ecb12007-07-15 23:40:51 -07001Linux Kernel patch submission checklist
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -07002~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their
5kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -07006
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07007These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in
8Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux
9kernel patches.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070010
11
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700121: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and
13 =n. No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070014
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700152: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070016
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700173: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
18 or something like PLM at OSDL.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070019
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700204: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
21 tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070022
J. Bruce Fieldsdf24d9a2008-02-13 15:03:20 -0800235: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
24 Documentation/CodingStyle. Check for trivial violations with the
25 patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
26 You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
27 your patch.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070028
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700296: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070030
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700317: All new Kconfig options have help text.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070032
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700338: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
34 combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
35 pays off here.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070036
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700379: Check cleanly with sparse.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070038
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07003910: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
40 that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
41 but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
42 candidate for change.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070043
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004411: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required for
45 static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
46 mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070047
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004812: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
49 CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
50 CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
51 enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070052
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005313: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
54 CONFIG_PREEMPT.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070055
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005614: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz90c699a2009-06-19 08:08:50 +020057 CONFIG_LBDAF.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070058
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005915: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070060
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006116: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
62
6317: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
64 Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
65
6618: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
Randy Dunlap1a036cdd2006-09-29 02:01:26 -070067
6819: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
69 See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
Michael Kerrisk1d992ce2008-10-03 15:23:44 -070070 Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to
71 linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
Andrew Mortonce584f92006-09-30 23:27:39 -070072
7320: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080074
7521: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
James Bowes80abe552007-10-20 03:13:09 +020076 failures. See Documentation/fault-injection/.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080077
78 If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
79 injection might be appropriate.
Andrew Mortona517b9f2007-01-22 20:40:36 -080080
Andrew Morton98091692007-05-10 22:22:49 -07008122: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
82 EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W"). This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
83 finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
Randy Dunlap244474b2007-02-28 20:12:35 -080084
8523: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
86 that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
87 changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
Randy Dunlap8033fe62008-10-15 22:01:59 -070088
8924: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
90 source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.