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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 - Send the patch, after verifying that it follows the above rules, to
36 stable@vger.kernel.org. You must note the upstream commit ID in the
37 changelog of your submission, as well as the kernel version you wish
38 it to be applied to.
39 - To have the patch automatically included in the stable tree, add the tag
40 Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
41 in the sign-off area. Once the patch is merged it will be applied to
42 the stable tree without anything else needing to be done by the author
43 or subsystem maintainer.
44 - If the patch requires other patches as prerequisites which can be
45 cherry-picked, then this can be specified in the following format in
46 the sign-off area:
47
48 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: a1f84a3: sched: Check for idle
49 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: 1b9508f: sched: Rate-limit newidle
50 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x: fd21073: sched: Fix affinity logic
51 Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.3.x
52 Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
53
54 The tag sequence has the meaning of:
55 git cherry-pick a1f84a3
56 git cherry-pick 1b9508f
57 git cherry-pick fd21073
58 git cherry-pick <this commit>
59
60 - The sender will receive an ACK when the patch has been accepted into the
61 queue, or a NAK if the patch is rejected. This response might take a few
62 days, according to the developer's schedules.
63 - If accepted, the patch will be added to the -stable queue, for review by
64 other developers and by the relevant subsystem maintainer.
65 - Security patches should not be sent to this alias, but instead to the
66 documented security@kernel.org address.
67
68
69Review cycle:
70
71 - When the -stable maintainers decide for a review cycle, the patches will be
72 sent to the review committee, and the maintainer of the affected area of
73 the patch (unless the submitter is the maintainer of the area) and CC: to
74 the linux-kernel mailing list.
75 - The review committee has 48 hours in which to ACK or NAK the patch.
76 - If the patch is rejected by a member of the committee, or linux-kernel
77 members object to the patch, bringing up issues that the maintainers and
78 members did not realize, the patch will be dropped from the queue.
79 - At the end of the review cycle, the ACKed patches will be added to the
80 latest -stable release, and a new -stable release will happen.
81 - Security patches will be accepted into the -stable tree directly from the
82 security kernel team, and not go through the normal review cycle.
83 Contact the kernel security team for more details on this procedure.
84
85Trees:
86
87 - The queues of patches, for both completed versions and in progress
88 versions can be found at:
89 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git
90 - The finalized and tagged releases of all stable kernels can be found
91 in separate branches per version at:
92 http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git
93
94
95Review committee:
96
97 - This is made up of a number of kernel developers who have volunteered for
98 this task, and a few that haven't.