Oh great, not yet-another-kernel-tree, just what the world needs... Yes, this is an announcement of a new kernel tree, linux-staging. It is a quilt series of patches that can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging.git In a long and meandering thread with some of the other kernel developers a week or so ago, it came up that there is no single place for companies and developers to put their code for testing while it gets cleaned up for submission into the kernel tree. All of the different subsystems have trees, but they generally only want code that is about to go into this release, or the next one. For stuff that is farther off, there is no place to go. So, here's the tree for it. From the README: PURPOSE The linux-staging tree was created to hold drivers and filesystems and other semi-major additions to the Linux kernel that are not ready to be merged at this point in time. It is here for companies and authors to get a wider range of testing, and to allow for other members of the community to help with the development of these features for the eventual inclusion into the main kernel tree. This tree will be included in the daily linux-next builds, and will get testing by all users of that tree. The rules of what can be included here is as follows: - the code must be released under a Linux kernel-compatible license - the goal of the developers must be to merge this code into the main kernel tree in the near future, but not for the next kernel release. - the code must build properly on the x86 platform - this is not a tree for bugfixes or rewrites of existing kernel code, this should be for new features, drivers, and filesystems. - the patches included must detail exactly what is needed to be completed in order for them to be included into the main kernel tree. - there must be some email address associated with the patch that can be used for bug reporting and questions about cleanups and testing the code. What this tree is not: - it is not a place to dump features that are being actively developed by a community of people (reiserfs4 for example.) - it is not a place to dump code and then run away, hoping that someone else will do the cleanup work for you. While there are developers available to do this kind of work, you need to get someone to agree to "babysit" the code. I'll follow up this message with a list of the current status of the individual patches and what is currently contained in the tree. I hope to release a status like this every week or so, depending on how the development goes. What I need from all of you: Kernel Janitors: Here is the perfect way to get involved. The code in this tree is in desparate need of cleanups and fixes that can be trivially found using 'sparse' and 'scripts/checkpatch.pl'. I'll gladly take these kinds of patches and of course, correctly credit you. Linux driver project developers: Same as above, here's a great place to start out helping with real code. If any of you wants to take any of these drivers over and become the primary contact point for them, just let me know. Linux-next developers: Stephen, I would really like this tree to be included in -next. Yes, I know it contains things that will not be included in the next release, but the inclusion and basic build testing that is provided by your tree is invaluable. You can place it at the end, and if there is even a whiff of a problem in any of the patches, you have my full permission to drop them on the floor and run away screaming (and let me know please, so I can fix it up.) Linux kernel developers: If there are any external patches floating around for drivers that need to be cleaned up and gotten into the kernel tree, please point them out to me and I'll be glad to add them to this tree and work to get them included. Right now we are pushing: - 192 files changed, 131073 insertions(+), 651 deletions(-) so what's a few more thousand lines of code :) Any questions? Comments? thanks, greg k-h
