Understanding get_maintainer.pl and MAINTAINERS

Understanding get_maintainer.pl and MAINTAINERS

[Robin Krahl]

Hi again,

I?m now preparing my patchset for bcm2835-audio.  get_maintainer.pl
returns:

	$ ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl --nokeywords --nogit --nogit-fallback drivers/staging/vc04_services/bcm2835-audio/
	Stephen Warren <swarren@wwwdotorg.org> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
	Lee Jones <lee@kernel.org> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
	Eric Anholt <eric@anholt.net> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> (supporter:STAGING SUBSYSTEM)
	Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
	Ray Jui <rjui@broadcom.com> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
	Scott Branden <sbranden@broadcom.com> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
	bcm-kernel-feedback-list at broadcom.com (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
	linux-rpi-kernel at lists.infradead.org (moderated list:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
	linux-arm-kernel at lists.infradead.org (moderated list:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
	devel at driverdev.osuosl.org (open list:STAGING SUBSYSTEM)
	linux-kernel at vger.kernel.org (open list)

Why are the BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE guys added
to the list?  The MAINTAINERS file defines these rules:

	BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITECTURE
	M:      Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com>
	M:      Ray Jui <rjui@broadcom.com>
	M:      Scott Branden <sbranden@broadcom.com>
	M:      bcm-kernel-feedback-list at broadcom.com
	T:      git git://github.com/broadcom/mach-bcm
	S:      Maintained
	N:      bcm281*
	N:      bcm113*
	N:      bcm216*
	N:      kona
	F:      arch/arm/mach-bcm/

As far as I see, none of these rules matches the given path.  Am I
missing something?

Regards,
Robin

Understanding get_maintainer.pl and MAINTAINERS

[Bjørn Mork]

Robin Krahl <robin.krahl@ireas.org> writes:

> Hi again,
>
> I?m now preparing my patchset for bcm2835-audio.  get_maintainer.pl
> returns:
>
> 	$ ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl --nokeywords --nogit --nogit-fallback drivers/staging/vc04_services/bcm2835-audio/
> 	Stephen Warren <swarren@wwwdotorg.org> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
> 	Lee Jones <lee@kernel.org> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
> 	Eric Anholt <eric@anholt.net> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
> 	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> (supporter:STAGING SUBSYSTEM)
> 	Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
> 	Ray Jui <rjui@broadcom.com> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
> 	Scott Branden <sbranden@broadcom.com> (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
> 	bcm-kernel-feedback-list at broadcom.com (maintainer:BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE...)
> 	linux-rpi-kernel at lists.infradead.org (moderated list:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
> 	linux-arm-kernel at lists.infradead.org (moderated list:BROADCOM BCM2835 ARM ARCHITECTURE)
> 	devel at driverdev.osuosl.org (open list:STAGING SUBSYSTEM)
> 	linux-kernel at vger.kernel.org (open list)
>
> Why are the BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITE guys added
> to the list?  The MAINTAINERS file defines these rules:
>
> 	BROADCOM BCM281XX/BCM11XXX/BCM216XX ARM ARCHITECTURE
> 	M:      Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com>
> 	M:      Ray Jui <rjui@broadcom.com>
> 	M:      Scott Branden <sbranden@broadcom.com>
> 	M:      bcm-kernel-feedback-list at broadcom.com
> 	T:      git git://github.com/broadcom/mach-bcm
> 	S:      Maintained
> 	N:      bcm281*
> 	N:      bcm113*
> 	N:      bcm216*
> 	N:      kona
> 	F:      arch/arm/mach-bcm/
>
> As far as I see, none of these rules matches the given path.  Am I
> missing something?


The N entries are regex patterns.  "bcm281*" matches any name starting
with "bcm28", followed by 0 or more 1's.  So "bcm2835-audio" matches.

Yes, that looks like a bug in the MAINTAINERS entry.  They probably
intended something along 
 	N:      bcm281.*
 	N:      bcm113.*
 	N:      bcm216.*



Bj?rn

Understanding get_maintainer.pl and MAINTAINERS

[Bjørn Mork]

Bj?rn Mork <bjorn@mork.no> writes:

> The N entries are regex patterns.  "bcm281*" matches any name starting
> with "bcm28", followed by 0 or more 1's.

This isn't entirely correct. I assumed there was some implicit anchoring
on path name components, but there isnt. So "bcm281*" will match any
file containing "bcm28" somewhere in the path.

I am obviously not the first one making that bogus assumption. Very few
of the "N:" entries in MAINTAINERS are anchored in any way.  The rest of
them are likely buggy.  No one expects these strings to match in the
middle of arbitrary path names.  Even the example is a bit too wild
IMHO:

        N: Files and directories with regex patterns.
           N:   [^a-z]tegra     all files whose path contains the word tegra

The '[^a-z]' prevents this from matching any word containing "tegra".
But it will still match e.g "INtegrator" or "b1tegrasp", which is
unexpected.  It would be better to use a more explicit anchor, like
'[-/]tegra'.  Or maybe even "/tegra".




Bj?rn

Understanding get_maintainer.pl and MAINTAINERS

[Robin Krahl]

Bj?rn, thanks for the explanations!

On 2017-03-09 09:13:46, Bj?rn Mork wrote:
> Yes, that looks like a bug in the MAINTAINERS entry.  They probably
> intended something along 
>  	N:      bcm281.*
>  	N:      bcm113.*
>  	N:      bcm216.*

On 2017-03-09 10:22:06, Bj?rn Mork wrote:
> I am obviously not the first one making that bogus assumption. Very few
> of the "N:" entries in MAINTAINERS are anchored in any way.  The rest of
> them are likely buggy.  No one expects these strings to match in the
> middle of arbitrary path names.  Even the example is a bit too wild
> IMHO:
> 
>         N: Files and directories with regex patterns.
>            N:   [^a-z]tegra     all files whose path contains the word tegra

I?ll contact the maintainers for this particular entry.  Should the
general issue be reported somewhere, e. g. on the LKML or to Joe Perches
as the get_maintainer.pl maintainer?

Robin
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