Re: [PATCH v2 0/7] vma count: fixes, test and improvements

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:49:33 +0100 Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> wrote:

> > > I'm confused, why is the merge window a good time to consider new material?
> > >
> > > People have the entirety of the cycle to submit new material, and they do
> > > so.
> >
> > My view is that if you are sending a cleanup/feature during the merge window
> > you cannot expect a fast reply, and you should not keep sending new versions
> > in that timeframe expecting that all people you CCed that should have a look
> > actually did have a look.
> 
> Yes exactly.
> 
> The problem is all the conversations and respins and etc. _do_ carry on as
> normal, and often land in mm-new, queued up for mm-unstable etc. unless we
> happen to notice them.
> 
> So it makes it impossible for us to just ignore until the next cycle (or need to
> go through every thread that happened afterwards).
> 
> And people know that, so just keep on submitting as normal. That was _really_
> palpable last merge window.
> 

Well, what else do we have to do during the merge window?  The previous
cycle's batch is merged up and there may be some fallout from that, but
it isn't very time-consuming.

If you're proposing that we start to use that period as a break for
sanity purposes then OK, didn't see that one coming, don't know how
widespread this desire is.

But perhaps a better time for this quiet period is during -rc6 and -rc7
when the rate of merging is throttled right back.  Or perhaps from -rc7
to mid-merge-window.