Re: Welcome 2026 applicants

[Yalagada Pavan Kumar <pavankumaryalagada@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Oct 05, 2026 at 07:44:06AM +0200, Julia Lawall wrote:
> Welcome Applicants,
> 
> Thank you for your interest in the Linux Kernel Community!
> 
> The 'Contribution Period' for the December 2026 Cohort runs until November
> 2.

Hi Julia,

I noticed that the Outreachy contribution period start date
has changed from October 5 to October 12.

I wanted to confirm whether I should begin my Linux Kernel contribution work
now or whether I should wait until October 12 to start the actual contribution.

Thanks,
Pavan

> 
> Our contribution period process works entirely via this mailing list. Make
> sure that you read over the emails on this list daily.  I will be posting
> updates here. Most importantly, it is where you will learn from each other,
> by following the questions asked/answered, the patches submitted, and the
> reviewer feedback offered.
> 
> You found this email, now make sure you are personally subscribed
> to this list:
> Subscribe: outreachy+subscribe@lists.linux.dev
> View the archive: https://lore.kernel.org/outreachy/
> 
> Please feel free to introduce yourself on the mailing list.
> 
> Ask your questions on the mailing list. If your question is directed at
> an individual, then CC the mailing list. This way you'll be able get
> quick responses to the issues you're facing. Please help other applicants
> who face issues that you've addressed.
> 
> Your first task is to walk through our First Patch Tutorial:
> http://kernelnewbies.org/Outreachyfirstpatch
> 
> The tutorial leads you through submitting your first patch. Please
> do not submit your second patch until your first patch is accepted.
> A key point is that it is really helpful and efficient (for both you
> and patch reviewers) to refine your patch-sending skills one patch
> at a time, rather than having multiple patches in flight that require
> similar rework.
> 
> You must CC all patches to this Outreachy Mailing List and to the
> appropriate mailing lists and maintainers in get_maintainer.pl. The
> tutorial walks you through how to use get_maintainer.pl.
> 
> Once that first patch is accepted, please record that contribution
> on the Outreachy website. It will serve to check your eligibility.
> Only eligible applicants will be able to log contributions on the
> Outreachy website.
> 
> Congratulations on getting your first patch accepted into the Linux
> Kernel! Celebrate, then do more!
> 
> Please note the following:
> 
> * All patches should be on drivers/staging, but not on drivers/staging/media
> 
> * You can use the check the scripts/checkpatch.pl -f to find simple style
>   problems in some files.  Use your judgment about whether a suggestion of
>   checkpatch is a good idea for a change.  Check the mailing list archives
>   for some changes that are regularly suggested by checkpatch but that are
>   rejected in practice.
> 
> * There are not very many checkpatch reports on the current
>   drivers/staging.  Some other potential fixes to consider include memory
>   leaks, introducing new kernel features such as guard, scoped_guard, _obj
>   allocation functions, etc., finding unused functions or variables, etc.
> 
> Once you have several cleanup patches accepted into drivers/staging by
> GregKH, we encourage applicants to move on to complete project Starter Tasks
> that will be outlined:
> https://www.outreachy.org/apply/project-selection/#linux-kernel
> 
> Ping me individually if you think you are done, or close to done, with
> cleanups. Also, folks who already have cleanup patches from prior work,
> please get a few cleanup patches accepted, to refresh your memory about
> submitting kernel patches, and then email me about that too and let's see
> if we can move you on to project tasks.
> 
> All the best and thank you for contributing to the Linux Kernel,
> 
> Julia Lawall
> Kernel Community Coordinator