Re: [PATCH docs v3] docs: maintainer: document expectations of small time maintainers

From: Conor Dooley
Date: Thu Jul 20 2023 - 18:24:03 EST


On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 02:37:46PM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Jul 2023 16:15:26 +0100 Conor Dooley wrote:
> > ..I noticed that none of these sections address actually testing the
> > code they're responsible for on a (semi-)regular basis. Sure, that comes
> > as part of reviewing the patches for their code, but changes to other
> > subsystems that a driver/feature maintainer probably would not have been
> > CCed on may cause problems for the code they maintain.
> > If we are adding a doc about best-practice for maintainers, I think we
> > should be encouraging people to test regularly.

> I think our testing story is too shaky to make that a requirement.
> Differently put - I was never able to get good upstream testing running
> when I worked for a vendor myself so I wouldn't know how to draw
> the lines.

I'm not saying it needs to be added as a must level item, some words to the
effect of
Maintainers should test the drivers/features they are responsible for on a
regular basis, independent of patches that modify their area of
responsibility. This helps ensure that changes to other parts of the kernel
do not introduce regressions in their driver/feature."
would suffice IMO.

The doc as it is is a useful addition though, so you can add a
Reviewed-by: Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
if you like.

Thanks,
Conor.

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