From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754395AbbJPQYI (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:24:08 -0400 Received: from smtprelay0145.hostedemail.com ([216.40.44.145]:51700 "EHLO smtprelay.hostedemail.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753640AbbJPQYG (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:24:06 -0400 X-Session-Marker: 6A6F6540706572636865732E636F6D X-Spam-Summary: 2,0,0,,d41d8cd98f00b204,joe@perches.com,:::,RULES_HIT:41:355:379:541:599:800:960:973:988:989:1260:1277:1311:1313:1314:1345:1359:1373:1437:1515:1516:1518:1534:1542:1593:1594:1711:1730:1747:1777:1792:2194:2198:2199:2200:2393:2540:2553:2559:2562:2828:2911:3138:3139:3140:3141:3142:3354:3622:3865:3866:3867:3868:3870:3871:3872:3873:3874:4321:4425:5007:6117:6119:6261:7903:9108:10004:10400:10848:11232:11658:11914:12043:12296:12517:12519:12679:12740:13019:14096:14097:21080,0,RBL:none,CacheIP:none,Bayesian:0.5,0.5,0.5,Netcheck:none,DomainCache:0,MSF:not bulk,SPF:fn,MSBL:0,DNSBL:none,Custom_rules:0:0:0 X-HE-Tag: ship29_5c871c4f3d311 X-Filterd-Recvd-Size: 2914 Message-ID: <1445012634.22921.34.camel@perches.com> Subject: Re: [PATCH] get_maintainer: add support for using an alternate MAINTAINERS file From: Joe Perches To: Jani Nikula Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2015 09:23:54 -0700 In-Reply-To: <878u73npjg.fsf@intel.com> References: <1444984605-7445-1-git-send-email-jani.nikula@intel.com> <1444985457.22921.12.camel@perches.com> <878u73npjg.fsf@intel.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Mailer: Evolution 3.12.11-0ubuntu3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 2015-10-16 at 12:14 +0300, Jani Nikula wrote: > On Fri, 16 Oct 2015, Joe Perches wrote: > > On Fri, 2015-10-16 at 11:36 +0300, Jani Nikula wrote: > >> There are large and/or complex subsystems/drivers that have domain > >> experts that should review patches in their domain. One such example is > >> drm/i915. We'd like to be able to document this in a way that can be > >> automatically queried for each patch, so people know who to ping for > >> reviews. This is what get_maintainer.pl already solves. > >> > >> However, documenting all of this in the main kernel MAINTAINERS file is > >> just too much noise, and potentially confusing for community > >> contributors. Add support for specifying and using an alternate > >> MAINTAINERS file with --maintainers option. > > > > Is this really useful for the community at large? > > Probably not. > > > This seems like something that might be useful for an > > organization but not others. > > It may be useful for several organizations contributing to the kernel. > > > Why is specifying whatever is necessary in the existing > > MAINTAINERS file noisy or confusing? > > IIUC you can't specify file patterns for specific reviewers within one > entry. I think we'd have to split up the driver entry to several, mostly > duplicated and possibly overlapping entries, with their own designated > reviewers and file patterns. I think that would be noisy and confusing. I find the concept of adding separate MAINTAINERS files odd and at best and not good for the community. Internal to an organization, if this is for subject matter expert reviewers, perhaps it'd be better to add an optional "REVIEWERS" file (or maybe multiple REVIEWER.* files) with simpler patterns. Using just R: F: X: N: K: would probably work. This wouldn't have to be section ordered like MAINTAINERS, but could also be ordered by reviewer skills. For example: $ cat REVIEWERS BIGCO PHYS M: Joe Schmo F: drivers/net/ethernet/bigco/*/*phy*