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Kernel Summit 2006: Development process II
[Posted July 19, 2006 by corbet]
There was some concern about some patches sitting in the -mm kernel for too
long, and about patches not getting enough review in general. Some talk of
imposing policies requiring (or at least rewarding) review of other
peoples' code was heard, but the idea didn't get very far. Linus noted
that often, what is really needed is the experience of having a new body of
code in the kernel. Review is good, but it is not the whole solution.
The interface between the developers and the vendor community has its
glitches. The maintainers file contains a fair amount of fiction at this
point, with the result that some vendors try to submit code to people who
have not worked with the kernel in years. There is also the issue of
vendors who are trying to do the right thing and contribute drivers, but
who get "Christophed" and are never heard from again. Solutions to this
problem are hard to come by, however.
Linus said that he could see no reason to do a 2.7 kernel anytime soon.
Given the sort of changes the kernel has been able to absorb, anything
requiring a 2.7 would be so large and disruptive that nobody would actually
want to do it. There was some semi-serious talk of changing the numbering
scheme - putting out a 3.0 or simply dropping the "2.6" prefix - but it
didn't get very far.
The session was uncontentious because, as Linus put it, "people are happy."
So the developers broke up early and moved on to the beer phase of the
event.
(Log in to post comments)
What is "Christophed"?
Gee, everybody in the room understood it...:)
Let's say..."had an encounter with a member of the community whose comments, while dead right in a technical sense, are not always entirely tactful."
One of the many colourful characters in the kernel community is
Christoph Hellwig.
He has very high standards and wants to do what he can to keep the
kernel code up to those standards. So he sometimes reviews other peoples
code that gets submitted to the kernel - a very important and often valuable service.
Christop seems to perfer bluntness to tact (and is not alone in this).
If he thinks your code is rubish, he will tell you in very clear terms.
Some people find this bluntness a bit too painful or confusing, and
choose to leave the party, which is unfortunate.
So to be "Christophed" is to be told - with fairly precise detail -
exactly why your code is below standard.
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