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SubjectRe: [GIT PATCH] scsi bug fixes for 2.6.23-rc2
James Smart wrote:
> Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> The lpfc update was probably the biggest thing, LOC-wise. And even
>> though that was mostly bug fixes -- and notably NOT 100% fixes -- it
>> is big enough to warrant integration testing and exposure prior to
>> mainline. Definitely merge-window-open material AFAICS.
>
> FYI - it is integrated and tested prior to mainline, by Emulex (and who
> else *really* tests it close to the degree we do ?). We do so, as a whole,
> weeks ahead of the submit to the maintainer. Usually, there's only a couple
> of small api changes that are picked up when we merge into the maintainers
> pool. And most of these are caught by us prior anyway as we package the
> patchsets and ensure the integration into the maintainers pool is smooth.

This is a highly common pattern, and unfortunately you get the highly
common Linux response:

In Linux we never ever assume a driver is working simply because the
hardware vendor tested it. A decade of real world experience PROVES
precisely the opposite -- getting code out into the world early and
often repeatedly turned up problems not seen in hardware vendor's testing.

Take a lesson from when I was on Linus's shit-list... twice: Twice,
Intel submitted an e1000 update after the merge window closed. Twice,
they claimed the driver passed their quite-exhaustive internal testing.
And twice, the most popular network driver broke for large masses of
users because I took a hardware vendor's word on testing rather than
rely on the testing PROVEN to flush out problems: public linux kernel
testing.

I'm not singling out Intel, there are plenty of other hardware vendors
that repeat the exact same pattern.

It's quite simply impossible for a hardware vendor to test all the weird
combinations in the field. Our test lab -- the Internet -- is the one
we trust.

Jeff


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