| |
| Information you need to know about netdev |
| ----------------------------------------- |
| |
| Q: What is netdev? |
| |
| A: It is a mailing list for all network-related Linux stuff. This includes |
| anything found under net/ (i.e. core code like IPv6) and drivers/net |
| (i.e. hardware specific drivers) in the Linux source tree. |
| |
| Note that some subsystems (e.g. wireless drivers) which have a high volume |
| of traffic have their own specific mailing lists. |
| |
| The netdev list is managed (like many other Linux mailing lists) through |
| VGER ( http://vger.kernel.org/ ) and archives can be found below: |
| |
| http://marc.info/?l=linux-netdev |
| http://www.spinics.net/lists/netdev/ |
| |
| Aside from subsystems like that mentioned above, all network-related Linux |
| development (i.e. RFC, review, comments, etc.) takes place on netdev. |
| |
| Q: How do the changes posted to netdev make their way into Linux? |
| |
| A: There are always two trees (git repositories) in play. Both are driven |
| by David Miller, the main network maintainer. There is the "net" tree, |
| and the "net-next" tree. As you can probably guess from the names, the |
| net tree is for fixes to existing code already in the mainline tree from |
| Linus, and net-next is where the new code goes for the future release. |
| You can find the trees here: |
| |
| http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/davem/net.git |
| http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/davem/net-next.git |
| |
| Q: How often do changes from these trees make it to the mainline Linus tree? |
| |
| A: To understand this, you need to know a bit of background information |
| on the cadence of Linux development. Each new release starts off with |
| a two week "merge window" where the main maintainers feed their new |
| stuff to Linus for merging into the mainline tree. After the two weeks, |
| the merge window is closed, and it is called/tagged "-rc1". No new |
| features get mainlined after this -- only fixes to the rc1 content |
| are expected. After roughly a week of collecting fixes to the rc1 |
| content, rc2 is released. This repeats on a roughly weekly basis |
| until rc7 (typically; sometimes rc6 if things are quiet, or rc8 if |
| things are in a state of churn), and a week after the last vX.Y-rcN |
| was done, the official "vX.Y" is released. |
| |
| Relating that to netdev: At the beginning of the 2-week merge window, |
| the net-next tree will be closed - no new changes/features. The |
| accumulated new content of the past ~10 weeks will be passed onto |
| mainline/Linus via a pull request for vX.Y -- at the same time, |
| the "net" tree will start accumulating fixes for this pulled content |
| relating to vX.Y |
| |
| An announcement indicating when net-next has been closed is usually |
| sent to netdev, but knowing the above, you can predict that in advance. |
| |
| IMPORTANT: Do not send new net-next content to netdev during the |
| period during which net-next tree is closed. |
| |
| Shortly after the two weeks have passed (and vX.Y-rc1 is released), the |
| tree for net-next reopens to collect content for the next (vX.Y+1) release. |
| |
| If you aren't subscribed to netdev and/or are simply unsure if net-next |
| has re-opened yet, simply check the net-next git repository link above for |
| any new networking-related commits. |
| |
| The "net" tree continues to collect fixes for the vX.Y content, and |
| is fed back to Linus at regular (~weekly) intervals. Meaning that the |
| focus for "net" is on stabilization and bugfixes. |
| |
| Finally, the vX.Y gets released, and the whole cycle starts over. |
| |
| Q: So where are we now in this cycle? |
| |
| A: Load the mainline (Linus) page here: |
| |
| http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git |
| |
| and note the top of the "tags" section. If it is rc1, it is early |
| in the dev cycle. If it was tagged rc7 a week ago, then a release |
| is probably imminent. |
| |
| Q: How do I indicate which tree (net vs. net-next) my patch should be in? |
| |
| A: Firstly, think whether you have a bug fix or new "next-like" content. |
| Then once decided, assuming that you use git, use the prefix flag, i.e. |
| |
| git format-patch --subject-prefix='PATCH net-next' start..finish |
| |
| Use "net" instead of "net-next" (always lower case) in the above for |
| bug-fix net content. If you don't use git, then note the only magic in |
| the above is just the subject text of the outgoing e-mail, and you can |
| manually change it yourself with whatever MUA you are comfortable with. |
| |
| Q: I sent a patch and I'm wondering what happened to it. How can I tell |
| whether it got merged? |
| |
| A: Start by looking at the main patchworks queue for netdev: |
| |
| http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/netdev/list/ |
| |
| The "State" field will tell you exactly where things are at with |
| your patch. |
| |
| Q: The above only says "Under Review". How can I find out more? |
| |
| A: Generally speaking, the patches get triaged quickly (in less than 48h). |
| So be patient. Asking the maintainer for status updates on your |
| patch is a good way to ensure your patch is ignored or pushed to |
| the bottom of the priority list. |
| |
| Q: How can I tell what patches are queued up for backporting to the |
| various stable releases? |
| |
| A: Normally Greg Kroah-Hartman collects stable commits himself, but |
| for networking, Dave collects up patches he deems critical for the |
| networking subsystem, and then hands them off to Greg. |
| |
| There is a patchworks queue that you can see here: |
| http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/bundle/davem/stable/?state=* |
| |
| It contains the patches which Dave has selected, but not yet handed |
| off to Greg. If Greg already has the patch, then it will be here: |
| http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git |
| |
| A quick way to find whether the patch is in this stable-queue is |
| to simply clone the repo, and then git grep the mainline commit ID, e.g. |
| |
| stable-queue$ git grep -l 284041ef21fdf2e |
| releases/3.0.84/ipv6-fix-possible-crashes-in-ip6_cork_release.patch |
| releases/3.4.51/ipv6-fix-possible-crashes-in-ip6_cork_release.patch |
| releases/3.9.8/ipv6-fix-possible-crashes-in-ip6_cork_release.patch |
| stable/stable-queue$ |
| |
| Q: I see a network patch and I think it should be backported to stable. |
| Should I request it via "stable@vger.kernel.org" like the references in |
| the kernel's Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst file say? |
| |
| A: No, not for networking. Check the stable queues as per above 1st to see |
| if it is already queued. If not, then send a mail to netdev, listing |
| the upstream commit ID and why you think it should be a stable candidate. |
| |
| Before you jump to go do the above, do note that the normal stable rules |
| in Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst still apply. So you need to |
| explicitly indicate why it is a critical fix and exactly what users are |
| impacted. In addition, you need to convince yourself that you _really_ |
| think it has been overlooked, vs. having been considered and rejected. |
| |
| Generally speaking, the longer it has had a chance to "soak" in mainline, |
| the better the odds that it is an OK candidate for stable. So scrambling |
| to request a commit be added the day after it appears should be avoided. |
| |
| Q: I have created a network patch and I think it should be backported to |
| stable. Should I add a "Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org" like the references |
| in the kernel's Documentation/ directory say? |
| |
| A: No. See above answer. In short, if you think it really belongs in |
| stable, then ensure you write a decent commit log that describes who |
| gets impacted by the bugfix and how it manifests itself, and when the |
| bug was introduced. If you do that properly, then the commit will |
| get handled appropriately and most likely get put in the patchworks |
| stable queue if it really warrants it. |
| |
| If you think there is some valid information relating to it being in |
| stable that does _not_ belong in the commit log, then use the three |
| dash marker line as described in Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst to |
| temporarily embed that information into the patch that you send. |
| |
| Q: Someone said that the comment style and coding convention is different |
| for the networking content. Is this true? |
| |
| A: Yes, in a largely trivial way. Instead of this: |
| |
| /* |
| * foobar blah blah blah |
| * another line of text |
| */ |
| |
| it is requested that you make it look like this: |
| |
| /* foobar blah blah blah |
| * another line of text |
| */ |
| |
| Q: I am working in existing code that has the former comment style and not the |
| latter. Should I submit new code in the former style or the latter? |
| |
| A: Make it the latter style, so that eventually all code in the domain of |
| netdev is of this format. |
| |
| Q: I found a bug that might have possible security implications or similar. |
| Should I mail the main netdev maintainer off-list? |
| |
| A: No. The current netdev maintainer has consistently requested that people |
| use the mailing lists and not reach out directly. If you aren't OK with |
| that, then perhaps consider mailing "security@kernel.org" or reading about |
| http://oss-security.openwall.org/wiki/mailing-lists/distros |
| as possible alternative mechanisms. |
| |
| Q: What level of testing is expected before I submit my change? |
| |
| A: If your changes are against net-next, the expectation is that you |
| have tested by layering your changes on top of net-next. Ideally you |
| will have done run-time testing specific to your change, but at a |
| minimum, your changes should survive an "allyesconfig" and an |
| "allmodconfig" build without new warnings or failures. |
| |
| Q: Any other tips to help ensure my net/net-next patch gets OK'd? |
| |
| A: Attention to detail. Re-read your own work as if you were the |
| reviewer. You can start with using checkpatch.pl, perhaps even |
| with the "--strict" flag. But do not be mindlessly robotic in |
| doing so. If your change is a bug-fix, make sure your commit log |
| indicates the end-user visible symptom, the underlying reason as |
| to why it happens, and then if necessary, explain why the fix proposed |
| is the best way to get things done. Don't mangle whitespace, and as |
| is common, don't mis-indent function arguments that span multiple lines. |
| If it is your first patch, mail it to yourself so you can test apply |
| it to an unpatched tree to confirm infrastructure didn't mangle it. |
| |
| Finally, go back and read Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst to be |
| sure you are not repeating some common mistake documented there. |