Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [MAINTAINERS SUMMIT] stable kernel process automation and improvement

[Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>]

Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org> writes:
> Hi folks,
>
> If there is interest, I'd like to go over the (minor) changes that went
> into the -stable kernel process since last year's MS, the various
> automations we now have, and how we have addressed some of the pain
> points that came up last year. I'd also love to hear from folks about
> the issues they're seeing with the process, and if there's anything we
> can do to make it better.
>
> Some of the concerns that were raised during last year's MS (both in the
> group session as well as in the hallway track) which we've tried to
> address are:
>
>  - Commits missing because authors did not respond to Greg's "FAILED:"
>    mails.
>  - Concerns about how well -stable kernels are tested.
>  - "Fixes for fixes" end up being missed.
>  - Saner AUTOSEL process.
>  - Tracking of dropped commits.

Yeah definitely interested in this.

Especially the tracking part. I have been trying to keep track of
powerpc commits that need backporting, but haven't really come up with a
good system. So would be interested in what you and/or others are doing.

Something I've been experimenting with is using git notes to mark
commits that have been fixed by a subsequent commit. This gives you a
two way link between the fix and the fixed commit, and you can get the
notes to show up in git log, like:

  commit 1846193b178dcc58435fdc57352db7b74826ef37
  Author: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
  Date:   Thu Jul 7 22:54:29 2016 +1000
  
      powerpc/xmon: Dump ISA 2.06 SPRs
      
      Signed-off-by: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
  
  Notes (fixed):
      Fixed-by: c47a94031e81 ("powerpc/xmon: Fix display of SPRs")


I'd like to extend this to the stable trees, so you could have output
something like:

  commit 1846193b178dcc58435fdc57352db7b74826ef37
  Author: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
  Date:   Thu Jul 7 22:54:29 2016 +1000
  
      powerpc/xmon: Dump ISA 2.06 SPRs
      
      Signed-off-by: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
  
  Notes (fixed):
      Fixed-by: c47a94031e81 ("powerpc/xmon: Fix display of SPRs")
        v4.9.y: deadbeef0000 ("powerpc/xmon: Fix display of SPRs")
       v4.10.y: not found


Git notes are also just blobs, so in theory the processing to generate
those notes could be done once and pushed to a repo where everyone could
pull them.

cheers