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=-1.0 required=3.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_PASS 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 E101AC0044C for ; Wed, 7 Nov 2018 19:48:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A596220862 for ; Wed, 7 Nov 2018 19:48:59 +0000 (UTC) DMARC-Filter: OpenDMARC Filter v1.3.2 mail.kernel.org A596220862 Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=lwn.net Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; spf=none smtp.mailfrom=linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1726896AbeKHFUr (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Nov 2018 00:20:47 -0500 Received: from ms.lwn.net ([45.79.88.28]:45270 "EHLO ms.lwn.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726495AbeKHFUr (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Nov 2018 00:20:47 -0500 Received: from lwn.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ms.lwn.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id E9C912ED; Wed, 7 Nov 2018 19:48:56 +0000 (UTC) Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2018 12:48:55 -0700 From: Jonathan Corbet To: Thomas Gleixner Cc: LKML , x86@kernel.org, Peter Zijlstra , Paul McKenney , John Stultz , Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo , Frederic Weisbecker , Andy Lutomirski , Marc Zyngier , Daniel Lezcano , Dave Hansen , Ard Biesheuvel , Will Deacon , Mark Brown , Dan Williams Subject: Re: [patch 0/2] Documentation/process: Add subsystem/tree handbook Message-ID: <20181107124855.328133e7@lwn.net> In-Reply-To: <20181107171010.421878737@linutronix.de> References: <20181107171010.421878737@linutronix.de> Organization: LWN.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, 07 Nov 2018 18:10:10 +0100 Thomas Gleixner wrote: > Mark recently suggested in one of the ksummit discussions to add subsystem > or tree specific maintainer handbooks to document subsystem/tree specific > development process information. > > The following series adds the general section and the tip tree specific > handbook. So this is an idea that has gone around for a while; developers often get into trouble when wandering into an unfamiliar part of the kernel, so documenting the quaint local customs might help. Assuming people actually read the documentation, of course. What's here seems generally good, but I do have an overall worry that we may want to consider: - How much do we want to support and document subsystem-specific quirks vs. promoting reasonable and consistent rules kernel-wide? There is a *lot* of stuff in the new tip manual. Much of it, regarding coding style and the writing of changelogs, really seems like it should be global; if we need better documentation of that stuff, I'd really rather see that advice folded into the central documents. Having two (or more) extensive coding-style documents doesn't seem like it's going to help us. The stuff that is truly specific to tip seems fairly minimal: - what goes into tip - the reverse fir tree thing - tail comments, or the distaste thereabouts - subject-line prefixes Having a tip-specific document that contains only those (plus whatever else I forgot to list) would, IMO, make it much more likely that readers would actually notice (and follow) the stuff that's specific to tip. See what I'm getting at here? Am I totally out to lunch on this? Thanks, jon P.S. There is the separate issue of whether having subsystem-specific coding-style rules is a good thing overall. I think we should try to be one big kernel project rather than 100 small ones, but perhaps that's just me.