[PATCH] add Doc/SubmitChecklist

Provide a checklist of techniques to aid kernel patch submitters in
producing healthy patches and in lessening a burden on maintainers.

Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xenotime.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 57 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/SubmitChecklist b/Documentation/SubmitChecklist
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8230098da529
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+++ b/Documentation/SubmitChecklist
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+Linux Kernel patch sumbittal checklist
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Here are some basic things that developers should do if they
+want to see their kernel patch submittals accepted quicker.
+
+These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided
+in Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere about submitting
+Linux kernel patches.
+
+
+
+- Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and =n.
+  No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
+
+- Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
+
+- Builds on multiple CPU arch-es by using local cross-compile tools
+  or something like PLM at OSDL.
+
+- ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
+  tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
+
+- Matches kernel coding style(!)
+
+- Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
+
+- All new Kconfig options have help text.
+
+- Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
+  combinations.  This is very hard to get right with testing --
+  brainpower pays off here.
+
+- Check cleanly with sparse.
+
+- Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any
+  problems that they find.  Note:  checkstack does not point out
+  problems explicitly, but any one function that uses more than
+  512 bytes on the stack is a candidate for change.
+
+- Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs.  (Not required
+  for static functions, but OK there also.)  Use 'make htmldocs'
+  or 'make mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
+
+- Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
+  CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
+  CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously
+  enabled.
+
+- Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
+  CONFIG_PREEMPT.
+
+- If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
+  CONFIG_LBD.
+
+
+2006-APR-27