Re: [Ksummit-discuss] bug-introducing patches

[Sasha Levin <Alexander.Levin@microsoft.com>]

On Thu, May 03, 2018 at 04:09:05PM -0700, Tony Lindgren wrote:
>* Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org> [180503 22:44]:
>> On Wed, May 02, 2018 at 08:52:29PM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote:
>>
>> > As for -next, me and others stopped reporting bugs in it, because when we do
>> > we tend to get flamed for the "noise". Is anyone aware (or cares) that mips
>> > and nds32 images don't build ? Soaking clothes in an empty bathtub won't make
>> > them wet, and bugs in code which no one builds, much less tests or uses, won't
>> > be found.
>>
>> You've been flamed for testing -next?  That's not been my experience and
>> frankly it's pretty horrifying that it's happening.  Testing is pretty
>> much the whole point of -next existing in the first place so you have to
>> wonder why people are putting their trees there if they don't want
>> testing.  I have seen a few issues with people reporting bugs on old
>> versions of -next but otherwise...
>
>Yes I agree testing Linux next is very important. That's the best way for
>maintainers to ensure a usable -rc1 after a merge window. And then for
>the -rc cycle, there not much of need for chasing bugs to get things working.
>
>Bugs reported for Linux next often seem to get fixed or reverted faster
>compared to the -rc cycle too. I think that's because people realize that
>their code will not get merged until it's been fixed.
>
>So some daily testing of Linux next can save a lot scrambling after the
>merge window :)
>
>Users don't usually upgrade kernels until after later -rc releases or only
>after major releases so that probably explains some of the -rc cycle fixes.

Tony, I'm curious, how many users are you aware of who actually run
Linus's tree? All the users I've encountered so far on Azure seem to be
running something based on -stable.

I can't really get any solid statistics about that on my end both
because I don't have visibility inside user VMs (I don't actually have
prod access believe it or not), and even if I had it would probably be 
confidential, so I'm just basing this on reports from user's I've seen 
so far.

I think that a question we should be asking ourselves is whether we
should be basing our decisions here on the assumption that (pretty much)
no one runs Linus's tree anymore?