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smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.a=rsa-sha256 header.s=k20260515 header.b=Ry4E8LTQ; arc=none smtp.remote-ip=100.103.45.18 Received: from smtp.kernel.org (quasi.space.kernel.org [100.103.45.18]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature ECDSA (prime256v1)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id ECB0B606A31D; Wed, 21 Oct 2026 06:41:51 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key, unprotected) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.a=rsa-sha256 header.s=k20260515 header.b=Ry4E8LTQ Received: by smtp.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 7CD751F000C9; Wed, 21 Oct 2026 06:41:49 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=kernel.org; s=k20260515; t=1792564911; bh=86NK9jBb1rqz71KvDNZ40l3OCX5mf7WDgGhh0Xh1ztw=; h=Date:Subject:To:Cc:References:From:In-Reply-To; b=Ry4E8LTQJKJsBggy1wl5gaD0y8W8704/5l/kFnspa1rrLPnwDRB6SlGOuLsZuWSfm lnjoDQ8aOouO6AE4uYLtrguo+XDlHj9mLeb/QaR/7a81Zf++dMAEzh7H4mPCgIBmTt 9V2W1U0wATl9oxVnjEEKUvlK9AgE5V6o3bvjOqvO4rArqOOMFso3AiLq4VSGs+PlMO yrlGe/F4sZHllibpQHdajX6e6CfpHLKtaD6osEIy9NL5h8I+yeiF3ljPzRaof2a3EU 46SiFhyW/prGhLA/ElWt3qGnFGmpcYRKScfyvohC3uxURyeU7MA594f/FV4t87Cc3u VP8BrLQWoMM4A== Message-ID: Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2026 08:41:47 +0200 X-Mailing-List: workflows@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: List-Owner: Precedence: list MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Subject: Re: [PATCH] docs: submitting-patches: Require base tree information To: Eric Biggers Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, workflows@vger.kernel.org, Jonathan Corbet , Shuah Khan , Randy Dunlap , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Konstantin Ryabitsev References: <20261020212235.1143086-1-ebiggers@kernel.org> <363b228a-7e96-481a-b70f-195ba55d025e@kernel.org> <20261021063927.GA31908@sol> From: Krzysztof Kozlowski Content-Language: en-US Autocrypt: addr=krzk@kernel.org; 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charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 21/10/2026 08:39, Eric Biggers wrote: > On Wed, Oct 21, 2026 at 08:26:28AM +0200, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote: >> On 20/10/2026 23:22, Eric Biggers wrote: >>> -Make sure that base commit is in an official maintainer/mainline tree >>> -and not in some internal, accessible only to you tree - otherwise it >>> -would be worthless. >>> + If ``git format-patch`` with ``--base=auto`` (or >>> + ``format.useAutoBase=true``) can't detect a base commit, e.g. due to >>> + the current branch having no upstream tracking branch, it exits with >>> + an error. In such cases, pass an explicit base commit to ``--base`` >>> + instead. This is also needed if git detects the wrong base commit, >>> + such as when the upstream branch has local, unpublished commits. >>> + >>> +The base commit must be in a well-known public tree, such as the >>> +subsystem development branch the patch is targeting. See >>> +:ref:`obtain_a_current_source_tree`. Mainline or the latest linux-next >>> +can also be acceptable bases, depending on the subsystem. >> >> I disagree, that's pointlessly too hard requirement. >> >> For many of my contributions base is obvious and not needed to be >> explicitly defined. For all the patches I accept, answer is the same - >> base is either obvious or if not and patch does not apply, then the base >> does not matter. >> >> Requiring it is just bureaucracy without actual benefit. >> >> The only benefit would be if maintainer COULD change its base to apply >> some patch with odd base... but this cannot happen. Maintainer base is >> fixed - it's the HEAD of his development branch for given category of >> commits (e.g. DTS branch for SoC maintainers). > > There are many use cases for applying patches besides the final patch > acceptance, such as review (by anyone, not just a maintainer), testing, > CI systems, etc. > > HEAD of a branch is of course not fixed, and changes every time a patch > gets applied. That's especially relevant when wanting to check out an > old patch for any reason. Trying to guess a base commit based on the > date and patch subject is a waste of time. All these tools should just work on top of linux-next. Requiring people to add base like "next-20261021" or "tip-of-obvious-maintainer-tree" is pointless. I understand that base is helping, but helping and requiring an obvious information just do not go together. So again: base has ZERO meaning to the maintainer process. It has meaning to tools, so fix the tools to work on known and obvious trees. Best regards, Krzysztof