Re: Policy regarding linux-next only changes

["Theodore Tso" <tytso@mit.edu>]

On Thu, Jul 23, 2026 at 12:07:44AM -0500, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
> The procedural problem is that developers / maintainers are too busy
> to respond to my debug patches. Since I am debugging difficult bugs
> where nobody else are willing to spend resources, this is an
> expected result. I am OK to post my debug patches to ML. But without
> responses / interests from developers / maintainers, this problem
> won't be able to make progress.
> 
> Just saying "Not my business." is not helpful.

Is what is happening that when your security LSM (Tomoyo) is enabled,
this causes lockdep or warnings or other issues in other subsystems?

If so the question is how much are other developers and maintainers
obliged to help you.  The historical answer has been that we help each
other out as a matter of professional courtesy, and if someone has
helped me out a lot, I will tend to return the favor when they ask me
for my help.  I've even used that as an argument for why a company
should dedicate some amount of their developer's time helping out
upstream code even if it's not directly related to their company's
direct interest, since that contribution builds up karma that may
cause the upstream maintainers to help debug a bug, or upstream some
feature, that the company *really* cares about.

But there is nothing which obliges other developers / maintainers to
help you out, other than their being nice.  This is another way of
saying that "free software" is free as in freedom, and not free as in
"free beer".  Responding to your debug patches is in effect demanding
free support.  If you can convince them that it is in their interest,
or their company's interest to help you debug your issue, then that's
fine.  But maybe there's a good *reason* why no one is willing to
spend resources debugging a particular issue --- namely, that it
doesn't help them or their company?

Regards,

						- Ted