blob: da0382daa39556939dcc94717b658b5917e4009f [file] [log] [blame]
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
Randy Dunlap85f96422010-05-23 17:02:30 -0700212c: Builds successfully when using O=builddir
22
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700233: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
Randy Dunlap7de33692009-12-15 16:46:59 -080024 or some other build farm.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070025
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700264: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
27 tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070028
J. Bruce Fieldsdf24d9a2008-02-13 15:03:20 -0800295: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
30 Documentation/CodingStyle. Check for trivial violations with the
31 patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
32 You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
33 your patch.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070034
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700356: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070036
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700377: All new Kconfig options have help text.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070038
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700398: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
40 combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
41 pays off here.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070042
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -0700439: Check cleanly with sparse.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070044
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07004510: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
46 that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
47 but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
48 candidate for change.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070049
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005011: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required for
51 static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
52 mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070053
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005412: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
55 CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
56 CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
57 enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070058
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07005913: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
60 CONFIG_PREEMPT.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070061
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006214: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz90c699a2009-06-19 08:08:50 +020063 CONFIG_LBDAF.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070064
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006515: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
Randy Dunlap915a56d2006-06-23 02:05:49 -070066
Andrew Mortone54695a2006-07-10 04:45:42 -07006716: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
68
6917: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
70 Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
71
7218: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
Randy Dunlap1a036cd2006-09-29 02:01:26 -070073
7419: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
75 See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
Michael Kerrisk1d992ce2008-10-03 15:23:44 -070076 Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to
77 linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
Andrew Mortonce584f92006-09-30 23:27:39 -070078
7920: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080080
8121: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
James Bowes80abe552007-10-20 03:13:09 +020082 failures. See Documentation/fault-injection/.
Andrew Morton0dd4e5b2006-12-10 02:18:56 -080083
84 If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
85 injection might be appropriate.
Andrew Mortona517b9f2007-01-22 20:40:36 -080086
Andrew Morton98091692007-05-10 22:22:49 -07008722: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
88 EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W"). This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
89 finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
Randy Dunlap244474b2007-02-28 20:12:35 -080090
9123: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
92 that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
93 changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
Randy Dunlap8033fe62008-10-15 22:01:59 -070094
9524: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
96 source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.
Randy Dunlap7de33692009-12-15 16:46:59 -080097
9825: If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update
99 Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt.
Randy Dunlap85f96422010-05-23 17:02:30 -0700100
10126: If your modified source code depends on or uses any of the kernel
102 APIs or features that are related to the following kconfig symbols,
103 then test multiple builds with the related kconfig symbols disabled
104 and/or =m (if that option is available) [not all of these at the
105 same time, just various/random combinations of them]:
106
107 CONFIG_SMP, CONFIG_SYSFS, CONFIG_PROC_FS, CONFIG_INPUT, CONFIG_PCI,
108 CONFIG_BLOCK, CONFIG_PM, CONFIG_HOTPLUG, CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ,
109 CONFIG_NET, CONFIG_INET=n (but latter with CONFIG_NET=y)