From eb3979f64d25120d60b9e761a4c58f70b1a02f86 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mel Gorman Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:36:50 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] stable: Allow merging of backports for serious user-visible performance issues Distribution kernel maintainers routinely backport fixes for users that were deemed important but not "something critical" as defined by the rules. To users of these kernels they are very serious and failing to fix them reduces the value of -stable. The problem is that the patches fixing these issues are often subtle and prone to regressions in other ways and need greater care and attention. To combat this, these "serious" backports should have a higher barrier to entry. This patch relaxes the rules to allow a distribution maintainer to merge to -stable a backported patch or small series that fixes a "serious" user-visible performance issue. They should include additional information on the user-visible bug affected and a link to the bugzilla entry if available. The same rules about the patch being already in mainline still apply. Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman Cc: stable Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman --- Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt | 6 ++++++ 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt b/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt index f0ab5cf28fca..4a7b54bd37e8 100644 --- a/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt +++ b/Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt @@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ Rules on what kind of patches are accepted, and which ones are not, into the marked CONFIG_BROKEN), an oops, a hang, data corruption, a real security issue, or some "oh, that's not good" issue. In short, something critical. + - Serious issues as reported by a user of a distribution kernel may also + be considered if they fix a notable performance or interactivity issue. + As these fixes are not as obvious and have a higher risk of a subtle + regression they should only be submitted by a distribution kernel + maintainer and include an addendum linking to a bugzilla entry if it + exists and additional information on the user-visible impact. - New device IDs and quirks are also accepted. - No "theoretical race condition" issues, unless an explanation of how the race can be exploited is also provided.