1.. _submitchecklist: 2 3Linux Kernel patch submission checklist 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5 6Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their 7kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly. 8 9These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in 10:ref:`Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst <submittingpatches>` 11and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux kernel patches. 12 13 141) If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares 15 that facility. Don't depend on other header files pulling in ones 16 that you use. 17 182) Builds cleanly: 19 20 a) with applicable or modified ``CONFIG`` options ``=y``, ``=m``, and 21 ``=n``. No ``gcc`` warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors. 22 23 b) Passes ``allnoconfig``, ``allmodconfig`` 24 25 c) Builds successfully when using ``O=builddir`` 26 273) Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools 28 or some other build farm. 29 304) ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it 31 tends to use ``unsigned long`` for 64-bit quantities. 32 335) Check your patch for general style as detailed in 34 :ref:`Documentation/process/coding-style.rst <codingstyle>`. 35 Check for trivial violations with the patch style checker prior to 36 submission (``scripts/checkpatch.pl``). 37 You should be able to justify all violations that remain in 38 your patch. 39 406) Any new or modified ``CONFIG`` options do not muck up the config menu and 41 default to off unless they meet the exception criteria documented in 42 ``Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.rst`` Menu attributes: default value. 43 447) All new ``Kconfig`` options have help text. 45 468) Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant ``Kconfig`` 47 combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower 48 pays off here. 49 509) Check cleanly with sparse. 51 5210) Use ``make checkstack`` and ``make namespacecheck`` and fix any problems 53 that they find. 54 55 .. note:: 56 57 ``checkstack`` does not point out problems explicitly, 58 but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a 59 candidate for change. 60 6111) Include :ref:`kernel-doc <kernel_doc>` to document global kernel APIs. 62 (Not required for static functions, but OK there also.) Use 63 ``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs`` to check the 64 :ref:`kernel-doc <kernel_doc>` and fix any issues. 65 6612) Has been tested with ``CONFIG_PREEMPT``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT``, 67 ``CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES``, 68 ``CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP``, 69 ``CONFIG_PROVE_RCU`` and ``CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD`` all 70 simultaneously enabled. 71 7213) Has been build- and runtime tested with and without ``CONFIG_SMP`` and 73 ``CONFIG_PREEMPT.`` 74 7516) All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled. 76 7717) All new ``/proc`` entries are documented under ``Documentation/`` 78 7918) All new kernel boot parameters are documented in 80 ``Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst``. 81 8219) All new module parameters are documented with ``MODULE_PARM_DESC()`` 83 8420) All new userspace interfaces are documented in ``Documentation/ABI/``. 85 See ``Documentation/ABI/README`` for more information. 86 Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to 87 linux-api@vger.kernel.org. 88 8921) Check that it all passes ``make headers_check``. 90 9122) Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation 92 failures. See ``Documentation/fault-injection/``. 93 94 If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault 95 injection might be appropriate. 96 9723) Newly-added code has been compiled with ``gcc -W`` (use 98 ``make EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W``). This will generate lots of noise, but is good 99 for finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned". 100 10124) Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure 102 that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various 103 changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems. 104 10525) All memory barriers {e.g., ``barrier()``, ``rmb()``, ``wmb()``} need a 106 comment in the source code that explains the logic of what they are doing 107 and why. 108 10926) If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update 110 ``Documentation/userspace-api/ioctl/ioctl-number.rst``. 111 11227) If your modified source code depends on or uses any of the kernel 113 APIs or features that are related to the following ``Kconfig`` symbols, 114 then test multiple builds with the related ``Kconfig`` symbols disabled 115 and/or ``=m`` (if that option is available) [not all of these at the 116 same time, just various/random combinations of them]: 117 118 ``CONFIG_SMP``, ``CONFIG_SYSFS``, ``CONFIG_PROC_FS``, ``CONFIG_INPUT``, ``CONFIG_PCI``, ``CONFIG_BLOCK``, ``CONFIG_PM``, ``CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ``, 119 ``CONFIG_NET``, ``CONFIG_INET=n`` (but latter with ``CONFIG_NET=y``). 120