Kernel Source and devicetree for NOTHING Phone(3a) and Phone(3a)Pro
Find a file
Thorsten Leemhuis d2b40ba2cc docs: *-regressions.rst: explain how quickly issues should be handled
Add a section with a few rules of thumb about how
quickly developers should address regressions to
Documentation/process/handling-regressions.rst; additionally,
add a short paragraph about this to the companion document
Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-regressions.rst as well.

The rules of thumb were written after studying the quotes from Linus
found in handling-regressions.rst and especially influenced by
statements like "Users are literally the _only_ thing that matters" and
"without users, your program is not a program, it's a pointless piece of
code that you might as well throw away". The author interpreted those in
perspective to how the various Linux kernel series are maintained
currently and what those practices might mean for users running into a
regression on a small or big kernel update.

That for example lead to the paragraph starting with "Aim to get fixes
for regressions mainlined within one week after identifying the culprit,
if the regression was introduced in a stable/longterm release or the
devel cycle for the latest mainline release". Some might see this as
pretty high bar, but on the other hand something like that is needed to
not leave users out in the cold for too long -- which can quickly happen
when updating to the latest stable series, as the previous one is
normally stamped "End of Life" about three or four weeks after a new
mainline release. This makes a lot of users switch during this
timeframe. Any of them thus risk running into regressions not promptly
fixed; even worse, once the previous stable series is EOLed for real,
users that face a regression might be left with only three options:

 (1) continue running an outdated and thus potentially insecure kernel
     version from an abandoned stable series

 (2) run the kernel with the regression

 (3) downgrade to an earlier longterm series still supported

This is better avoided, as (1) puts users and their data in danger, (2)
will only be possible if it's a minor regression that doesn't interfere
with booting or serious usage, and (3) might be regression itself or
impossible on the particular machine, as the users might require drivers
or features only introduced after the latest longterm series branched
of.

In the end this lead to the aforementioned "Aim to fix regression within
one week" part. It's also the reason for the "Try to resolve any
regressions introduced in the current development cycle before its
end.".

Signed-off-by: Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info>
CC: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Lukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/a7b717b52c0d54cdec9b6daf56ed6669feddee2c.1644994117.git.linux@leemhuis.info
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
2022-02-24 12:57:25 -07:00
arch bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
block bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
certs certs: Fix build error when CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_KEY is empty 2022-01-23 00:08:44 +09:00
crypto lib/crypto: add prompts back to crypto libraries 2022-01-18 13:03:55 +01:00
Documentation docs: *-regressions.rst: explain how quickly issues should be handled 2022-02-24 12:57:25 -07:00
drivers bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
fs bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
include bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
init lib/stackdepot: allow optional init and stack_table allocation by kvmalloc() 2022-01-22 08:33:37 +02:00
ipc proc: remove PDE_DATA() completely 2022-01-22 08:33:37 +02:00
kernel ftrace: Fix s390 breakage from sorting mcount tables 2022-01-23 08:07:02 +02:00
lib bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
LICENSES LICENSES/LGPL-2.1: Add LGPL-2.1-or-later as valid identifiers 2021-12-16 14:33:10 +01:00
mm bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
net bitmap patches for 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 06:20:44 +02:00
samples Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2022-01-20 10:41:01 +02:00
scripts docs: scripts/kernel-doc: Detect absence of FILE arg 2022-02-24 12:13:19 -07:00
security fs.idmapped.v5.17 2022-01-11 14:26:55 -08:00
sound proc: remove PDE_DATA() completely 2022-01-22 08:33:37 +02:00
tools perf tools changes for v5.17: 2nd batch 2022-01-23 08:14:21 +02:00
usr usr/include/Makefile: add linux/nfc.h to the compile-test coverage 2022-01-22 21:48:45 +09:00
virt Generic: 2022-01-22 09:40:01 +02:00
.clang-format genirq/msi: Make interrupt allocation less convoluted 2021-12-16 22:22:20 +01:00
.cocciconfig
.get_maintainer.ignore Opt out of scripts/get_maintainer.pl 2019-05-16 10:53:40 -07:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: use 'dts' diff driver for dts files 2019-12-04 19:44:11 -08:00
.gitignore .gitignore: ignore only top-level modules.builtin 2021-05-02 00:43:35 +09:00
.mailmap RISCV: 2022-01-16 16:15:14 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS MAINTAINERS: Removing Ohad from remoteproc/rpmsg maintenance 2021-12-08 10:09:40 -07:00
Kbuild kbuild: rename hostprogs-y/always to hostprogs/always-y 2020-02-04 01:53:07 +09:00
Kconfig kbuild: ensure full rebuild when the compiler is updated 2020-05-12 13:28:33 +09:00
MAINTAINERS docs: add two documents about regression handling 2022-02-24 12:57:25 -07:00
Makefile Linux 5.17-rc1 2022-01-23 10:12:53 +02:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.