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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
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700235: Matches kernel coding style(!)
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070024
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700256: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070026
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700277: All new Kconfig options have help text.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070028
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700298: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
30 combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
31 pays off here.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070032
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700339: Check cleanly with sparse.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070034
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07003510: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
36 that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
37 but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
38 candidate for change.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070039
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004011: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required for
41 static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
42 mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070043
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004412: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
45 CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
46 CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
47 enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070048
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004913: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
50 CONFIG_PREEMPT.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070051
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005214: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
53 CONFIG_LBD.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070054
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005515: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070056
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005716: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
58
5917: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
60 Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
61
6218: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
Randy Dunlap1a036cd2006-09-29 02:01:26 -070063
6419: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
65 See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
Andrew Mortonce584f92006-09-30 23:27:39 -070066
6720: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080068
6921: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
James Bowes80abe552007-10-20 03:13:09 +020070 failures. See Documentation/fault-injection/.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080071
72 If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
73 injection might be appropriate.
Andrew Mortona517b9f2007-01-22 20:40:36 -080074
Andrew Morton98091692007-05-10 22:22:49 -07007522: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
76 EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W"). This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
77 finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
Randy Dunlap244474b2007-02-28 20:12:35 -080078
7923: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
80 that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
81 changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
Roland Dreier4d355632007-05-09 02:33:35 -070082
8324: Avoid whitespace damage such as indenting with spaces or whitespace
84 at the end of lines. You can test this by feeding the patch to
85 "git apply --check --whitespace=error-all"
Andy Whitcroft0a920b52007-06-01 00:46:48 -070086
8725: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
88 Documentation/CodingStyle. Check for trivial violations with the
89 patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
90 You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
91 your patch.