linux-kernel - Re: wireless-drivers: random cleanup patches piling up

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Date:	Fri, 22 Jan 2016 14:21:20 +0200
From:	Kalle Valo <kvalo@...eaurora.org>
To:	Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>
Cc:	linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org, kbuild test robot <lkp@...el.com>,
	kernel-janitors <kernel-janitors@...r.kernel.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: wireless-drivers: random cleanup patches piling up

Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com> writes:

> On Thu, 2016-01-21 at 16:58 +0200, Kalle Valo wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I have quite a lot of random cleanup patches from new developers waiting
>> in my queue:
>> 
>> https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?state=10&delegate=25621&order=date
>> 
>> (Not all of them are cleanup patches, there are also few patches
>> deferred due to other reasons, but you get the idea.)
>> 
>> These cleanup patches usually take quite a lot of my time and I'm
>> starting to doubt the benefit, compared to the time needed to dig
>> through them and figuring out what to apply. And this is of course time
>> away from other patches, so it's slowing down "real" development.
>> 
>> I really don't know what to do. Part of me is saying that I just should
>> drop them unless it's reviewed by a more experienced developer but on
>> the other hand this is a good way get new developers onboard.
>> 
>> What others think? Are these kind of patches useful?
>
> Some yes, mostly not really.
>
> While whitespace style patches have some small value,
> very few of the new contributors that use tools like
> "scripts/checkpatch.pl -f" on various kernel files 
> actually continue on to submit actual defect fixing
> or optimization or code clarity patches.

That's also my experience from maintaining wireless-drivers for a year,
this seems to be a "hit and run" type of phenomenon.

-- 
Kalle Valo