Re: How to improve the quality of the kernel?

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>]

On Sun, Jun 17, 2007 at 06:26:55PM +0200, Stefan Richter wrote:
> Adrian Bunk wrote:
> >>> And we should be aware that reverting is only a workaround for the real
> >>> problem which lies in our bug handling.
> >> ...
> > 
> > And this is something I want to emphasize again.
> > 
> > How can we make any progress with the real problem and not only the 
> > symptoms?
> ...
> 
> Perhaps make lists of
> 
>   - bug reports which never lead to any debug activity
>     (no responsible person/team was found, or a seemingly person/team
>     did not start to debug the report)
> 
>   - known regressions on release,
> 
>   - regressions that became known after release,
> 
>   - subsystems with notable backlogs of old bugs,
> 
>   - other categories?
> 
> Select typical cases from each categories, analyze what went wrong in
> these cases, and try to identify practicable countermeasures.

No maintainer or no maintainer who is debugging bug reports is the 
major problem in all parts of your list.

> Another approach:  Figure out areas where quality is exemplary and try
> to draw conclusions for areas where quality is lacking.

ieee1394 has a maintainer who is looking after all bug reports he gets.

Conclusion: We need such maintainers for all parts of the kernel.

> Stefan Richter

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed