On 23:12 Mon 24 Dec , Shourya Sarcar wrote: > I see a lot of patches on LKML. > How does one understand against which source git tree this patch was > created and if there are additional git trees on which this patch can be > applied. Is there some inherent information in the patch which will help me > understand this ? Sometimes the sender writes which kernel version the patch applies to. If he does not, it is usually the latest rc. Whether or not it works in other trees depends on that the patch + tree modifies. > Suppose I see a patch for a wireless driver that my system has. And I want > to apply that to test/learn/experiment. How do I know whether it is > safe/OK to apply the patch against the latest 2.6.24-rcX ? Patches are not safe. Anybody can post a patch and in the extreme case it is broken and can crash your file system without any warning. Using an extra system for testing and/or making backups often is highly recommended. Please note that some patches are more "proposals" so show an idea and are followed by a long discussion. You can find out whether it applies by simply trying it. If it does not, you will get an error. But even if it applies against a "special" tree, it does not mean that it will run. Merging a large number of different patches of different people might not work, even if every single patch does when it is applied alone. > How many kernels/trees do kernel developers usually keep on their boxes ? > Are there some best practices in this area that you could share ? I have a stable mainline kernel (not rc) running on my system, a kernel for development and 2 for creating diffs. But I'm not really into testing that much. > Best regards, > Shourya > > -- > Shourya Sarcar > sarcarsh at gmail spot com > http://shouryalive.com/blog -Michi -- programing a layer 3+4 network protocol for mesh networks see http://michaelblizek.homelinux.net -- To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ
