Subsystem and maintainer tree specific development process notes

The purpose of this document is to provide subsystem specific information which is supplementary to the general development process handbook Documentation/process.

Contents:

• 1. The tip tree handbook
  • 1.1. What is the tip tree?
  • 1.2. Patch submission notes
  • 1.3. Coding style notes
  • 1.4. Commit notifications
• 2. netdev FAQ
  • 2.1. tl;dr
  • 2.2. What is netdev?
  • 2.3. How do the changes posted to netdev make their way into Linux?
  • 2.4. How do I indicate which tree (net vs. net-next) my patch should be in?
  • 2.5. How often do changes from these trees make it to the mainline Linus tree?
  • 2.6. So where are we now in this cycle?
  • 2.7. How can I tell the status of a patch I’ve sent?
  • 2.8. How long before my patch is accepted?
  • 2.9. Should I directly update patchwork state of my own patches?
  • 2.10. How do I divide my work into patches?
  • 2.11. I made changes to only a few patches in a patch series should I resend only those changed?
  • 2.12. I have received review feedback, when should I post a revised version of the patches?
  • 2.13. I submitted multiple versions of a patch series and it looks like a version other than the last one has been accepted, what should I do?
  • 2.14. Are there special rules regarding stable submissions on netdev?
  • 2.15. Is the comment style convention different for the networking content?
  • 2.16. What is “reverse xmas tree”?
  • 2.17. I am working in existing code which uses non-standard formatting. Which formatting should I use?
  • 2.18. I found a bug that might have possible security implications or similar. Should I mail the main netdev maintainer off-list?
  • 2.19. What level of testing is expected before I submit my change?
  • 2.20. How do I post corresponding changes to user space components?
  • 2.21. Can I reproduce the checks from patchwork on my local machine?
  • 2.22. Running all the builds and checks locally is a pain, can I post my patches and have the patchwork bot validate them?
  • 2.23. netdevsim is great, can I extend it for my out-of-tree tests?
  • 2.24. Is netdevsim considered a “user” of an API?
  • 2.25. Any other tips to help ensure my net/net-next patch gets OK’d?