linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] MAINTAINERS: Start using the 'reviewer' (R) tag

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Date:	Wed, 28 Oct 2015 12:25:49 +0100
From:	Javier Martinez Canillas <javier@...hile0.org>
To:	Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>
Cc:	Lee Jones <lee.jones@...aro.org>,
	Krzysztof Kozlowski <k.kozlowski@...sung.com>,
	Wolfram Sang <wsa@...-dreams.de>,
	Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@...aro.org>,
	Sebastian Reichel <sre@...nel.org>,
	Linux Kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Chanwoo Choi <cw00.choi@...sung.com>,
	Mark Brown <broonie@...nel.org>,
	Ben Dooks <ben-linux@...ff.org>,
	"linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" 
	<linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] MAINTAINERS: Start using the 'reviewer' (R) tag

Hello Joe,

On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 12:06 PM, Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2015-10-28 at 11:53 +0100, Javier Martinez Canillas wrote:
>> (Lee) think(s) that the difference between a maintainer and
>> a reviewer is if a branch with fixes / new features are kept and pull
>> requests sent while I think that the difference is the level of
>> involvement someone has with a driver regardless of how patches ends
>> in the subsystem tree (picked directly by subsystem maintainers or
>> sent through pull requests).
>>
>> Is the first time I heard your definition but maybe I'm the one that
>> is wrong so it would be great to get a consensus on that and get it
>> documented somewhere.
>
> I think Lee is over-analyzing.
>
> From MAINTAINERS:
>         M: Mail patches to: FullName <address@...ain>
>         R: Designated reviewer: FullName <address@...ain>
>            These reviewers should be CCed on patches.
>         S: Status, one of the following:
>            Supported:   Someone is actually paid to look after this.
>            Maintained:  Someone actually looks after it.
>
> "looking after" doesn't mean upstreaming.
>

Agreed and upstreaming doesn't mean sending pull request, you can for
example upstream the downstream changes for a driver you maintain by
posting patches or ack patches others post and let the subsystem
maintainer to pick those (even if you are listed as the driver
maintainer in MAINTAINERS).

So by following Lee's definition, then most drivers' maintainers
should not be called maintainers since keeping a tree with patches for
both fixes and new features, sending pull requests, etc is only
justified for drivers that have a lot of changes per release. Is not
worth it for drivers that are in "maintenance mode" where only bugs
are fixed every once in a while or features are seldom added.

> The original threads for this were:
>
> http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/ksummit-discuss/2014-May/000830.html
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/6/2/446
>
>

Thanks for the pointer.

Best regards,
Javier
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