Re: Proposed stable release changes

[Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>]

Hi Greg,

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 03:40:32PM -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Given that I had to just revert a patch in the recent stable releases
> that didn't get enough time to "bake" in Linus's tree (or in -next), I
> figured it was worth discussing some possible changes with how "fast" I
> pick up patches for stable releases.
> 
> So, how about this proposal:
> 
> - I will wait for a -rc to come out with the patch in it before putting
>   it into a stable release, unless:
> 	- the maintainer ACKs it, or sends it directly (like DaveM does
> 	  for networking patches)
> 	- I have seen enough discussion about a patch to show that it
> 	  really does fix something / is good / doesn't cause problems.
> 	- obviously safe, i.e. "add a device id" type thing.
> 
> Given that we have -rc releases every week, except for the initial -rc1
> release, I don't think this will really cause any major delays.

In the last discussion you initiated on the subject, I proposed something
even more conservative which was the same as above except instead of
"wait for a -rc", it was "wait for rc1 after a full release containing
the patch", unless one of the conditions you proposed, or another one
which would be a tag "urgent" or something like this in the patch. I
tend to think it will be hard at the beginning but will quickly motivate
maintainers to care more about their fixes flow towards -stable depending
on their severity.

Best regards,
Willy