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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
Randy Dunlapb5247c82010-03-10 15:21:59 -0800121: If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares
13 that facility. Don't depend on other header files pulling in ones
14 that you use.
15
162: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -070017 =n. No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070018
Randy Dunlapb5247c82010-03-10 15:21:59 -0800192b: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070020
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700213: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
Randy Dunlap7de33692009-12-15 16:46:59 -080022 or some other build farm.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070023
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700244: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
25 tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070026
J. Bruce Fieldsdf24d9a2008-02-13 15:03:20 -0800275: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
28 Documentation/CodingStyle. Check for trivial violations with the
29 patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
30 You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
31 your patch.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070032
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700336: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070034
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700357: All new Kconfig options have help text.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070036
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700378: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
38 combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
39 pays off here.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070040
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700419: Check cleanly with sparse.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070042
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004310: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
44 that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
45 but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
46 candidate for change.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070047
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004811: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required for
49 static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
50 mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070051
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005212: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
53 CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
54 CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
55 enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070056
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005713: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
58 CONFIG_PREEMPT.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070059
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006014: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz90c699a2009-06-19 08:08:50 +020061 CONFIG_LBDAF.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070062
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006315: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070064
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006516: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
66
6717: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
68 Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
69
7018: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
Randy Dunlap1a036cd2006-09-29 02:01:26 -070071
7219: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
73 See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
Michael Kerrisk1d992ce2008-10-03 15:23:44 -070074 Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to
75 linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
Andrew Mortonce584f92006-09-30 23:27:39 -070076
7720: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080078
7921: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
James Bowes80abe552007-10-20 03:13:09 +020080 failures. See Documentation/fault-injection/.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080081
82 If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
83 injection might be appropriate.
Andrew Mortona517b9f2007-01-22 20:40:36 -080084
Andrew Morton98091692007-05-10 22:22:49 -07008522: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
86 EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W"). This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
87 finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
Randy Dunlap244474b2007-02-28 20:12:35 -080088
8923: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
90 that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
91 changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
Randy Dunlap8033fe62008-10-15 22:01:59 -070092
9324: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
94 source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.
Randy Dunlap7de33692009-12-15 16:46:59 -080095
9625: If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update
97 Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt.