Linus Torvalds has given the Linux kernel development community a bit of a touch-up, after finding some contributions to Linux 4.18 complicated the kernel development process.
In his post announcing release candidate 2 of Linux kernel 4.18, Torvalds mentioned “some noticeable filesystem updates, particularly to cifs.”
“I'm going to point those out, because some of them probably shouldn't have been in rc2. They were ‘fixes’ not in the ‘regressions’ sense, but in the ‘missing features’ sense.”
Torvalds’ beef is that people have been adding new stuff to the kernel in release candidates and calling it a fix.
“So please, people, the ‘fixes’ during the rc series really should be things that are _regressions_. If it used to work, and it no longer does, then fixing that is a good and proper fix. Or if something oopses or has a security implication, then the fix for that is a real fix.”
“But if it's something that has never worked, even if it ‘fixes’ some behavior, then it's new development, and that should come in during the merge window. Just because you think it's a ‘fix’ doesn't mean that it really is one, at least in the ‘during the rc series’ sense.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @08:33PM (2 children)
I wonder if they use some kind of tracking database or system. If so, then it should automatically flag "fixes" for things that never worked for such iterations. If it doesn't track or ask whether something ever worked, then it probably needs an adjustment.
If people put in the wrong meta-data, such as ever-worked flags, and they keep doing it wrong after being warned, then boot them off the team. OS's probably need "pedantic" tracking systems.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @10:20PM (1 child)
Of course they do. But if someone adds code to the module/library/program that isn't on the bug/fix list, then you run into the issue that Torvalds is trying to prevent.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:05AM
Then the database-controlled check-in rules are not running properly. Don't rely on humans alone to cross-check lists.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday June 25 2018, @09:14PM
That's the right call to make: "I really want this feature" =/= "release is broken until this feature works".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @09:30PM (1 child)
He said "please"!
Come on man, where's your spunk? This is a clear violation of rules if something was. Putting new features into a RC is like making a hotfix with new features. Don't let the SJWs take your spirit!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:11AM
We've secretly replaced Linus with Mr. Linux Torvalds. Let's see what happens.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @10:30PM
Here's a quick flow to make it simple:
1. Was a ticket raised for a defect?
Y? Fix It!
N? Fuck Off!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @10:32PM (3 children)
With Linux, you never know what some random developer is going to add to your OS.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ChrisMaple on Monday June 25 2018, @10:43PM
With Linux, the developers are known. With Microsoft and Apple, the names seldom reach the public. Personal accountability is much higher in open source software.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @11:34PM (1 child)
Have you ever used Windows 10?
Every update, you have zero idea what garbage they're going to put in it, and they force you to update.
On Linux, you can pick what to update and when.
"This is why I switched to Windows" my ass.
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Tuesday June 26 2018, @07:18AM
(Score: 2) by ese002 on Tuesday June 26 2018, @12:30AM (2 children)
I wonder how much of this is a case of bugs reporting after the code base has moved on, adding new features along the way. Perhaps the newer code already fixes the bug and the developers don't want to spend the time backporting to an older release.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Tuesday June 26 2018, @12:40AM
That, however, is not a valid excuse. A fix is to repair something broken in the given version. And you want to keep that code minimal to reduce the risk of new problems.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:20AM
Linus' branch is the development branch.
And even better, in a previous such mail, he told people off for pushing their bleeding edge features to the stable branch first to have an excuse for needing them "forward-ported" into the development branch as fixes rather than waiting for the merge window.
For those who don't know, Linus' workflow is merge new features -> fix bugs -> release candidates -> release -> merge new fixes...