Re: [Ksummit-discuss] Kernel Summit Agenda -- 2nd draft

[Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 09:37:04AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote:
> 
> Sure, and I do that if I can find the time. In my experience, submitting
> patches to fix observed problems turns out to be the best approach.
> Even (or especially) if plain wrong or less than perfect, patches are
> almost guaranteed to trigger a response.
> 
> Doing this is just very time consuming, and time is always short.
> 
> Also, while beneficial for the system as a whole, I am not sure if it is
> beneficial for the submitter. Touching multiple subsystems almost
> guarantees for the submitter to get something wrong, either because
> of unfamiliarity with the code or because of maintainer preferences.

Speaking as a maintainer, if you can report a regression, I will
definitely take it seriously, with or without a patch.  What's
actually most useful is a git bisection, or failing that, a report of
the last kernel version where things worked, and a reliable repro.
Not that I would turn down a patch, of course, but being able to point
the finger at the guilty patch is often the most useful thing a bug
reporter can contribute.

Cheers,

					- Ted