[plug] Kernel development process

[Andrew Cooks]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Daniel Hartwig <mandyke at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12 July 2012 13:42, Andrew Cooks <acooks at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi List
>>
>> Can someone explain to me why the kernel patch submission
>> process still involves sending patch-sets via email, instead
>> of just saying:
>> "Here's a new feature that does <something...>. You can fetch
>> it from <publicly accessible git repo/tag>, which is based on
>> <upstream version>."
>
> Hello
>
> Some reasons in support of submission via the mailing list:
>
> - avoids the potential inconvenience of setting up a publicly
> accessible repository;
> - easier to inspect than interfacing with multiple different
> repositories for small changes;
> - trivial to process offline for those who already read their mail offline;
> - ensures a more permanent record of submissions than any privately
> controlled repository could;
> - …
>
>> Is the issue that people shouldn't be forced to use git? Are
>> the existing tools for dealing with emailed patches really
>> better and if so, what are they?
>
> Git is still very much used, by most contributors anyway.  Excluding
> the reasons mentioned above, there is not really any convenience lost
> or gained by using email- versus repository-submission.
>
> The emailed patch sets are generated by git-format-patch(1), and
> subsequently merged with git-am(1).  These patch sets contain the full
> details of the relevant commits and the result is no different to
> using git-merge(1) instead.
>

Thanks, that really helps me make sense of it. It also partly explains
why some people have suggested that Gerrit might be useful (see
http://code.google.com/p/gerrit/ and
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111049168280159033135/posts/ekAxK9achsA)

I'm trying to think of a way to deal with the volume of mail the lists
get. I'd like to ignore submissions of 27-part patches that aren't
relevant to me and the general tsunami of mail when the merge window
opens, while keeping track of some specific bits. Any ideas on that?

Cheers!