1Linux Kernel patch submission checklist
2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3
4Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their
5kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly.
6
7These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in
8Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux
9kernel patches.
10
11
121: If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares
13   that facility.  Don't depend on other header files pulling in ones
14   that you use.
15
162: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and
17   =n.  No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
18
192b: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
20
212c: Builds successfully when using O=builddir
22
233: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
24   or some other build farm.
25
264: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
27   tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
28
295: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
30   Documentation/CodingStyle.  Check for trivial violations with the
31   patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
32   You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
33   your patch.
34
356: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
36
377: All new Kconfig options have help text.
38
398: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
40   combinations.  This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
41   pays off here.
42
439: Check cleanly with sparse.
44
4510: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
46    that they find.  Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
47    but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
48    candidate for change.
49
5011: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs.  (Not required for
51    static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
52    mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
53
5412: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
55    CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
56    CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP, CONFIG_PROVE_RCU
57    and CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD all simultaneously enabled.
58
5913: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
60    CONFIG_PREEMPT.
61
6214: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
63    CONFIG_LBDAF.
64
6515: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
66
6716: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
68
6917: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
70    Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
71
7218: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
73
7419: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
75    See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
76    Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to
77    linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
78
7920: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
80
8121: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
82    failures.  See Documentation/fault-injection/.
83
84    If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
85    injection might be appropriate.
86
8722: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
88    EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W").  This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
89    finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
90
9123: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
92    that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
93    changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
94
9524: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
96    source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.
97
9825: If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update
99    Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt.
100
10126: If your modified source code depends on or uses any of the kernel
102    APIs or features that are related to the following kconfig symbols,
103    then test multiple builds with the related kconfig symbols disabled
104    and/or =m (if that option is available) [not all of these at the
105    same time, just various/random combinations of them]:
106
107    CONFIG_SMP, CONFIG_SYSFS, CONFIG_PROC_FS, CONFIG_INPUT, CONFIG_PCI,
108    CONFIG_BLOCK, CONFIG_PM, CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ,
109    CONFIG_NET, CONFIG_INET=n (but latter with CONFIG_NET=y)
110