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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.
Josh Boyer79cd80a2008-10-24 10:10:42 -040015 - New device IDs and quirks are also accepted.
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080016 - No "theoretical race condition" issues, unless an explanation of how the
17 race can be exploited is also provided.
Matt LaPlante84eb8d02006-10-03 22:53:09 +020018 - It cannot contain any "trivial" fixes in it (spelling changes,
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080019 whitespace cleanups, etc).
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080020 - It must follow the Documentation/SubmittingPatches rules.
Stefan Richter959fb1c2010-04-01 22:01:52 +020021 - It or an equivalent fix must already exist in Linus' tree (upstream).
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070022
23
24Procedure for submitting patches to the -stable tree:
25
26 - Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to
Josh Boyerf9409cf2011-10-17 21:16:39 -040027 stable@vger.kernel.org. You must note the upstream commit ID in the
28 changelog of your submission.
Stefan Richter959fb1c2010-04-01 22:01:52 +020029 - To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag
Josh Boyerf9409cf2011-10-17 21:16:39 -040030 Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior8e9b9362009-12-06 12:24:31 +010031 in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to
32 the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author
33 or subsystem maintainer.
34 - If the patch requires other patches as prerequisites which can be
35 cherry-picked than this can be specified in the following format in
36 the sign-off area:
37
Josh Boyerf9409cf2011-10-17 21:16:39 -040038 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x: a1f84a3: sched: Check for idle
39 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x: 1b9508f: sched: Rate-limit newidle
40 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x: fd21073: sched: Fix affinity logic
41 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # .32.x
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior8e9b9362009-12-06 12:24:31 +010042 Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
43
44 The tag sequence has the meaning of:
45 git cherry-pick a1f84a3
46 git cherry-pick 1b9508f
47 git cherry-pick fd21073
48 git cherry-pick <this commit>
49
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080050 - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the
51 queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few
52 days, according to the developer's schedules.
53 - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by
Stefan Richter46cdf8712008-02-08 23:26:02 +010054 other developers and by the relevant subsystem maintainer.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070055 - Security patches should not be sent to this alias, but instead to the
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080056 documented security@kernel.org address.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070057
58
59Review cycle:
60
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080061 - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be
62 sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of
63 the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to
64 the linux-kernel mailing list.
65 - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070066 - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080067 members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and
68 members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue.
69 - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the
70 latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen.
71 - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the
72 security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle.
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070073 Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure.
74
75
Matt LaPlante5d3f0832006-11-30 05:21:10 +010076Review committee:
Greg KHfc185d92005-07-29 12:14:34 -070077
Jesper Juhle48e9902006-01-09 20:53:59 -080078 - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for
79 this task, and a few that haven't.