Re: FAILED: patch "[PATCH] lib/crypto: mpi: Fix integer underflow in" failed to apply to 6.1-stable tree

[Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>]

On Wed, May 13, 2026 at 10:04:47AM -0700, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > > A couple issues.  First, this email wasn't sent to the subsystem's
> > > mailing list (linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org in this case).  That greatly
> > > reduces the number of people who are made aware that this didn't get
> > > automatically backported.
> > 
> > We never send out these FAILED emails to the mailing lists, as that
> > would make just even more noise.  It's always been this way, sorry.
> 
> Yes, this has been a problem for a long time, resulting in lots of
> missed backports including the copy.fail ones.  It's time for you to fix
> your process.
> 
> > > Second, the upstream commit cherry-picks to 6.1, 5.15, and 5.10 without
> > > conflict.  (The file being changed was renamed between 6.1 and 6.6, but
> > > 'git cherry-pick' handles that automatically.)
> > > 
> > > I don't know what you're doing exactly that caused it to be
> > > unnecessarily marked as FAILED.  But whatever it is, it's not working,
> > > and it is causing backports to be missed.
> > 
> > We don't use git for cherry-picking as we have a patch queue, so renames
> > will often times fail, like it did here.  This has always been the case
> > in the decades we have been running the stable kernels :)
> 
> Again, this has been a problem for a long time, and it's time for you to
> fix your process.  You can still have the patch queue; just use git for
> the actual cherry-pick.

Also I should mention that your own instructions for "reproducing" the
conflict use 'git cherry-pick':

    git fetch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/ linux-6.1.y
    git checkout FETCH_HEAD
    git cherry-pick -x 8c2f1288250a90a4b5cabed5d888d7e3aeed4035
    # <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
    git commit -s
    git send-email --to '<stable@vger.kernel.org>' --in-reply-to '2026051223-undercoat-reps-6626@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 6.1.y' HEAD^..

When these instructions are followed, there is no conflict.  The
"conflict" is purely because you didn't use 'git cherry-pick' yourself.

So just start using 'git cherry-pick', and stop asking other people to
do it for you when there are no conflicts, please.

And please start Cc'ing the mailing lists.  Linux kernel development
isn't done in private email.  I would have backported the copy.fail
fixes earlier, but I never received the FAILED emails (which I'm
guessing you sent, but only in private email to other people), so I
didn't know they weren't being backported...

- Eric