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 - If the patch covers files in net/ or drivers/net please follow netdev stable 33 submission guidelines as described in 34 Documentation/networking/netdev-FAQ.txt 35 - Security patches should not be handled (solely) by the -stable review 36 process but should follow the procedures in Documentation/SecurityBugs. 37 38For all other submissions, choose one of the following procedures: 39 40 --- Option 1 --- 41 42 To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag 43 Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org 44 in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to 45 the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author 46 or subsystem maintainer. 47 48 --- Option 2 --- 49 50 After the patch has been merged to Linus' tree, send an email to 51 stable@vger.kernel.org containing the subject of the patch, the commit ID, 52 why you think it should be applied, and what kernel version you wish it to 53 be applied to. 54 55 --- Option 3 --- 56 57 Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to 58 stable@vger.kernel.org. You must note the upstream commit ID in the 59 changelog of your submission, as well as the kernel version you wish 60 it to be applied to. 61 62Option 1 is *strongly* preferred, is the easiest and most common. Options 2 and 633 are more useful if the patch isn't deemed worthy at the time it is applied to 64a public git tree (for instance, because it deserves more regression testing 65first). Option 3 is especially useful if the patch needs some special handling 66to apply to an older kernel (e.g., if API's have changed in the meantime). 67 68Note that for Option 3, if the patch deviates from the original upstream patch 69(for example because it had to be backported) this must be very clearly 70documented and justified in the patch description. 71 72The upstream commit ID must be specified with a separate line above the commit 73text, like this: 74 75 commit <sha1> upstream. 76 77Additionally, some patches submitted via Option 1 may have additional patch 78prerequisites which can be cherry-picked. This can be specified in the following 79format in the sign-off area: 80 81 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: a1f84a3: sched: Check for idle 82 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: 1b9508f: sched: Rate-limit newidle 83 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: fd21073: sched: Fix affinity logic 84 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x 85 Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> 86 87 The tag sequence has the meaning of: 88 git cherry-pick a1f84a3 89 git cherry-pick 1b9508f 90 git cherry-pick fd21073 91 git cherry-pick <this commit> 92 93Also, some patches may have kernel version prerequisites. This can be 94specified in the following format in the sign-off area: 95 96 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x- 97 98 The tag has the meaning of: 99 git cherry-pick <this commit> 100 101 For each "-stable" tree starting with the specified version. 102 103Following the submission: 104 105 - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the 106 queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few 107 days, according to the developer's schedules. 108 - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by 109 other developers and by the relevant subsystem maintainer. 110 111 112Review cycle: 113 114 - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be 115 sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of 116 the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to 117 the linux-kernel mailing list. 118 - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch. 119 - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel 120 members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and 121 members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue. 122 - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the 123 latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen. 124 - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the 125 security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle. 126 Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure. 127 128Trees: 129 130 - The queues of patches, for both completed versions and in progress 131 versions can be found at: 132 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git 133 - The finalized and tagged releases of all stable kernels can be found 134 in separate branches per version at: 135 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git 136 137 138Review committee: 139 140 - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for 141 this task, and a few that haven't. 142