Best Practices for Getting Your Patches Accepted - Linux Kernel Development

Discover best practices for getting patches accepted in this mentorship session led by Linux Kernel Maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Learn from his extensive experience maintaining various Linux kernel subsystems and projects. Gain insights into the Linux kernel development process, common pitfalls to avoid when submitting patches, and strategies for successful contributions. Explore real-world examples of patch submissions, understand maintainer perspectives, and acquire practical tips to improve your chances of patch acceptance. Benefit from Greg's expertise as he shares valuable advice on proper patch formatting, coding style adherence, and effective communication with maintainers. Enhance your understanding of the Linux kernel ecosystem and develop skills to become a more effective contributor to open-source projects.

Intro
69,970 files 29,460,000 lines
4,659 developers 450+ companies
10.8 changes per hour
Top developers by quantity
Development Process
"Working upstream saves time and money" Dan Frye - VP Open Systems, IBM Dirk Hohndel - Chief Technologist, Intel
Patches I received in a 2 week period
Subject: [PATCH 48/48] ...
15 patch series, no order given
Patches 1, 3-10
"Signed-off-by:" in signature
Signature saying email was confidential
Tabs were converted to spaces
Leading spaces removed
diff in non-unified format
Patch created in driver directory
Made against different tree
Wrong coding style
Would not compile
Broke the build on patch 3/6
Patches that had nothing to do with me
1 patch, 450kb big (4500 lines added)
This was a calm two weeks
How to do it right
It is in my self-interest to ignore your patch
Give me no excuse to reject your patch
What I will do for you
Review your patch within 1-2 weeks
Offer semi-constructive criticism
Let you know the status of your patch