[Ksummit-discuss] [MAINTAINERS SUMMIT] Bug-introducing patches

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Sep 06, 2018 at 09:09:31PM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Sep 2018 00:51:42 +0000
> Sasha Levin <Alexander.Levin at microsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> > Assuming you've read the original mail, it appears that most parties who
> > participated in the discussion agreed that there's an issue where
> > patches that go in during (late) -rc cycles seems to be less tested and
> > are buggier than they should be.
> > 
> > Most of that thread discussed possible solutions such as:
> > 
> >  - Not taking non-critical patches past -rcX (-rc4 seemed to be a
> >    popular one).
> >  - -rc patches must fix something introduced in the current merge
> >    window. Patches fixing anything older should go in the next merge
> >    window.
> 
> Interesting, because this is exactly what Linus blew up about that made
> headlines and a loss of a kernel developer 5 years ago:
> 
>   https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/1373593870.17876.70.camel@gandalf.local.home/T/#mb7018718ce288b55fe041778721004cd62cd00a1

And it turns out that today I am feeling the same way again as I said so
here:
	https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20130711214830.611455274@linuxfoundation.org/

Looking at the patches in this -rc1 merge window that were marked for
stable, and some of the dates of them (really old for some subsystems),
it makes me "wonder" why they were postponed so for -rc1, and didn't go
into the -final release.

I know I have done this for "small" patches, or stuff that comes in late
in the -rc cycle that just really does not matter much.  Or for things
that I want to see "bake" in linux-next more.  But even with that, I
don't think that's what is happening here, I think maintainers are just
waiting until -rc1 as it's "easier".   I really have no other
explaination.

Now I can't reject the patches as they are good fixes, and they are now
in Linus's tree.  But the "delay" is worrying to me.  I don't know what
to do about it...

Look at what comes out in this next round of stable releases, and tell
me that all of those really deserved to wait for -rc1.

thanks,

greg k-h