linux-kernel - what does it mean "externally maintained" ?

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Message-ID: <trinity-5aa779a3-3784-48ac-86ea-fed7c1c12055-1756813934083@trinity-msg-rest-gmx-gmx-live-c9984495c-7jw5v>
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2025 11:52:14 +0000
From: Stefan K <Shadow_7@....net>
To: torvalds@...ux-foundation.org
Cc: linux-bcachefs@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: what does it mean "externally maintained" ?

Hello Linus,

sorry to disturb you.
I'm just a simple sysadmin.
I saw in the news that you marked bcachefs as "externally maintained". But I don't find what does it mean.

Does it mean..
- it's still there but for new features u need dkms?
- your need to compile/patch it on your own?
- every odd/even kernel version you just copy/merge fs/bcachefs into the kernel-tree?
- at the moment I dont know - see what the future says

Thanks for clarification.
best regards
Stefan