From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from fout-a3-smtp.messagingengine.com (fout-a3-smtp.messagingengine.com [103.168.172.146]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 31B3F3264FD for ; Wed, 8 Jul 2026 01:20:56 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=103.168.172.146 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1783473658; cv=none; b=TB6vFUJjDkU3MAxwMyvlKfI5/8Ncc0dUbX0tpA8vHle3NYdDoaif0jP3C4A+YlX6otpKuoEkCD8mSSyFmHEtkMdmIF4kFxgLzI9xT0kp5qlV2VVrGxkMXIRcNRHuznGNSM6T4XwfmdstkU6hgz+6+mDbsHPJiHnYKGuE7dRv5zk= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1783473658; c=relaxed/simple; bh=2v86lOsm5Xq7xLnJ+Qri3f+lLVNkGcCrUT058u3YbZM=; h=From:To:Subject:Date:Message-ID:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=MFeWgRjCXhQ6f+37YYvVh9cRXL4ibeZ+nCF4VMTbB70wPzJ8NyAm9/Aa2ssXnM3l6Y5cbEy4NneMKDlVtgT7gTOVgoMdeEZ/dVHKgmlRkDXoQ5+TAwXUYdpDR3DnXmZ3Yxu2v/vSAYHygCRcEOHNhzXgdarkd/VFazEq7NTvHUc= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=pobox.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=pobox.com; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=pobox.com header.i=@pobox.com header.b=DKuZw1Jb; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=messagingengine.com header.i=@messagingengine.com header.b=W21tgCB6; arc=none smtp.client-ip=103.168.172.146 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=pobox.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=pobox.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=pobox.com header.i=@pobox.com header.b="DKuZw1Jb"; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=messagingengine.com header.i=@messagingengine.com header.b="W21tgCB6" Received: from phl-compute-02.internal (phl-compute-02.internal [10.202.2.42]) by mailfout.phl.internal (Postfix) with ESMTP id 64216EC02A8; Tue, 7 Jul 2026 21:20:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: from phl-frontend-01 ([10.202.2.160]) by phl-compute-02.internal (MEProxy); Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:20:56 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=cc :content-type:content-type:date:date:from:from:in-reply-to :message-id:mime-version:reply-to:subject:subject:to:to; s=fm1; t=1783473656; x=1783560056; bh=Ybu4lYHd3McYAemu/bWoNpKYXQbbVCjv Q6jcAosfeV4=; b=DKuZw1Jb76tdq95v1+3Lhl7LqFr5NijIZhoR/rgagGOE/Tiz gLPNNFBgGHCNquu+N3s/Lk3MLzoDH5pCSytzPktAnJaehN7ykwkD0f6U4Y1o+FSh QITLtgPQvl6Bk6pkCrXVxw4GIKo5qVFSBdVxN+Q5Bssl0g7WjLwMmcOJ/r5OOomW 46jc5klQQ/R4AU8J3vPcdfx99M5zoxzspuHp1v2OJVhX4gHV4eXqLh0/UDXz6kZA CSl2x4A3Gyn+Jww3Ekvt/jMTSK0ZvJ1YFzGq71C/PYZdmqUbJQWhioMZfNGqG95E OAtSab/21hetM/XFCG8x+5UmAQyEnIcKwvxPeA== DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d= messagingengine.com; h=cc:content-type:content-type:date:date :feedback-id:feedback-id:from:from:in-reply-to:message-id :mime-version:reply-to:subject:subject:to:to:x-me-proxy :x-me-sender:x-me-sender:x-sasl-enc; s=fm2; t=1783473656; x= 1783560056; bh=Ybu4lYHd3McYAemu/bWoNpKYXQbbVCjvQ6jcAosfeV4=; b=W 21tgCB6EnFYg3LPVCXJae+S2B+mWgVt+8NNHC89nwdPe2MjGsB12/olFzX3FRCMJ mjKXAcucYbYYN7wOEnsahJDPZUVZX4q2JjXw66uBWtmb1RlrOBhidNtzuwAJRkqY qcIAUPG1dGllXzXpGQtNwCZazxamo/2wS5BwbO5/t1jWiR7vGUuQZXqNDyoW3fO0 ncZu7StT45GmrsCFNcKKvuT/jISdDWWDlzu/N84SQlOatYMFYm/uDWknyETXWceL 4K1GpGjv/JehxNJWlK4P+RQV8H3jnniEOrm+TRjdvACivx9LxF2DMylNionOh7ll lwchkj16yfI+RJFace4Bg== X-ME-Sender: X-ME-Received: X-ME-Proxy-Cause: dmFkZTFceMUJwwLVPkoAKLifhodzvJS/3l4ubv2HZbkCRBAPqUP7Nmun040zSCqKadzwQ9 7v9AeRG1VZyakZS4+4kYMRUpNyUW+Mhd38Yx3yXiRo37o5RqixhnWApQ6Zp9pCIJlXR8Bk XDIF4S1iXHst3rePuJTwSNJ9aNuaJvyWcYZsnpOIJladEBmSIGwAwrDAJqFzgIqfG430aM 40CF3oBJ19cWHn+WpyTPuT8HwmAIRErCUBsygCOUOebyimQ9d4Zu8NhBiUdXBnS0A12WzK C1W4tOEegu8AEzYoVhzSqadv6Nvpogdpe6ifvbJYWylGBYf81D7AVjuDOFksfgxbUpfxkq BrUwszC3qg6U2WUyDHp8PJFcPYxDsg6ylQg2ZjattG6f1/QNu1Wm+OWoHvjcC1H8ndCtsM aCsUgo0MCgGkETCbCNnuU4K7y8CJf4ERYtetWNzO4n2GQmB3bEyFe/KR/VA+NF1hiEjQbR uOkcRTLE324ReeCkkzmFhOzePS5iZmIpQtGweM/Fe5937L0/rCQ6yTf7Cssgu2+m5qYAey ZM9AMfpa68gBSTS0FCuSLLC0a0tJoqRGFXgG1MWUSirsWScO9dmR9vdQYs1oRX2nLBOVrm FpvQx65cUJ3J0W9R4BPxNhiZUKhxzA5lmw5BXOqurtGLqXaae8FErU6/oqHA X-ME-Proxy: Feedback-ID: if26b431b:Fastmail Received: by mail.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTPA; Tue, 7 Jul 2026 21:20:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Junio C Hamano To: git@vger.kernel.org Subject: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: abandoning a series Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2026 18:20:55 -0700 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain The document describes an idealized life cycle for a patch series, where an author scratches their itch, improves the patch(es) with help from fellow reviewers, and iterate until their work becomes a part of Git. But sometimes a topic may have to be abandoned or retracted, with an option to later resurrect it when they can, and it is much better than leaving a topic in limbo. Clearly state that we encourage contributors to explicitly retract their topic that did not succeed. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 15 +++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+) diff --git c/Documentation/SubmittingPatches w/Documentation/SubmittingPatches index f042bb5aaf..f14ae20aaa 100644 --- c/Documentation/SubmittingPatches +++ w/Documentation/SubmittingPatches @@ -95,6 +95,21 @@ input and avoids unnecessary churn from many rapid iterations. top, it gets merged to the 'master' branch and waits to become part of the next major release. +But sometimes things do not work as planned. + +. A discussion on the list might convince you that your changes are + not such a good idea, in which case you are expected to explicitly + retract the topic, to releave the maintainer from having to worry + about it. + +. You may have to stop pursuing the topic due to various reasons like + lack of time, other commitments, shifting priorities, etc. It is a + friendly thing to do to tell the list in such a case, so that others + interested in the topic can take over the topic and continue. When + there is no taker, the maintainer may have to discard the topic, but + anybody can resurrect the topic later when they (including you) can + spend more time on it. + In the following sections, many techniques and conventions are listed to help your patches get reviewed effectively in such a life cycle.