From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-15.3 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,INCLUDES_CR_TRAILER,INCLUDES_PATCH, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS,USER_AGENT_SANE_1 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 10055C432BE for ; Thu, 5 Aug 2021 18:31:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9EF460F02 for ; Thu, 5 Aug 2021 18:31:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S241261AbhHESba (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Aug 2021 14:31:30 -0400 Received: from wtarreau.pck.nerim.net ([62.212.114.60]:34694 "EHLO 1wt.eu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S238354AbhHESba (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Aug 2021 14:31:30 -0400 Received: (from willy@localhost) by pcw.home.local (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id 175IUtew022438; Thu, 5 Aug 2021 20:30:55 +0200 Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2021 20:30:55 +0200 From: Willy Tarreau To: Guenter Roeck Cc: stable , Greg Kroah-Hartman , Sasha Levin Subject: Re: Regressions in stable releases Message-ID: <20210805183055.GA21961@1wt.eu> References: <20210805164254.GG17808@1wt.eu> <20210805172949.GA3691426@roeck-us.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20210805172949.GA3691426@roeck-us.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.10.1 (2018-07-13) Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: stable@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Aug 05, 2021 at 10:29:49AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote: > > It looks like a typical "works for me" regression. The best thing that > > could possibly be done to limit such occurrences would be to wait "long > > enough" before backporting them, in hope to catch breakage reports before > > the backport, but here there were already 3 weeks between the patch was > > submitted and it was backported. > > No. The patch is wrong. It just _looks_ correct at first glance. So that's the core of the problem. Stable maintainers cannot be tasked to try to analyse each patch in its finest details to figure whether a maintainer that's expected to be more knowledgeable than them on their driver did something wrong. Then in my opinion we should encourage *not* to use "Fixes:" on untested patches (untested patches will always happen due to hardware availability or lack of a reliable reproducer). What about this to try to improve the situation in this specific case ? Willy >From ef646bae2139ba005de78940064c464126c430e6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Willy Tarreau Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2021 20:24:30 +0200 Subject: docs: process: submitting-patches.rst: recommend against 'Fixes:' if untested 'Fixes:' usually is taken as authority and often results in a backport. If a patch couldn't be tested although it looks perfectly valid, better not add this tag to leave a final chance for backporters to ask about the relevance of the backport or to check for future tests. Cc: Guenter Roeck Signed-off-by: Willy Tarreau --- Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 9 +++++++++ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst index 0852bcf73630..54782b0e2f4c 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst @@ -140,6 +140,15 @@ An example call:: $ git log -1 --pretty=fixes 54a4f0239f2e Fixes: 54a4f0239f2e ("KVM: MMU: make kvm_mmu_zap_page() return the number of pages it actually freed") +Please note that a 'Fixes:' tag will most often result in your patch being +automatically backported to stable branches. If for any reason you could not +test that it really fixes the problem (for example, because the bug is not +reproducible, or because you did not have access to the required hardware +at the time of writing the patch to verify it does not cause regressions), +even if you are absolutely certain of your patch's validity, do not include +a 'Fixes:' tag and instead explain the situation in the commit message in +plain English. + .. _split_changes: Separate your changes -- 2.17.5