1Everything you ever wanted to know about Linux -stable releases. 2 3Rules on what kind of patches are accepted, and which ones are not, into the 4"-stable" tree: 5 6 - It must be obviously correct and tested. 7 - It cannot be bigger than 100 lines, with context. 8 - It must fix only one thing. 9 - It must fix a real bug that bothers people (not a, "This could be a 10 problem..." type thing). 11 - It must fix a problem that causes a build error (but not for things 12 marked CONFIG_BROKEN), an oops, a hang, data corruption, a real 13 security issue, or some "oh, that's not good" issue. In short, something 14 critical. 15 - Serious issues as reported by a user of a distribution kernel may also 16 be considered if they fix a notable performance or interactivity issue. 17 As these fixes are not as obvious and have a higher risk of a subtle 18 regression they should only be submitted by a distribution kernel 19 maintainer and include an addendum linking to a bugzilla entry if it 20 exists and additional information on the user-visible impact. 21 - New device IDs and quirks are also accepted. 22 - No "theoretical race condition" issues, unless an explanation of how the 23 race can be exploited is also provided. 24 - It cannot contain any "trivial" fixes in it (spelling changes, 25 whitespace cleanups, etc). 26 - It must follow the Documentation/SubmittingPatches rules. 27 - It or an equivalent fix must already exist in Linus' tree (upstream). 28 29 30Procedure for submitting patches to the -stable tree: 31 32 - Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to 33 stable@vger.kernel.org. You must note the upstream commit ID in the 34 changelog of your submission, as well as the kernel version you wish 35 it to be applied to. 36 - To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag 37 Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org 38 in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to 39 the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author 40 or subsystem maintainer. 41 - If the patch requires other patches as prerequisites which can be 42 cherry-picked than this can be specified in the following format in 43 the sign-off area: 44 45 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: a1f84a3: sched: Check for idle 46 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: 1b9508f: sched: Rate-limit newidle 47 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: fd21073: sched: Fix affinity logic 48 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x 49 Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> 50 51 The tag sequence has the meaning of: 52 git cherry-pick a1f84a3 53 git cherry-pick 1b9508f 54 git cherry-pick fd21073 55 git cherry-pick <this commit> 56 57 - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the 58 queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few 59 days, according to the developer's schedules. 60 - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by 61 other developers and by the relevant subsystem maintainer. 62 - Security patches should not be sent to this alias, but instead to the 63 documented security@kernel.org address. 64 65 66Review cycle: 67 68 - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be 69 sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of 70 the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to 71 the linux-kernel mailing list. 72 - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch. 73 - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel 74 members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and 75 members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue. 76 - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the 77 latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen. 78 - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the 79 security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle. 80 Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure. 81 82Trees: 83 84 - The queues of patches, for both completed versions and in progress 85 versions can be found at: 86 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git 87 - The finalized and tagged releases of all stable kernels can be found 88 in separate branches per version at: 89 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git 90 91 92Review committee: 93 94 - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for 95 this task, and a few that haven't. 96