Documentation/SubmitChecklist

   1 Linux Kernel patch sumbittal checklist
   2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   3
   4 Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their
   5 kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly.
   6
   7 These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in
   8 Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux
   9 kernel patches.
  10
  11
  12
  13 1: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and
  14    =n.  No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
  15
  16 2: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
  17
  18 3: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
  19    or something like PLM at OSDL.
  20
  21 4: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
  22    tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
  23
  24 5: Matches kernel coding style(!)
  25
  26 6: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
  27
  28 7: All new Kconfig options have help text.
  29
  30 8: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
  31    combinations.  This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
  32    pays off here.
  33
  34 9: Check cleanly with sparse.
  35
  36 10: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
  37     that they find.  Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
  38     but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
  39     candidate for change.
  40
  41 11: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs.  (Not required for
  42     static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
  43     mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
  44
  45 12: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
  46     CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
  47     CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
  48     enabled.
  49
  50 13: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
  51     CONFIG_PREEMPT.
  52
  53 14: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
  54     CONFIG_LBD.
  55
  56 15: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
  57
  58 16: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
  59
  60 17: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
  61     Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
  62
  63 18: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
  64
  65 19: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
  66     See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
  67
  68 20: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
  69
  70 21: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
  71     fauilures.  See Documentation/fault-injection/.
  72
  73     If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
  74     injection might be appropriate.
  75
  76 22: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
  77     EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W").  This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
  78     finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
  79
  80 23: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
  81     that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
  82     changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
  83
  84 24: Avoid whitespace damage such as indenting with spaces or whitespace
  85     at the end of lines.  You can test this by feeding the patch to
  86     "git apply --check --whitespace=error-all"
  87
  88 25: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
  89     Documentation/CodingStyle.  Check for trivial violations with the
  90     patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
  91     You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
  92     your patch.