Messages in this thread |  | | Subject | Re: BKL removal | Date | Tue, 09 Jul 2002 12:33:13 -0700 | From | Rick Lindsley <> |
| |
Wait! You're still not getting it. I'm not against removing the BKL. I'm not saying we should add it to more places. What I am complaining about (and I'm not the only one) is the method that people who are trying to remove the BKL from various kernel subsystems are using.
[ ... ]
So please, no more "hit and run" BKL patches that break things. Please come offering to help, with detailed reasons why BKL usage is wrong in the specific portions of the code, and how possibly it might be cleaned up, with patches that have _actually been tested_.
I understand. But there's a bit of a problem here. We don't have every device available to us that uses the BKL. The maintainers, I presume, do. While we can inspect to our little hearts' content, and code up "obviously" correct patches, nothing really tests it like, well, testing it. In the past, in writing to maintainers, we have sometimes found that a) they ignore email that does not include actual patches, or b) they don't know themselves if it is safe, and are afraid or unwilling to try it themselves. So there's no means to discuss changes, no means to test them, and (some) maintainers then refuse to apply ANY changes.
(Others take the opposite approach, and apply anything that looks like a patch -- ALSO probably not the desired result :)
This is not to say that you, as a maintainer, behave this way. But we HAVE observed this behavior in our efforts. What is the proper response when a maintainer won't apply a change, won't help test it, and won't even help derive a correct one? About all that's left at that point, it seems, is to provide a patch, appeal to the community at large, and ask them to try it or comment upon it.
Rick - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
|  |