Re: [PATCH 1/3] MAINTAINERS: Introduce V: field for required tests

Nikolai Kondrashov
2023-11-16T12:00:54Z

On 11/15/23 20:31, Joe Perches wrote:
> On Wed, 2023-11-15 at 19:43 +0200, Nikolai Kondrashov wrote:
>> Introduce a new 'V:' ("Verify") field to MAINTAINERS. The field accepts
>> a name of a test suite which is required to be executed for each
>> contribution to the subsystem.
>
> Perhaps this is simply too much overhead
> process requirements for most kernel work.
>
> While the addition of V: seems ok, I think
> putting the verification in checkpatch is
> odd at best and the verification of test
> execution should be a separate script.

I agree that this extends checkpatch.pl responsibilities somewhat. In the
sense that it requires you to do something beside changing the patch itself.
OTOH, checkpatch.pl already requires Signed-off-by:, which prompts you to
check and clear up your authorship, similarly requiring work outside the patch.

At the same time, you're supposed to test your changes anyway. Sometimes it's
manual and one-off, but often times running an existing test suite is at least
beneficial, if not required.

In a sense, this is not *checkpatch.pl* itself requiring testing, but
subsystem maintainers (who are opting in), and checkpatch.pl simply provides
convenient means and an entry point for raising attention to maintainer's
requests, and making it easier to discover the tests.

It also does *not* verify test execution, only alerts the contributors to the
need, and requires certification. Again, similar to Signed-off-by:.

Nick