Re: [RFC PATCH v1 1/3] docs: stable-kernel-rules: mention other usages for stable tag comments

[Jani Nikula]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2023, Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Document how to delay backporting or send a note to the stable team
> using shell-style inline comments attached to stable tags.
>
> CC: Greg KH <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> CC: Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx>
> CC: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst | 22 ++++++++++++++++---
>  1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst b/Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
> index 51df1197d5ab..6e4026dd6882 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
> @@ -55,9 +55,10 @@ To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag
>  
>       Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
> -in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to
> -the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author
> -or subsystem maintainer.
> +in the sign-off area; to accompany a note to the stable team, use a shell-style
> +inline comment (see below for details). Once the patch is merged it will be
> +applied to the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the
> +author or subsystem maintainer.
>  
>  .. _option_2:
>  
> @@ -139,6 +140,21 @@ The tag has the meaning of:
>  
>  For each "-stable" tree starting with the specified version.
>  
> +To delay pick up of patches submitted via :ref:`option_1`, use the following
> +format:
> +
> +.. code-block:: none
> +
> +     Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> # after 4 weeks in mainline
> +
> +For any other requests related to patches submitted via :ref:`option_1`, just
> +add a note to the stable tag. This for example can be used to point out known
> +problems:
> +
> +.. code-block:: none
> +
> +     Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> # see patch description, needs adjustments for >= 6.3
> +

To me, this seems like promoting *any* free text after the #, making it
harder to parse in scripts.

Of course, I'm only ever producing this, and never consuming, so if the
manual reading is fine for the stable developers, who am I to argue.


BR,
Jani.


>  Following the submission:
>  
>   - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the

-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel Open Source Graphics Center