From: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
To: Sasha Levin <sasha.levin@oracle.com>
Cc: "ksummit-discuss@lists.linuxfoundation.org"
<ksummit-discuss@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] Issues with stable process
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2015 12:02:20 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAMuHMdUK+LZrp9QxPS0wSJzFZVAr_cihxJnFJybo5nb7U_t7xg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <55A1407E.5080800@oracle.com>
On Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 6:12 PM, Sasha Levin <sasha.levin@oracle.com> wrote:
> 1. During the RC cycles bug fixes tend to get sent to Linus without going through
> linux-next. This is very risky, but it seems to work(?). The problem is that Linus
> doesn't restrict those fixes to bugs that were introduced in the current merge window
> but takes anything that is labelled as a "fix".
>
> The result is that there is a significant amount of mostly untested RC patches
> trickling down into stable trees, causing breakage for folks who assume that they
> are running a tested kernel but end up with commits that haven't even been in
> linux-next for more than a few days.
>
> Since for RC kernel it's expected to see issues, and it's easy to correct, this is
> less than a problem, but consider this flow for stable:
>
> * 4.0: bug "A" introduced.
> * 4.2-rc1: bug "A" fixed, but fix unknowingly introduced bug "B".
And the fix for "A" was not in -next?
It will be the next day, though.
> * 4.1.1: ships with fix for "A", and new bug "B".
For serious bugs, the fix may indeed be applied Really Quick.
> * Stable user machines suffer from breakage.
> * 4.2-rc7: bug "B" fixed.
> * Stable users still suffer until the next kernel release.
>
> So while it was quickly fixed for RC, this seriously affects stable.
I wouldn't say "quickly": there's quite some time period (6 weeks) between
-rc1 and -rc7.
If the fix for "B" has a proper "Fixes:" tag, I guess it will be applied to
the next -stable soon. Hence make sure to always provide a "Fixes:" tag when
fixing bugs.
So it boils down to: "How soon to apply fixes to -stable?", and the trade-off
between applying fixes early, but risking to break something unknown and new,
vs. applying fixes late (after more validation), causing more breakage from a
known issue.
Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
Geert
--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org
In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
-- Linus Torvalds
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2015-07-12 10:02 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 83+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2015-07-11 16:12 [Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] Issues with stable process Sasha Levin
2015-07-12 10:02 ` Geert Uytterhoeven [this message]
2015-07-12 13:32 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-13 0:52 ` NeilBrown
2015-07-13 3:32 ` Andy Lutomirski
2015-07-13 4:27 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-13 5:10 ` NeilBrown
2015-07-13 22:55 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2015-07-13 18:21 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-13 18:51 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-15 14:52 ` Olof Johansson
2015-07-15 15:59 ` Guenter Roeck
2015-07-15 16:03 ` Greg KH
2015-07-15 16:15 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-15 16:40 ` Greg KH
2015-07-15 19:34 ` Josh Boyer
2015-07-15 21:21 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-15 22:34 ` Greg KH
2015-07-15 22:40 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-16 3:36 ` Greg KH
2015-07-17 0:52 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2015-07-16 9:06 ` Zefan Li
2015-07-16 18:14 ` Olof Johansson
2015-07-14 0:42 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 1:02 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-14 2:00 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 2:28 ` Jonathan Corbet
2015-07-14 3:48 ` Stephen Rothwell
2015-07-14 7:14 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2015-07-14 11:03 ` James Bottomley
2015-07-14 13:29 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-14 20:17 ` James Bottomley
2015-07-14 20:45 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-14 22:12 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-14 22:36 ` Andy Lutomirski
2015-09-01 8:44 ` Jani Nikula
2015-09-01 20:52 ` Greg KH
2015-09-01 21:00 ` Sasha Levin
2015-09-01 21:08 ` Jiri Kosina
2015-09-01 22:47 ` Sasha Levin
2015-09-02 10:10 ` Luis Henriques
2015-07-16 0:53 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2015-07-16 11:50 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-14 3:42 ` Stephen Rothwell
2015-07-14 7:03 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2015-07-14 10:46 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-14 13:57 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 15:25 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-14 15:32 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 15:38 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-14 15:53 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 16:02 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-14 19:30 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 19:38 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-15 1:49 ` NeilBrown
2015-07-15 2:09 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-15 2:28 ` NeilBrown
2015-07-15 10:13 ` James Bottomley
2015-07-15 23:24 ` NeilBrown
2015-07-16 1:05 ` Andy Lutomirski
2015-07-16 1:43 ` Linus Torvalds
2015-07-16 1:25 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-16 9:19 ` James Bottomley
2015-07-16 12:33 ` Jonathan Cameron
2015-08-03 8:32 ` Fengguang Wu
2015-07-14 15:56 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-14 19:01 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 19:18 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2015-07-14 19:31 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-15 9:26 ` Jan Kara
2015-07-16 12:53 ` Mark Brown
2015-07-13 9:22 ` Jan Kara
2015-07-13 20:51 ` Greg KH
2015-07-14 0:51 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 2:46 ` NeilBrown
2015-07-15 19:41 ` Steven Rostedt
2015-07-15 20:14 ` James Bottomley
2015-07-12 15:01 ` Masami Hiramatsu
2015-07-13 10:15 ` Zefan Li
2015-07-13 16:12 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-14 10:08 ` Zefan Li
2015-07-14 14:00 ` Sasha Levin
2015-07-15 0:01 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
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