Re: Linux 5.12-rc1

[Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 10:34 PM Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 12:35 AM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I wondered why there was approx. for 6 days no commits and got an
> > answer from an LWN posting "5.12 Merge window delayed".
> > Unsure, if there was a posting to LKML?
>
> There was no posting to lkml because lkml doesn't take html emails,
> and I only had mobile data (and not even that for the first 24 hours
> or so - even cell towers were down).
>
> I did send updates to several top-level maintainers and to the
> users@kernel.org mailing list, so a lot of people knew about it, but
> they in turn probably only ended up mentioning it on a need-to-know
> basis. As you mention, LWN did have a mention of it, but you'd have to
> find it.
>
> In normal times I would have just taken a laptop to the nearest
> Starbucks and worked that way, but not in the pandemic. Plus the local
> highway was actually shut down for three days because of downed trees
> on the road (this was not a Texas-style electricity generation problem
> - it was literally thousands of trees falling all over. We had one
> miss our house by a couple of meters).
>
> Two weeks later, and the roadways are still littered with trees and
> tons of branches everywhere you drive.
>
> And I didn't have a generator because our local power lines are
> actually buried, and we very seldom lose electricity. But when all the
> feeder lines are down because trees fell over, and it takes a week
> first for the tree crews to clear the roads and then the electric
> crews to replace literally miles of electric cable, it doesn't really
> help all that much that the local lines are buried and all in good
> working order ;)
>
> > Anyway, if you are not able to make your work someone else should jump
> > in like Greg did once.
>
> It was an option, it didn't seem worth it.
>
> And part of _that_ was that it looked like "ok, a couple of days", and
> then it just kept being "one more day" for several days.
>
> A lot of people lost power for just a day or two.
>
> The area I live in probably wasn't a huge priority, because it's
> somewhat sparsely populated, and nice and wooded.
>
> Which is really nice most of the time. It's not quite so nice when you
> can hear the trees keep falling around you, and you know you have a
> few really big ones right next to the house.. ;^p
>

Based on / Freely adapted from Goethe: I answer just when it suits me!

I can hardly imagine your feelings and/or emotions as I was NOT in
such a situation.

I remember "Blackout Münsterland - Münsterländer Schneechaos 2005" [1]
seen on German TV.
150km (approx. 92 miles) from my new home-town.

To make a story short:
Be proud you made a merge-window happen in real 14 -6 = 8 days.
That is amazing, really!

There exist emergency plans - especially for pandemic situations -
here in Germany.
For me it looks like no one cares - including the responsibles.
Exceptional circumstances or you might say "CHAOS".
Sometimes having no plan is good - but never forget your focus or targets.

I wanted to hear from you: Next time in such an exceptional situation
I/we will do ...

And hey yah: Linux v5.12-rc2 on a Saturday Morning @ 06-Mar-2021.
Congrats!

- Sedat -

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKeGHqrip8