The purpose of this section is to document what is the current practice regarding clean-up patches which address checkpatch warnings and similar problems. I feel there is a value in having this documented so others can easily refer to it. Clearly this topic is subjective. And to some extent the current practice discourages a wider range of patches than is described here. But I feel it is best to start somewhere, with the most well established part of the current practice. -- I did think this was already documented. And perhaps it is. But I was unable to find it after a quick search. Signed-off-by: Simon Horman <horms@xxxxxxxxxx> --- Changes in v2: - Drop RFC designation - Correct capitalisation of heading - Add that: + devm_ conversions are also discouraged, outside the context of other work + Spelling and grammar fixes are not discouraged - Reformat text accordingly - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20241004-doc-mc-clean-v1-1-20c28dcb0d52@xxxxxxxxxx --- Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst | 17 +++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst index c9edf9e7362d..1ae71e31591c 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst @@ -355,6 +355,8 @@ just do it. As a result, a sequence of smaller series gets merged quicker and with better review coverage. Re-posting large series also increases the mailing list traffic. +.. _rcs: + Local variable ordering ("reverse xmas tree", "RCS") ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@ -391,6 +393,21 @@ APIs and helpers, especially scoped iterators. However, direct use of ``__free()`` within networking core and drivers is discouraged. Similar guidance applies to declaring variables mid-function. +Clean-up patches +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Netdev discourages patches which perform simple clean-ups, which are not in +the context of other work. For example: + +* Addressing ``checkpatch.pl`` warnings +* Addressing :ref:`Local variable ordering<rcs>` issues +* Conversions to device-managed APIs (``devm_`` helpers) + +This is because it is felt that the churn that such changes produce comes +at a greater cost than the value of such clean-ups. + +Conversely, spelling and grammar fixes are not discouraged. + Resending after review ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
