linux-kernel - Re: Reporting bugs and bisection

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Date:	Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:54:00 +1000 (EST)
From:	James Morris <jmorris@...ei.org>
To:	Al Viro <viro@...IV.linux.org.uk>
cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>, david@...g.hm,
	Stephen Clark <sclark46@...thlink.net>,
	Evgeniy Polyakov <johnpol@....mipt.ru>,
	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...k.pl>, Tilman Schmidt <tilman@...p.cc>,
	Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu, Mark Lord <lkml@....ca>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>, jesper.juhl@...il.com,
	yoshfuji@...ux-ipv6.org, jeff@...zik.org,
	linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, git@...r.kernel.org,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Reporting bugs and bisection

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008, Al Viro wrote:

> Real review of code in tree and patches getting into the tree.

There is currently little incentive for developers to perform review.  

It's difficult work, and is generally not rewarded or recognized, except 
in often quite negative ways.  There is a small handful of people who do a 
lot of review, but they are exceptional in various ways.

OTOH, writing code is relatively simple, and is much more highly rewarded:

- People tend to get paid to write kernel code, but not so much to review 
  it.

- Things like "who made the kernel" statistics and related articles ignore 
  code review.

- Creating new features is perceived as the highest form of contribution 
  for general developers, and likely important as career currency 
  (similar to the publish or perish model in the academic world).

I don't know how to solve this, but suspect that encouraging the use of 
reviewed-by and also including it in things like analysis of who is 
contributing, selection for kernel summit invitations etc. would be a 
start.  At least, better than nothing.

- James 
-- 
James Morris
<jmorris@...ei.org>
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