Re: Please pull 'upstream' branch of wireless-2.6

["John W. Linville" <linville@tuxdriver.com>]

On Mon, May 07, 2007 at 07:09:20PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> John W. Linville wrote:

> >Ivo van Doorn (1):
> >      Add 93cx6 eeprom library

> >Michael Wu (1):
> >      Add rtl8187 wireless driver

I presume these are the two parts you question.  (Just checking...)

> The normal development process is:
> 
> * commit new code to your repository
> * that goes into -mm for public testing and review
> * merge window opens
> * the code that has seen public testing and review goes upstream
> 
> The general idea is everything you want in 2.6.22 should be prepared and 
> in -mm BEFORE 2.6.21 is released, and the 2.6.22 merge window opens.
> 
> It's quite normal for fixes and minor changes to trickle in after the 
> push that follows the merge window opening.  But new drivers that have 
> not been through this process do not fall under "fixes and minor changes."
 
I agree whole-heartedly.

The whole mac80211 driver package (including rtl8187) has been in -mm
(and rawhide) for most of the 2.6.21 development cycle.  The rtl8187
driver in particular has been relatively stable for the past couple
of months ("3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)" since
7 March 2007), and it seems to work well.

> I also did not see any response to my "better as a single file driver" 
> suggestion.

Yes, I see that now.  Do you consider this a merge requirement?

My main concern pre-merge would be accidentally destabilizing the code
while stitching the files together.  Other than that, the suggestion
seems worthwhile.  However, I think Michael plans to expand the driver
to support rtl8180 and rtl8185.  This may factor into why he chose
to organize the code the way he has.

> So, I'll pull if you remove the two late additions.

Any chance that you find the comments above persuasive? :-)

John
-- 
John W. Linville
linville@tuxdriver.com