Re: [patch] proc.txt: Update kernel filesystem/proc.txt documentation

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:53:27 +0200
Stefani Seibold <stefani@seibold.net> wrote:

> Am Dienstag, den 09.06.2009, 12:36 -0700 schrieb Andrew Morton:
> > On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:35:58 +0200
> > Stefani Seibold <stefani@seibold.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > This is a patch against the file Documentation/filesystem/proc.txt.
> > > 
> > > It is an update for the "Process-Specific Subdirectories" to reflect 
> > > the changes till kernel 2.6.30. It also introduce the my 
> > > "provide stack information for threads".
> > 
> > Sorry, but it would be much preferable to do this as two patches.  The
> > first fixes up proc.txt and the second adds the
> > stack-information-for-threads material.
> > 
> 
> That is really frustrating. I did everything that you and ingo molnar
> had complained.
> 
> What is wrong with the "provide stack information for threads"? It is a
> very tiny patch which did not harm.
> 
> The only reason to fix and update the proc.txt was that you told me that
> this is the last thing that you miss.

It's more a procedural thing really.  We've learnt that it's best to
avoid mixing more than a single "concept" into a single patch.  For a
whole pile of reasons: reviewability, bisectability, revertability,
testability, etc.

In this case, it's unobvious which parts of the patch were specific to
the stack-information-for-threads changes and which parts were not. 
This makes it hard to review your proposed changes.

> > This is because the two changes are quite conceptually distinct, and we
> > might end up wanting to merge one chage and not the other.
> > 
> 
> Okay, if the other patch will not included than it makes no sense for me
> to get in the other.
> 
> Simple question: will you accept the thread stack info patch or not? If
> yes, i will spent the time to split proc.txt patch.
> 

It looks OK to me now.  If it passes testing and nobody has fatal
objections then yes, I expect it'll be merged in 2.6.31.

The way to organise these changes is

[patch 1/2] fix proc.txt
[patch 2/2] procfs: provide stack information for threads

The second patch will contain a small update to proc.txt.