Upstreaming plan

[Miguel Ojeda <miguel.ojeda.sandonis@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

I think we are in a reasonable position to start thinking about
upstreaming. While things are still experimental and will be for a
while; and while there are many bits to be solved (e.g. an example
driver and everything it may entail), the setup is closer to how
things will look like, which means maintainers can start giving
feedback. Plus things look fairly usable for other developers too.

Today v5.11 was released, and this is the approximate kernel release schedule:

  2021-04-18 v5.12 released
  2021-05-02 v5.13 end of merge window
  2021-06-13 v5.13 released
  2021-06-27 v5.14 end of merge window

I propose we target v5.13's merge window for the upstreaming. If we
don't make it (likely), that is fine, we can use it as a test drive to
solve whatever is left and be ready for v5.14.

To that end, the plan can be:

  - Up to around 2021-03-28 (6 weeks): finish whatever features we may
want to have in the initial PR; including cleanups and any example
module/driver, etc.

  - 2021-03-29 - 2021-04-04 (1 week): Then I will rebase and draft a
series for upstreaming. Here it is where we should do a full review of
the entire diff, just in case something got messed up in the different
syncs, plus allows us to spot any final touches.

  - 2021-04-05 - 2021-04-18 (2 weeks): Send the series as an RFC 2
weeks or so before v5.13 merge window to the LKML. This way we get
some general feedback and discussion, plus Linus et. al. can be aware
we might send it. Depending how things go here, we can decide whether
to go for v5.13 merge window or delay to v5.14 (then the same plan
would apply, shifted by 2 months).

Thoughts welcome! -- Specially if you have something baking that may
need more time than those initial ~6 weeks (e.g. you are busy etc.).

Cheers,
Miguel