Based on kernel version 2.6.26. Page generated on 2008-07-16 21:12 EST.
1 HOWTO do Linux kernel development 2 --------------------------------- 3 4 This is the be-all, end-all document on this topic. It contains 5 instructions on how to become a Linux kernel developer and how to learn 6 to work with the Linux kernel development community. It tries to not 7 contain anything related to the technical aspects of kernel programming, 8 but will help point you in the right direction for that. 9 10 If anything in this document becomes out of date, please send in patches 11 to the maintainer of this file, who is listed at the bottom of the 12 document. 13 14 15 Introduction 16 ------------ 17 18 So, you want to learn how to become a Linux kernel developer? Or you 19 have been told by your manager, "Go write a Linux driver for this 20 device." This document's goal is to teach you everything you need to 21 know to achieve this by describing the process you need to go through, 22 and hints on how to work with the community. It will also try to 23 explain some of the reasons why the community works like it does. 24 25 The kernel is written mostly in C, with some architecture-dependent 26 parts written in assembly. A good understanding of C is required for 27 kernel development. Assembly (any architecture) is not required unless 28 you plan to do low-level development for that architecture. Though they 29 are not a good substitute for a solid C education and/or years of 30 experience, the following books are good for, if anything, reference: 31 - "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie [Prentice Hall] 32 - "Practical C Programming" by Steve Oualline [O'Reilly] 33 - "C: A Reference Manual" by Harbison and Steele [Prentice Hall] 34 35 The kernel is written using GNU C and the GNU toolchain. While it 36 adheres to the ISO C89 standard, it uses a number of extensions that are 37 not featured in the standard. The kernel is a freestanding C 38 environment, with no reliance on the standard C library, so some 39 portions of the C standard are not supported. Arbitrary long long 40 divisions and floating point are not allowed. It can sometimes be 41 difficult to understand the assumptions the kernel has on the toolchain 42 and the extensions that it uses, and unfortunately there is no 43 definitive reference for them. Please check the gcc info pages (`info 44 gcc`) for some information on them. 45 46 Please remember that you are trying to learn how to work with the 47 existing development community. It is a diverse group of people, with 48 high standards for coding, style and procedure. These standards have 49 been created over time based on what they have found to work best for 50 such a large and geographically dispersed team. Try to learn as much as 51 possible about these standards ahead of time, as they are well 52 documented; do not expect people to adapt to you or your company's way 53 of doing things. 54 55 56 Legal Issues 57 ------------ 58 59 The Linux kernel source code is released under the GPL. Please see the 60 file, COPYING, in the main directory of the source tree, for details on 61 the license. If you have further questions about the license, please 62 contact a lawyer, and do not ask on the Linux kernel mailing list. The 63 people on the mailing lists are not lawyers, and you should not rely on 64 their statements on legal matters. 65 66 For common questions and answers about the GPL, please see: 67 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html 68 69 70 Documentation 71 ------------ 72 73 The Linux kernel source tree has a large range of documents that are 74 invaluable for learning how to interact with the kernel community. When 75 new features are added to the kernel, it is recommended that new 76 documentation files are also added which explain how to use the feature. 77 When a kernel change causes the interface that the kernel exposes to 78 userspace to change, it is recommended that you send the information or 79 a patch to the manual pages explaining the change to the manual pages 80 maintainer at mtk.manpages[AT]gmail.com[DOT] 81 82 Here is a list of files that are in the kernel source tree that are 83 required reading: 84 README 85 This file gives a short background on the Linux kernel and describes 86 what is necessary to do to configure and build the kernel. People 87 who are new to the kernel should start here. 88 89 Documentation/Changes 90 This file gives a list of the minimum levels of various software 91 packages that are necessary to build and run the kernel 92 successfully. 93 94 Documentation/CodingStyle 95 This describes the Linux kernel coding style, and some of the 96 rationale behind it. All new code is expected to follow the 97 guidelines in this document. Most maintainers will only accept 98 patches if these rules are followed, and many people will only 99 review code if it is in the proper style. 100 101 Documentation/SubmittingPatches 102 Documentation/SubmittingDrivers 103 These files describe in explicit detail how to successfully create 104 and send a patch, including (but not limited to): 105 - Email contents 106 - Email format 107 - Who to send it to 108 Following these rules will not guarantee success (as all patches are 109 subject to scrutiny for content and style), but not following them 110 will almost always prevent it. 111 112 Other excellent descriptions of how to create patches properly are: 113 "The Perfect Patch" 114 http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt 115 "Linux kernel patch submission format" 116 http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html 117 118 Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt 119 This file describes the rationale behind the conscious decision to 120 not have a stable API within the kernel, including things like: 121 - Subsystem shim-layers (for compatibility?) 122 - Driver portability between Operating Systems. 123 - Mitigating rapid change within the kernel source tree (or 124 preventing rapid change) 125 This document is crucial for understanding the Linux development 126 philosophy and is very important for people moving to Linux from 127 development on other Operating Systems. 128 129 Documentation/SecurityBugs 130 If you feel you have found a security problem in the Linux kernel, 131 please follow the steps in this document to help notify the kernel 132 developers, and help solve the issue. 133 134 Documentation/ManagementStyle 135 This document describes how Linux kernel maintainers operate and the 136 shared ethos behind their methodologies. This is important reading 137 for anyone new to kernel development (or anyone simply curious about 138 it), as it resolves a lot of common misconceptions and confusion 139 about the unique behavior of kernel maintainers. 140 141 Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt 142 This file describes the rules on how the stable kernel releases 143 happen, and what to do if you want to get a change into one of these 144 releases. 145 146 Documentation/kernel-docs.txt 147 A list of external documentation that pertains to kernel 148 development. Please consult this list if you do not find what you 149 are looking for within the in-kernel documentation. 150 151 Documentation/applying-patches.txt 152 A good introduction describing exactly what a patch is and how to 153 apply it to the different development branches of the kernel. 154 155 The kernel also has a large number of documents that can be 156 automatically generated from the source code itself. This includes a 157 full description of the in-kernel API, and rules on how to handle 158 locking properly. The documents will be created in the 159 Documentation/DocBook/ directory and can be generated as PDF, 160 Postscript, HTML, and man pages by running: 161 make pdfdocs 162 make psdocs 163 make htmldocs 164 make mandocs 165 respectively from the main kernel source directory. 166 167 168 Becoming A Kernel Developer 169 --------------------------- 170 171 If you do not know anything about Linux kernel development, you should 172 look at the Linux KernelNewbies project: 173 http://kernelnewbies.org 174 It consists of a helpful mailing list where you can ask almost any type 175 of basic kernel development question (make sure to search the archives 176 first, before asking something that has already been answered in the 177 past.) It also has an IRC channel that you can use to ask questions in 178 real-time, and a lot of helpful documentation that is useful for 179 learning about Linux kernel development. 180 181 The website has basic information about code organization, subsystems, 182 and current projects (both in-tree and out-of-tree). It also describes 183 some basic logistical information, like how to compile a kernel and 184 apply a patch. 185 186 If you do not know where you want to start, but you want to look for 187 some task to start doing to join into the kernel development community, 188 go to the Linux Kernel Janitor's project: 189 http://janitor.kernelnewbies.org/ 190 It is a great place to start. It describes a list of relatively simple 191 problems that need to be cleaned up and fixed within the Linux kernel 192 source tree. Working with the developers in charge of this project, you 193 will learn the basics of getting your patch into the Linux kernel tree, 194 and possibly be pointed in the direction of what to go work on next, if 195 you do not already have an idea. 196 197 If you already have a chunk of code that you want to put into the kernel 198 tree, but need some help getting it in the proper form, the 199 kernel-mentors project was created to help you out with this. It is a 200 mailing list, and can be found at: 201 http://selenic.com/mailman/listinfo/kernel-mentors 202 203 Before making any actual modifications to the Linux kernel code, it is 204 imperative to understand how the code in question works. For this 205 purpose, nothing is better than reading through it directly (most tricky 206 bits are commented well), perhaps even with the help of specialized 207 tools. One such tool that is particularly recommended is the Linux 208 Cross-Reference project, which is able to present source code in a 209 self-referential, indexed webpage format. An excellent up-to-date 210 repository of the kernel code may be found at: 211 http://users.sosdg.org/~qiyong/lxr/ 212 213 214 The development process 215 ----------------------- 216 217 Linux kernel development process currently consists of a few different 218 main kernel "branches" and lots of different subsystem-specific kernel 219 branches. These different branches are: 220 - main 2.6.x kernel tree 221 - 2.6.x.y -stable kernel tree 222 - 2.6.x -git kernel patches 223 - 2.6.x -mm kernel patches 224 - subsystem specific kernel trees and patches 225 226 2.6.x kernel tree 227 ----------------- 228 2.6.x kernels are maintained by Linus Torvalds, and can be found on 229 kernel.org in the pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ directory. Its development 230 process is as follows: 231 - As soon as a new kernel is released a two weeks window is open, 232 during this period of time maintainers can submit big diffs to 233 Linus, usually the patches that have already been included in the 234 -mm kernel for a few weeks. The preferred way to submit big changes 235 is using git (the kernel's source management tool, more information 236 can be found at http://git.or.cz/) but plain patches are also just 237 fine. 238 - After two weeks a -rc1 kernel is released it is now possible to push 239 only patches that do not include new features that could affect the 240 stability of the whole kernel. Please note that a whole new driver 241 (or filesystem) might be accepted after -rc1 because there is no 242 risk of causing regressions with such a change as long as the change 243 is self-contained and does not affect areas outside of the code that 244 is being added. git can be used to send patches to Linus after -rc1 245 is released, but the patches need to also be sent to a public 246 mailing list for review. 247 - A new -rc is released whenever Linus deems the current git tree to 248 be in a reasonably sane state adequate for testing. The goal is to 249 release a new -rc kernel every week. 250 - Process continues until the kernel is considered "ready", the 251 process should last around 6 weeks. 252 - A list of known regressions present in each -rc release is 253 tracked at the following URI: 254 http://kernelnewbies.org/known_regressions 255 256 It is worth mentioning what Andrew Morton wrote on the linux-kernel 257 mailing list about kernel releases: 258 "Nobody knows when a kernel will be released, because it's 259 released according to perceived bug status, not according to a 260 preconceived timeline." 261 262 2.6.x.y -stable kernel tree 263 --------------------------- 264 Kernels with 4 digit versions are -stable kernels. They contain 265 relatively small and critical fixes for security problems or significant 266 regressions discovered in a given 2.6.x kernel. 267 268 This is the recommended branch for users who want the most recent stable 269 kernel and are not interested in helping test development/experimental 270 versions. 271 272 If no 2.6.x.y kernel is available, then the highest numbered 2.6.x 273 kernel is the current stable kernel. 274 275 2.6.x.y are maintained by the "stable" team <stable[AT]kernel[DOT]org>, and are 276 released almost every other week. 277 278 The file Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt in the kernel tree 279 documents what kinds of changes are acceptable for the -stable tree, and 280 how the release process works. 281 282 2.6.x -git patches 283 ------------------ 284 These are daily snapshots of Linus' kernel tree which are managed in a 285 git repository (hence the name.) These patches are usually released 286 daily and represent the current state of Linus' tree. They are more 287 experimental than -rc kernels since they are generated automatically 288 without even a cursory glance to see if they are sane. 289 290 2.6.x -mm kernel patches 291 ------------------------ 292 These are experimental kernel patches released by Andrew Morton. Andrew 293 takes all of the different subsystem kernel trees and patches and mushes 294 them together, along with a lot of patches that have been plucked from 295 the linux-kernel mailing list. This tree serves as a proving ground for 296 new features and patches. Once a patch has proved its worth in -mm for 297 a while Andrew or the subsystem maintainer pushes it on to Linus for 298 inclusion in mainline. 299 300 It is heavily encouraged that all new patches get tested in the -mm tree 301 before they are sent to Linus for inclusion in the main kernel tree. 302 303 These kernels are not appropriate for use on systems that are supposed 304 to be stable and they are more risky to run than any of the other 305 branches. 306 307 If you wish to help out with the kernel development process, please test 308 and use these kernel releases and provide feedback to the linux-kernel 309 mailing list if you have any problems, and if everything works properly. 310 311 In addition to all the other experimental patches, these kernels usually 312 also contain any changes in the mainline -git kernels available at the 313 time of release. 314 315 The -mm kernels are not released on a fixed schedule, but usually a few 316 -mm kernels are released in between each -rc kernel (1 to 3 is common). 317 318 Subsystem Specific kernel trees and patches 319 ------------------------------------------- 320 A number of the different kernel subsystem developers expose their 321 development trees so that others can see what is happening in the 322 different areas of the kernel. These trees are pulled into the -mm 323 kernel releases as described above. 324 325 Here is a list of some of the different kernel trees available: 326 git trees: 327 - Kbuild development tree, Sam Ravnborg <sam[AT]ravnborg[DOT]org> 328 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sam/kbuild.git 329 330 - ACPI development tree, Len Brown <len.brown[AT]intel[DOT]com> 331 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/lenb/linux-acpi-2.6.git 332 333 - Block development tree, Jens Axboe <jens.axboe[AT]oracle[DOT]com> 334 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/axboe/linux-2.6-block.git 335 336 - DRM development tree, Dave Airlie <airlied[AT]linux[DOT]ie> 337 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/airlied/drm-2.6.git 338 339 - ia64 development tree, Tony Luck <tony.luck[AT]intel[DOT]com> 340 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/aegl/linux-2.6.git 341 342 - infiniband, Roland Dreier <rolandd[AT]cisco[DOT]com> 343 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/roland/infiniband.git 344 345 - libata, Jeff Garzik <jgarzik[AT]pobox[DOT]com> 346 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/libata-dev.git 347 348 - network drivers, Jeff Garzik <jgarzik[AT]pobox[DOT]com> 349 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/netdev-2.6.git 350 351 - pcmcia, Dominik Brodowski <linux[AT]dominikbrodowski[DOT]net> 352 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/brodo/pcmcia-2.6.git 353 354 - SCSI, James Bottomley <James.Bottomley[AT]SteelEye[DOT]com> 355 git.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git 356 357 quilt trees: 358 - USB, PCI, Driver Core, and I2C, Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh[AT]suse[DOT]de> 359 kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/gregkh/gregkh-2.6/ 360 - x86-64, partly i386, Andi Kleen <ak[AT]suse[DOT]de> 361 ftp.firstfloor.org:/pub/ak/x86_64/quilt/ 362 363 Other kernel trees can be found listed at http://git.kernel.org/ and in 364 the MAINTAINERS file. 365 366 Bug Reporting 367 ------------- 368 369 bugzilla.kernel.org is where the Linux kernel developers track kernel 370 bugs. Users are encouraged to report all bugs that they find in this 371 tool. For details on how to use the kernel bugzilla, please see: 372 http://test.kernel.org/bugzilla/faq.html 373 374 The file REPORTING-BUGS in the main kernel source directory has a good 375 template for how to report a possible kernel bug, and details what kind 376 of information is needed by the kernel developers to help track down the 377 problem. 378 379 380 Managing bug reports 381 -------------------- 382 383 One of the best ways to put into practice your hacking skills is by fixing 384 bugs reported by other people. Not only you will help to make the kernel 385 more stable, you'll learn to fix real world problems and you will improve 386 your skills, and other developers will be aware of your presence. Fixing 387 bugs is one of the best ways to get merits among other developers, because 388 not many people like wasting time fixing other people's bugs. 389 390 To work in the already reported bug reports, go to http://bugzilla.kernel.org. 391 If you want to be advised of the future bug reports, you can subscribe to the 392 bugme-new mailing list (only new bug reports are mailed here) or to the 393 bugme-janitor mailing list (every change in the bugzilla is mailed here) 394 395 http://lists.osdl.org/mailman/listinfo/bugme-new 396 http://lists.osdl.org/mailman/listinfo/bugme-janitors 397 398 399 400 Mailing lists 401 ------------- 402 403 As some of the above documents describe, the majority of the core kernel 404 developers participate on the Linux Kernel Mailing list. Details on how 405 to subscribe and unsubscribe from the list can be found at: 406 http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#linux-kernel 407 There are archives of the mailing list on the web in many different 408 places. Use a search engine to find these archives. For example: 409 http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel 410 It is highly recommended that you search the archives about the topic 411 you want to bring up, before you post it to the list. A lot of things 412 already discussed in detail are only recorded at the mailing list 413 archives. 414 415 Most of the individual kernel subsystems also have their own separate 416 mailing list where they do their development efforts. See the 417 MAINTAINERS file for a list of what these lists are for the different 418 groups. 419 420 Many of the lists are hosted on kernel.org. Information on them can be 421 found at: 422 http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html 423 424 Please remember to follow good behavioral habits when using the lists. 425 Though a bit cheesy, the following URL has some simple guidelines for 426 interacting with the list (or any list): 427 http://www.albion.com/netiquette/ 428 429 If multiple people respond to your mail, the CC: list of recipients may 430 get pretty large. Don't remove anybody from the CC: list without a good 431 reason, or don't reply only to the list address. Get used to receiving the 432 mail twice, one from the sender and the one from the list, and don't try 433 to tune that by adding fancy mail-headers, people will not like it. 434 435 Remember to keep the context and the attribution of your replies intact, 436 keep the "John Kernelhacker wrote ...:" lines at the top of your reply, and 437 add your statements between the individual quoted sections instead of 438 writing at the top of the mail. 439 440 If you add patches to your mail, make sure they are plain readable text 441 as stated in Documentation/SubmittingPatches. Kernel developers don't 442 want to deal with attachments or compressed patches; they may want 443 to comment on individual lines of your patch, which works only that way. 444 Make sure you use a mail program that does not mangle spaces and tab 445 characters. A good first test is to send the mail to yourself and try 446 to apply your own patch by yourself. If that doesn't work, get your 447 mail program fixed or change it until it works. 448 449 Above all, please remember to show respect to other subscribers. 450 451 452 Working with the community 453 -------------------------- 454 455 The goal of the kernel community is to provide the best possible kernel 456 there is. When you submit a patch for acceptance, it will be reviewed 457 on its technical merits and those alone. So, what should you be 458 expecting? 459 - criticism 460 - comments 461 - requests for change 462 - requests for justification 463 - silence 464 465 Remember, this is part of getting your patch into the kernel. You have 466 to be able to take criticism and comments about your patches, evaluate 467 them at a technical level and either rework your patches or provide 468 clear and concise reasoning as to why those changes should not be made. 469 If there are no responses to your posting, wait a few days and try 470 again, sometimes things get lost in the huge volume. 471 472 What should you not do? 473 - expect your patch to be accepted without question 474 - become defensive 475 - ignore comments 476 - resubmit the patch without making any of the requested changes 477 478 In a community that is looking for the best technical solution possible, 479 there will always be differing opinions on how beneficial a patch is. 480 You have to be cooperative, and willing to adapt your idea to fit within 481 the kernel. Or at least be willing to prove your idea is worth it. 482 Remember, being wrong is acceptable as long as you are willing to work 483 toward a solution that is right. 484 485 It is normal that the answers to your first patch might simply be a list 486 of a dozen things you should correct. This does _not_ imply that your 487 patch will not be accepted, and it is _not_ meant against you 488 personally. Simply correct all issues raised against your patch and 489 resend it. 490 491 492 Differences between the kernel community and corporate structures 493 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 494 495 The kernel community works differently than most traditional corporate 496 development environments. Here are a list of things that you can try to 497 do to try to avoid problems: 498 Good things to say regarding your proposed changes: 499 - "This solves multiple problems." 500 - "This deletes 2000 lines of code." 501 - "Here is a patch that explains what I am trying to describe." 502 - "I tested it on 5 different architectures..." 503 - "Here is a series of small patches that..." 504 - "This increases performance on typical machines..." 505 506 Bad things you should avoid saying: 507 - "We did it this way in AIX/ptx/Solaris, so therefore it must be 508 good..." 509 - "I've being doing this for 20 years, so..." 510 - "This is required for my company to make money" 511 - "This is for our Enterprise product line." 512 - "Here is my 1000 page design document that describes my idea" 513 - "I've been working on this for 6 months..." 514 - "Here's a 5000 line patch that..." 515 - "I rewrote all of the current mess, and here it is..." 516 - "I have a deadline, and this patch needs to be applied now." 517 518 Another way the kernel community is different than most traditional 519 software engineering work environments is the faceless nature of 520 interaction. One benefit of using email and irc as the primary forms of 521 communication is the lack of discrimination based on gender or race. 522 The Linux kernel work environment is accepting of women and minorities 523 because all you are is an email address. The international aspect also 524 helps to level the playing field because you can't guess gender based on 525 a person's name. A man may be named Andrea and a woman may be named Pat. 526 Most women who have worked in the Linux kernel and have expressed an 527 opinion have had positive experiences. 528 529 The language barrier can cause problems for some people who are not 530 comfortable with English. A good grasp of the language can be needed in 531 order to get ideas across properly on mailing lists, so it is 532 recommended that you check your emails to make sure they make sense in 533 English before sending them. 534 535 536 Break up your changes 537 --------------------- 538 539 The Linux kernel community does not gladly accept large chunks of code 540 dropped on it all at once. The changes need to be properly introduced, 541 discussed, and broken up into tiny, individual portions. This is almost 542 the exact opposite of what companies are used to doing. Your proposal 543 should also be introduced very early in the development process, so that 544 you can receive feedback on what you are doing. It also lets the 545 community feel that you are working with them, and not simply using them 546 as a dumping ground for your feature. However, don't send 50 emails at 547 one time to a mailing list, your patch series should be smaller than 548 that almost all of the time. 549 550 The reasons for breaking things up are the following: 551 552 1) Small patches increase the likelihood that your patches will be 553 applied, since they don't take much time or effort to verify for 554 correctness. A 5 line patch can be applied by a maintainer with 555 barely a second glance. However, a 500 line patch may take hours to 556 review for correctness (the time it takes is exponentially 557 proportional to the size of the patch, or something). 558 559 Small patches also make it very easy to debug when something goes 560 wrong. It's much easier to back out patches one by one than it is 561 to dissect a very large patch after it's been applied (and broken 562 something). 563 564 2) It's important not only to send small patches, but also to rewrite 565 and simplify (or simply re-order) patches before submitting them. 566 567 Here is an analogy from kernel developer Al Viro: 568 "Think of a teacher grading homework from a math student. The 569 teacher does not want to see the student's trials and errors 570 before they came up with the solution. They want to see the 571 cleanest, most elegant answer. A good student knows this, and 572 would never submit her intermediate work before the final 573 solution." 574 575 The same is true of kernel development. The maintainers and 576 reviewers do not want to see the thought process behind the 577 solution to the problem one is solving. They want to see a 578 simple and elegant solution." 579 580 It may be challenging to keep the balance between presenting an elegant 581 solution and working together with the community and discussing your 582 unfinished work. Therefore it is good to get early in the process to 583 get feedback to improve your work, but also keep your changes in small 584 chunks that they may get already accepted, even when your whole task is 585 not ready for inclusion now. 586 587 Also realize that it is not acceptable to send patches for inclusion 588 that are unfinished and will be "fixed up later." 589 590 591 Justify your change 592 ------------------- 593 594 Along with breaking up your patches, it is very important for you to let 595 the Linux community know why they should add this change. New features 596 must be justified as being needed and useful. 597 598 599 Document your change 600 -------------------- 601 602 When sending in your patches, pay special attention to what you say in 603 the text in your email. This information will become the ChangeLog 604 information for the patch, and will be preserved for everyone to see for 605 all time. It should describe the patch completely, containing: 606 - why the change is necessary 607 - the overall design approach in the patch 608 - implementation details 609 - testing results 610 611 For more details on what this should all look like, please see the 612 ChangeLog section of the document: 613 "The Perfect Patch" 614 http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt 615 616 617 618 619 All of these things are sometimes very hard to do. It can take years to 620 perfect these practices (if at all). It's a continuous process of 621 improvement that requires a lot of patience and determination. But 622 don't give up, it's possible. Many have done it before, and each had to 623 start exactly where you are now. 624 625 626 627 628 ---------- 629 Thanks to Paolo Ciarrocchi who allowed the "Development Process" 630 (http://linux.tar.bz/articles/2.6-development_process) section 631 to be based on text he had written, and to Randy Dunlap and Gerrit 632 Huizenga for some of the list of things you should and should not say. 633 Also thanks to Pat Mochel, Hanna Linder, Randy Dunlap, Kay Sievers, 634 Vojtech Pavlik, Jan Kara, Josh Boyer, Kees Cook, Andrew Morton, Andi 635 Kleen, Vadim Lobanov, Jesper Juhl, Adrian Bunk, Keri Harris, Frans Pop, 636 David A. Wheeler, Junio Hamano, Michael Kerrisk, and Alex Shepard for 637 their review, comments, and contributions. Without their help, this 638 document would not have been possible. 639 640 641 642 Maintainer: Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg[AT]kroah[DOT]com>
