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Based on kernel version 2.6.34. Page generated on 2010-05-31 16:03 EST.

1	Linux Kernel patch submission checklist
2	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3	
4	Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their
5	kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly.
6	
7	These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in
8	Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux
9	kernel patches.
10	
11	
12	1: If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares
13	   that facility.  Don't depend on other header files pulling in ones
14	   that you use.
15	
16	2: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and
17	   =n.  No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
18	
19	2b: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
20	
21	3: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
22	   or some other build farm.
23	
24	4: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
25	   tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
26	
27	5: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
28	   Documentation/CodingStyle.  Check for trivial violations with the
29	   patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
30	   You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
31	   your patch.
32	
33	6: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
34	
35	7: All new Kconfig options have help text.
36	
37	8: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
38	   combinations.  This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
39	   pays off here.
40	
41	9: Check cleanly with sparse.
42	
43	10: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
44	    that they find.  Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
45	    but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
46	    candidate for change.
47	
48	11: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs.  (Not required for
49	    static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
50	    mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
51	
52	12: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
53	    CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
54	    CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
55	    enabled.
56	
57	13: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
58	    CONFIG_PREEMPT.
59	
60	14: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
61	    CONFIG_LBDAF.
62	
63	15: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
64	
65	16: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
66	
67	17: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
68	    Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
69	
70	18: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
71	
72	19: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
73	    See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
74	    Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to
75	    linux-api[AT]vger.kernel.org[DOT]
76	
77	20: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
78	
79	21: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
80	    failures.  See Documentation/fault-injection/.
81	
82	    If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
83	    injection might be appropriate.
84	
85	22: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
86	    EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W").  This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
87	    finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
88	
89	23: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
90	    that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
91	    changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
92	
93	24: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
94	    source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.
95	
96	25: If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update
97	    Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt.
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