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Paul Gortmaker2584f522012-06-05 11:15:50 -04001Everything you ever wanted to know about Linux -stable releases.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -07002
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.
Mel Gorman8191e0d2012-06-21 11:36:50 +010015 - Serious issues as reported by a user of a distribution kernel may also
16 be considered if they fix a notable performance or interactivity issue.
17 As these fixes are not as obvious and have a higher risk of a subtle
18 regression they should only be submitted by a distribution kernel
19 maintainer and include an addendum linking to a bugzilla entry if it
20 exists and additional information on the user-visible impact.
Josh Boyer79cd80a2008-10-24 10:10:42 -040021 - New device IDs and quirks are also accepted.
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080022 - No "theoretical race condition" issues, unless an explanation of how the
23 race can be exploited is also provided.
Matt LaPlante84eb8d02006-10-03 22:53:09 +020024 - It cannot contain any "trivial" fixes in it (spelling changes,
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080025 whitespace cleanups, etc).
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080026 - It must follow the Documentation/SubmittingPatches rules.
Stefan Richter959fb1c2010-04-01 22:01:52 +020027 - It or an equivalent fix must already exist in Linus' tree (upstream).
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070028
29
30Procedure for submitting patches to the -stable tree:
31
32 - Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to
Josh Boyer5fa22422011-10-17 21:16:39 -040033 stable@vger.kernel.org. You must note the upstream commit ID in the
Greg Kroah-Hartman8381b5e2012-01-23 07:36:04 -080034 changelog of your submission, as well as the kernel version you wish
35 it to be applied to.
Stefan Richter959fb1c2010-04-01 22:01:52 +020036 - To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag
Josh Boyer5fa22422011-10-17 21:16:39 -040037 Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior8e9b9362009-12-06 12:24:31 +010038 in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to
39 the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author
40 or subsystem maintainer.
41 - If the patch requires other patches as prerequisites which can be
Brian Norris40806592014-04-02 09:37:08 -070042 cherry-picked, then this can be specified in the following format in
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior8e9b9362009-12-06 12:24:31 +010043 the sign-off area:
44
Paul Gortmaker2584f522012-06-05 11:15:50 -040045 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: a1f84a3: sched: Check for idle
46 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: 1b9508f: sched: Rate-limit newidle
47 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: fd21073: sched: Fix affinity logic
48 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior8e9b9362009-12-06 12:24:31 +010049 Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
50
51 The tag sequence has the meaning of:
52 git cherry-pick a1f84a3
53 git cherry-pick 1b9508f
54 git cherry-pick fd21073
55 git cherry-pick <this commit>
56
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080057 - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the
58 queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few
59 days, according to the developer's schedules.
60 - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by
Stefan Richter46cdf8712008-02-08 23:26:02 +010061 other developers and by the relevant subsystem maintainer.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070062 - Security patches should not be sent to this alias, but instead to the
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080063 documented security@kernel.org address.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070064
65
66Review cycle:
67
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080068 - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be
69 sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of
70 the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to
71 the linux-kernel mailing list.
72 - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070073 - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080074 members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and
75 members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue.
76 - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the
77 latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen.
78 - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the
79 security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070080 Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure.
81
Paul Gortmaker2584f522012-06-05 11:15:50 -040082Trees:
83
84 - The queues of patches, for both completed versions and in progress
85 versions can be found at:
86 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git
87 - The finalized and tagged releases of all stable kernels can be found
88 in separate branches per version at:
89 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git
90
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070091
Matt LaPlante5d3f0832006-11-30 05:21:10 +010092Review committee:
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070093
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080094 - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for
95 this task, and a few that haven't.