Re: [PATCH v4 2/4] workflow: process/changes.rst: expand and cleanup list

[Manuel Ebner <manuelebner@airmail.cc>]

On Tue, 2026-03-17 at 09:04 -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> Manuel Ebner <manuelebner@airmail.cc> writes:
> > remove footnote for sphinx
> >  in the paragraph before the list it says:
> >  "Also, not all tools are necessary on all systems;
> >  obviously, if you don't have any PC Card hardware, for example,
> >  you probably needn't concern yourself with pcmciautils."

i understand this paragraph like this:
most or all tools can be optional, depending on the specific use case.
e.g. quota-tools is optional for people compiling the kernel.
that's why i removed the optional markings.

and pcmciautils, the example in the the file, is not marked as optional in changes.rst:

====================== ===============  ========================================
        Program        Minimal version       Command to check the version
====================== ===============  ========================================
[...]
pcmciautils            004              pccardctl -V

> > remove "(optional)" for the same reason as above
> 
> Here you have lost some information - now the document doesn't say
> *which* tools are optional.  That is, I think, not ideal.

that's true.
my question is: what are the tools optional for?
or what is the criteria for "optional"?

Manuel