Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
8b7ecb11 | 1 | Linux Kernel patch submission checklist |
915a56d2 RD |
2 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
3 | ||
e54695a5 AM |
4 | Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their |
5 | kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly. | |
915a56d2 | 6 | |
e54695a5 AM |
7 | These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in |
8 | Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux | |
9 | kernel patches. | |
915a56d2 RD |
10 | |
11 | ||
e54695a5 AM |
12 | 1: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and |
13 | =n. No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors. | |
915a56d2 | 14 | |
e54695a5 | 15 | 2: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig |
915a56d2 | 16 | |
e54695a5 AM |
17 | 3: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools |
18 | or something like PLM at OSDL. | |
915a56d2 | 19 | |
e54695a5 AM |
20 | 4: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it |
21 | tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities. | |
915a56d2 | 22 | |
df24d9a6 BF |
23 | 5: Check your patch for general style as detailed in |
24 | Documentation/CodingStyle. Check for trivial violations with the | |
25 | patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl). | |
26 | You should be able to justify all violations that remain in | |
27 | your patch. | |
915a56d2 | 28 | |
e54695a5 | 29 | 6: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu. |
915a56d2 | 30 | |
e54695a5 | 31 | 7: All new Kconfig options have help text. |
915a56d2 | 32 | |
e54695a5 AM |
33 | 8: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig |
34 | combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower | |
35 | pays off here. | |
915a56d2 | 36 | |
e54695a5 | 37 | 9: Check cleanly with sparse. |
915a56d2 | 38 | |
e54695a5 AM |
39 | 10: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems |
40 | that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly, | |
41 | but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a | |
42 | candidate for change. | |
915a56d2 | 43 | |
e54695a5 AM |
44 | 11: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required for |
45 | static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make | |
46 | mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues. | |
915a56d2 | 47 | |
e54695a5 AM |
48 | 12: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT, |
49 | CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES, | |
50 | CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously | |
51 | enabled. | |
915a56d2 | 52 | |
e54695a5 AM |
53 | 13: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and |
54 | CONFIG_PREEMPT. | |
915a56d2 | 55 | |
e54695a5 AM |
56 | 14: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without |
57 | CONFIG_LBD. | |
915a56d2 | 58 | |
e54695a5 | 59 | 15: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled. |
915a56d2 | 60 | |
e54695a5 AM |
61 | 16: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/ |
62 | ||
63 | 17: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in | |
64 | Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt. | |
65 | ||
66 | 18: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC() | |
1a036cdd RD |
67 | |
68 | 19: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/. | |
69 | See Documentation/ABI/README for more information. | |
1d992ce9 MK |
70 | Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to |
71 | linux-api@vger.kernel.org. | |
ce584f91 AM |
72 | |
73 | 20: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'. | |
0dd4e5b8 AM |
74 | |
75 | 21: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation | |
80abe55b | 76 | failures. See Documentation/fault-injection/. |
0dd4e5b8 AM |
77 | |
78 | If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault | |
79 | injection might be appropriate. | |
a517b9f9 | 80 | |
98091696 AM |
81 | 22: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make |
82 | EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W"). This will generate lots of noise, but is good for | |
83 | finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned". | |
244474b2 RD |
84 | |
85 | 23: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure | |
86 | that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various | |
87 | changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems. | |
8033fe65 RD |
88 | |
89 | 24: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the | |
90 | source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why. |