From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755824AbdBNVhY (ORCPT ); Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:37:24 -0500 Received: from smtprelay0150.hostedemail.com ([216.40.44.150]:39310 "EHLO smtprelay.hostedemail.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752233AbdBNVhX (ORCPT ); Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:37:23 -0500 X-Session-Marker: 6A6F6540706572636865732E636F6D X-Spam-Summary: 2,0,0,,d41d8cd98f00b204,joe@perches.com,:::::::::,RULES_HIT:41:355:379:541:599:800:960:968:973:988:989:1260:1277:1311:1313:1314:1345:1359:1373:1437:1515:1516:1518:1534:1541:1593:1594:1711:1730:1747:1777:1792:2198:2199:2393:2553:2559:2562:2693:2828:2840:2914:3138:3139:3140:3141:3142:3354:3743:3865:3866:3867:3868:3870:3871:3872:3873:3874:4250:4321:4470:5007:6119:7903:10004:10400:10450:10455:10848:10967:11232:11639:11658:11914:12050:12663:12740:12760:12895:13069:13149:13230:13311:13357:13439:14096:14097:14181:14659:14721:19904:19999:21080:21324:30025:30034:30054:30090:30091,0,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,LFtime:1,LUA_SUMMARY:none X-HE-Tag: joke73_22f4e01d2bc33 X-Filterd-Recvd-Size: 2873 Message-ID: <1487108238.6214.31.camel@perches.com> Subject: Re: [PATCH] docs: Make CodingStyle and SubmittingPatches symlinks From: Joe Perches To: Jonathan Corbet , Mauro Carvalho Chehab Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Greg KH Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2017 13:37:18 -0800 In-Reply-To: <20170214143438.668a7c5b@lwn.net> References: <4a5d167c038ac98c51bd034855f1dca9a3e0f6fb.1484086131.git.joe@perches.com> <20170113124135.7873b9c7@lwn.net> <1484337804.3065.36.camel@perches.com> <20170123083458.25b35a4d@vento.lan> <20170214143438.668a7c5b@lwn.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Mailer: Evolution 3.22.3-0ubuntu0.1 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 (adding Greg KH as I doubt he ever saw the original) On Tue, 2017-02-14 at 14:34 -0700, Jonathan Corbet wrote: > On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 08:34:58 -0200 > Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote: > > > The main difference between a "pointer file" and a symlink is that the > > first indicates a temporary solution, teaching people that the > > file got renamed and were it is located now. As such, we can remove > > those "pointer files" on some future Kernel releases without much concern. > > > > A symlink indicates a more permanent situation, as people will keep > > using the symlinked files as before. That means that any attempt to > > remove those in the future will generate concerns. > > > > So, I'm in favor of using the "pointer files" instead, as it > > gives us an easier way to get rid of them when we find convenient. > > So you've all long since forgotten this discussion, I'm sure, but I've > been pondering it on and off for quite a while. > > The movement of some of the more well-known documents has been a concern > of mine from the beginning; that is why I delayed those changes for > a cycle and raised the issue at a number of conferences, culminating in > the kernel summit in November. I got a strong sense of consensus that we > should go ahead and move the files. > > As Mauro says, symlinks are forever; they say we'll never really succeed > in rationalizing the structure of Documentation/. But we don't nail down > the location of any other files in the kernel source tree in this manner, > and my own feeling is that we shouldn't do that here either. The kernel > source tree is not an API. So my thinking at the moment is that we should > retain the current "pointer files" in the vague hope that, someday, we > won't need them anymore. I'm still of the opposite opinion.