linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/4] S390: Fine-tuning for six function implementations

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Message-ID: <20170509103031.onbbgnuptd73j7ya@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue, 9 May 2017 12:30:31 +0200
From:   Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:     Vegard Nossum <vegard.nossum@...cle.com>
Cc:     SF Markus Elfring <elfring@...rs.sourceforge.net>,
        linux-s390@...r.kernel.org,
        Christian Bornträger <borntraeger@...ibm.com>,
        Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@...ibm.com>,
        Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@...ibm.com>,
        Paul Gortmaker <paul.gortmaker@...driver.com>,
        Peter Oberparleiter <oberpar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Sascha Silbe <silbe@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        Viktor Mihajlovski <mihajlov@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        kernel-janitors@...r.kernel.org,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
        "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/4] S390: Fine-tuning for six function implementations


* Vegard Nossum <vegard.nossum@...cle.com> wrote:

> On 05/07/17 19:12, SF Markus Elfring wrote:
> > From: Markus Elfring <elfring@...rs.sourceforge.net>
> > Date: Sun, 7 May 2017 19:00:09 +0200
> > 
> > A few update suggestions were taken into account
> > from static source code analysis.
> > 
> > Markus Elfring (4):
> >   Combine two function calls into one in show_cacheinfo()
> >   Use seq_putc() in show_cpu_summary()
> >   Replace six seq_printf() calls by seq_puts()
> >   Combine two function calls into one at four places
> > 
> >  arch/s390/kernel/cache.c     |  4 ++--
> >  arch/s390/kernel/processor.c |  2 +-
> >  arch/s390/kernel/sysinfo.c   | 25 +++++++++++--------------
> >  3 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)
> > 
> 
> I'm sorry, I wouldn't normally respond to this, but I was put on the Cc
> after all so I'll give my feedback.
> 
> I think these patches are a waste of time and a resources.

Agreed.

> It would be different if your patches fixed actual bugs. This is just mindless 
> code transformations that MAY in the best case save a few bytes of code here and 
> there (I don't know; you didn't say).

... they might also be acceptable if they came from a genuine newbie who does his 
first patch, or if these patches represented genuine interest in the subsystem in 
question, by being part of a larger work that adds new features or does some 
meaningful code transformations.

They don't: they are Cocceline generated trivial patches from all around the 
kernel, and there's probably thousands of such 'problems' in the kernel - do we 
really want the churn of thousands of patches?

The cost of individual patches might be small, but their cumulative effect is 
non-trivial if we add up all the extra noise and overhad this adds to the kernel 
development flow.

> But the potential gains from these incredibly numerous and tiny patches that 
> don't fix anything are so small, it's a waste of time, bandwidth, and mental 
> capacity for you and for everybody involved.
> 
> I just searched my inbox for patches from you and you sent literally _hundreds_ 
> over the past few days, all doing this crazy printf/puts/putc transformation.
> 
> Another bit of searching and I see that I'm not the first one giving you this 
> response:
> 
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/1/23/383 - Jens Axboe
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/1/23/262 - Johannes Thumshirn
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/1/12/513 - Cyrille Pitchen
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/10/24/491 - Theodore Ts'o
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/10/7/148 - Dan Carpenter
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/9/14/58 - Christian Borntraeger
> 
> ...and I'm sure there are many more.

I'm ignoring these minimal effort patches for subsystems I maintain and I suggest 
other maintainers do the same.

Thanks,

	Ingo