Re: BK, deltas, snapshots and fate of -pre...

Doug Ledford
2002-04-22T19:54:21Z

On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 07:34:49PM +0200, Daniel Phillips wrote:
> How about a URL instead? Any objection?

Yes. Why should I have to cut and paste (assuming I'm in X) or
write down and transpose some URL from a file that used to contain
the exact instructions I need in order to get those instructions now just
to satisfy your sensitivity? (And let's not get me started on
"sensitivity" and how personally I think that it's nothing more than a
politically correct way of saying "I don't want to hear what you have to
say so shut up" and is nothing more than another form of censorship that
should be beaten out of all children until it is once and for all
eliminated from this earth)

So let me tell a little story for a second. I used to maintain the
aic7xxx driver. In so doing, I created a web site for disseminating my
patches and what not. As people would grab my patches, I would get
regular (and annoying to me) questions like "how do I apply your
patches", "what patch version should I grab", "how do I compile my
kernel after I apply your patch," etc. So, after enough of the same
question, the question itself becomes a "frequently asked question". So,
I made a few docs that attempted to answer these questions and put them on
my web site along side the patches themselves. These docs most generally
described how the linux kernel versioning worked, how my patch versioning
worked, how to select patches, how to use the patch command, etc. Now,
obviously, some of this was very aic7xxx specific, but large parts of it
were background knowledge that was required in order to apply that
specific aic7xxx information. It made sense therefore to include that
information so that the whole picture, from start to finish, was all
described in one easy to access place. So, as a result, even though I
could have pointed the reader to the patch man page, I didn't bother to
make them read a large document full of options and possible means of
screwing things up when all I really wanted them to know was "All of my
patches are generated so that if you go into the top level of the linux
source directory and type 'patch -p1 < patchname' then things will work
properly".

So, I haven't read this "BitKeeper advertisement" you have been
complaining about. However, I have heard claims that it deals more
specifically with how to interface your own personal BK setup with Linus
than it does with usage of BK in general. If I were to sit down and read
that document now, the questions I would attempt to answer would be things
like A) does it describe BK in general and how to set it up for general
use, or does it describe how to set BK up for a specific use related to
kernel developement, B) does it describe how that setup is then integrated
into a kernel patch submission process, C) is the description relevant
to all BK setups (not just linux kernel setups) or is it geared
specifically towards linux kernel setups, and D) would the description of
BK found in the document be of general use to BK deployments in evil
proprietary company "X" or would evil company "X" likely need a more
general description of BK capabilities not as it is related to linux
kernel development. From those questions, and possibly a few more similar
ones, a person can determine if the document belongs on the BK web site,
or in the linux documentation directory.

Like I said, I haven't read the document. But, if I did and it turned out
that it was similar to my description of how to use patch to apply my
aic7xxx patches, IOW if it truly was a limited scope "How to use BK to
send patches to Linus" and provided just the needed BK information to
teach the user the real goal, which is how to integrate their work into
Linus' BK patch process, then I would be greatly offended should the
document be moved out it's appropriate location in the linux kernel
documentation directory to some web site where it doesn't really belong.

--
Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com> 919-754-3700 x44233
Red Hat, Inc.
1801 Varsity Dr.
Raleigh, NC 27606