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Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -07001Linux Kernel patch sumbittal checklist
2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3
4Here are some basic things that developers should do if they
5want to see their kernel patch submittals accepted quicker.
6
7These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided
8in Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere about submitting
9Linux kernel patches.
10
11
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13- Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and =n.
14 No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
15
16- Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
17
18- Builds on multiple CPU arch-es by using local cross-compile tools
19 or something like PLM at OSDL.
20
21- ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
22 tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
23
24- Matches kernel coding style(!)
25
26- Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
27
28- All new Kconfig options have help text.
29
30- Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
31 combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing --
32 brainpower pays off here.
33
34- Check cleanly with sparse.
35
36- Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any
37 problems that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out
38 problems explicitly, but any one function that uses more than
39 512 bytes on the stack is a candidate for change.
40
41- Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required
42 for static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs'
43 or 'make mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
44
45- Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
46 CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
47 CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
48 enabled.
49
50- Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
51 CONFIG_PREEMPT.
52
53- If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
54 CONFIG_LBD.
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56
572006-APR-27