diff mbox

[2/2] MAINTAINERS: demote ARM port to "odd fixes"

Message ID E1ezkgn-0002fO-52@rmk-PC.armlinux.org.uk (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Headers show

Commit Message

Russell King (Oracle) March 24, 2018, 3:02 p.m. UTC
As of the start of 2018, I am no longer paid to support the core 32-bit
ARM architecture code.  This means that this code is no longer
commercially supported, and is now only supported through voluntary
effort.

I will continue to merge patches as and when able, but this will be at
a lower priority than before (which means a longer latency.)  I have
also be scaled back the amount of time spent reading email, so email
that is intended for my attention needs to make itself plainly
obvious, or I will miss it.

In an attempt to reduce the amount of email Cc'd to me, exclude
arch/arm/boot/dts from the maintainers patterns, but add entries for
the SolidRun platforms I look after.

Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk>
---
 MAINTAINERS | 28 +++++++++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

Comments

Ard Biesheuvel March 25, 2018, 7:27 a.m. UTC | #1
On 24 March 2018 at 15:02, Russell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk> wrote:
> As of the start of 2018, I am no longer paid to support the core 32-bit
> ARM architecture code.  This means that this code is no longer
> commercially supported, and is now only supported through voluntary
> effort.
>

Hello Russell,

It is quite obvious what you are doing here, and FWIW, I personally
think you should be on the ARM payroll for looking after the 32-bit
port. However, I don't think it is appropriate to involve the
community into this. If you cannot afford to spend time on this, the
right thing to do would be to either share the responsibility with
co-maintainers (which many architecture ports do these days), or step
down and let someone else take over entirely.

In my opinion, letting the ARM port wither to extort money out of ARM
Ltd. is not something the Linux community should be accessory to.

Regards,
Ard.


> I will continue to merge patches as and when able, but this will be at
> a lower priority than before (which means a longer latency.)  I have
> also be scaled back the amount of time spent reading email, so email
> that is intended for my attention needs to make itself plainly
> obvious, or I will miss it.
>
> In an attempt to reduce the amount of email Cc'd to me, exclude
> arch/arm/boot/dts from the maintainers patterns, but add entries for
> the SolidRun platforms I look after.
>
> Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk>
> ---
>  MAINTAINERS | 28 +++++++++++++++++++++-------
>  1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
> index c4399af21986..fcb49a81a92b 100644
> --- a/MAINTAINERS
> +++ b/MAINTAINERS
> @@ -1060,41 +1060,42 @@ ARM PORT
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
>  L:     linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org (moderated for non-subscribers)
>  W:     http://www.armlinux.org.uk/
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  T:     git git://git.armlinux.org.uk/~rmk/linux-arm.git
>  F:     arch/arm/
> +X:     arch/arm/boot/dts/
>
>  ARM PRIMECELL AACI PL041 DRIVER
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  F:     sound/arm/aaci.*
>
>  ARM PRIMECELL BUS SUPPORT
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  F:     drivers/amba/
>  F:     include/linux/amba/bus.h
>
>  ARM PRIMECELL CLCD PL110 DRIVER
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  F:     drivers/video/fbdev/amba-clcd.*
>
>  ARM PRIMECELL KMI PL050 DRIVER
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  F:     drivers/input/serio/ambakmi.*
>  F:     include/linux/amba/kmi.h
>
>  ARM PRIMECELL MMCI PL180/1 DRIVER
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  F:     drivers/mmc/host/mmci.*
>  F:     include/linux/amba/mmci.h
>
>  ARM PRIMECELL UART PL010 AND PL011 DRIVERS
>  M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> -S:     Maintained
> +S:     Odd Fixes
>  F:     drivers/tty/serial/amba-pl01*.c
>  F:     include/linux/amba/serial.h
>
> @@ -12859,6 +12860,19 @@ S:     Maintained
>  F:     drivers/net/ethernet/socionext/netsec.c
>  F:     Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/socionext-netsec.txt
>
> +SOLIDRUN CLEARFOG SUPPORT
> +M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> +S:     Maintained
> +F:     arch/arm/boot/dts/armada-388-clearfog*
> +F:     arch/arm/boot/dts/armada-38x-solidrun-*
> +
> +SOLIDRUN CUBOX-I/HUMMINGBOARD SUPPORT
> +M:     Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
> +S:     Maintained
> +F:     arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6*-cubox-i*
> +F:     arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6*-hummingboard*
> +F:     arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6*-sr-*
> +
>  SONIC NETWORK DRIVER
>  M:     Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@alpha.franken.de>
>  L:     netdev@vger.kernel.org
> --
> 2.7.4
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-arm-kernel mailing list
> linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
> http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-arm-kernel
Russell King (Oracle) March 25, 2018, 6:09 p.m. UTC | #2
On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 08:27:32AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> On 24 March 2018 at 15:02, Russell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk> wrote:
> > As of the start of 2018, I am no longer paid to support the core 32-bit
> > ARM architecture code.  This means that this code is no longer
> > commercially supported, and is now only supported through voluntary
> > effort.
> >
> 
> Hello Russell,
> 
> It is quite obvious what you are doing here, and FWIW, I personally
> think you should be on the ARM payroll for looking after the 32-bit
> port. However, I don't think it is appropriate to involve the
> community into this. If you cannot afford to spend time on this, the
> right thing to do would be to either share the responsibility with
> co-maintainers (which many architecture ports do these days), or step
> down and let someone else take over entirely.
> 
> In my opinion, letting the ARM port wither to extort money out of ARM
> Ltd. is not something the Linux community should be accessory to.

I find your email offensive.  This is not an attempt to extort money.
I do NOT engage in extortion.  Please apologise for that smear.

This merely reverts the ARM port to the situation that it was prior to
2001.

The fact of the matter is if I'm not getting paid to look after it,
then I'll have other paid work, and anyone who has paid work will know
that paid work takes priority over voluntary work.  That doesn't mean I
have to give up all interest in something I founded.

There are plenty of other kernel maintainers in that position - for
example, Santosh is no longer employed by Texas, but still looks after
the various stuff for TI.

I'm merely pointing out that I'm not going to be spending quite as much
time on the ARM port as I have done in the past - particularly, this
means that I won't have a guaranteed amount of time each week for this
activity.

In the coming weeks, I'm going to be working on the Spectre fixes under
contract with ARM Ltd, and as this will be my primary focus, it will
take priority over voluntary work, such as general maintanence of the
32-bit ARM port.

I'm sure the same goes for other people: work that you get paid for
takes priority over voluntary work.  Anything else would be plain
stupid and suicidal from an employment point of view.

The reality of the 32-bit ARM port situation is that the code base is
stable, and it receives very few patches each kernel cycle, and so it
is entirely reasonable that less time is spent on it.

At no point have I said that I will not merge anything unless I'm paid
for it - again, that would be suicidal and rediculous.

What I do find particularly offensive in your attitude is the
expectation that I'll continue to spend as much time as I have
previously on the ARM port as I have done while being paid for it -
that is entirely unreasonable.  I think you need to alter your
attitude and expectations.

I said in my email that I'm not going to be reading the mailing list
quite as much because given that much of the list traffic is no longer
relevant and sorting through it takes considerable time, I'd rather
spend that time for more productive tasks.
Ard Biesheuvel March 25, 2018, 6:41 p.m. UTC | #3
On 25 March 2018 at 19:09, Russell King - ARM Linux
<linux@armlinux.org.uk> wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 08:27:32AM +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
>> On 24 March 2018 at 15:02, Russell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk> wrote:
>> > As of the start of 2018, I am no longer paid to support the core 32-bit
>> > ARM architecture code.  This means that this code is no longer
>> > commercially supported, and is now only supported through voluntary
>> > effort.
>> >
>>
>> Hello Russell,
>>
>> It is quite obvious what you are doing here, and FWIW, I personally
>> think you should be on the ARM payroll for looking after the 32-bit
>> port. However, I don't think it is appropriate to involve the
>> community into this. If you cannot afford to spend time on this, the
>> right thing to do would be to either share the responsibility with
>> co-maintainers (which many architecture ports do these days), or step
>> down and let someone else take over entirely.
>>
>> In my opinion, letting the ARM port wither to extort money out of ARM
>> Ltd. is not something the Linux community should be accessory to.
>
> I find your email offensive.  This is not an attempt to extort money.
> I do NOT engage in extortion.  Please apologise for that smear.
>

I did not mean to offend you. I do apologise if that is what I did.

> This merely reverts the ARM port to the situation that it was prior to
> 2001.
>
> The fact of the matter is if I'm not getting paid to look after it,
> then I'll have other paid work, and anyone who has paid work will know
> that paid work takes priority over voluntary work.  That doesn't mean I
> have to give up all interest in something I founded.
>

But how is it in the interest of the Linux community that you remain
the sole maintainer with very little time to spend on it? Maintainer
groups are working out very well in other areas, so I'd expect that to
be something you consider first before demoting the port to 'odd
fixes'.

> There are plenty of other kernel maintainers in that position - for
> example, Santosh is no longer employed by Texas, but still looks after
> the various stuff for TI.
>
> I'm merely pointing out that I'm not going to be spending quite as much
> time on the ARM port as I have done in the past - particularly, this
> means that I won't have a guaranteed amount of time each week for this
> activity.
>
> In the coming weeks, I'm going to be working on the Spectre fixes under
> contract with ARM Ltd, and as this will be my primary focus, it will
> take priority over voluntary work, such as general maintanence of the
> 32-bit ARM port.
>
> I'm sure the same goes for other people: work that you get paid for
> takes priority over voluntary work.  Anything else would be plain
> stupid and suicidal from an employment point of view.
>

Nobody is asking you to prioritise voluntary work over paid work. I am
asking you to consider offloading some of the responsibility to others
if you are failing to cope by yourself.

> The reality of the 32-bit ARM port situation is that the code base is
> stable, and it receives very few patches each kernel cycle, and so it
> is entirely reasonable that less time is spent on it.
>

If that is the case, why not simply keep it at 'maintained', which is
already documented as voluntary support rather than commercial
support.

> At no point have I said that I will not merge anything unless I'm paid
> for it - again, that would be suicidal and rediculous.
>
> What I do find particularly offensive in your attitude is the
> expectation that I'll continue to spend as much time as I have
> previously on the ARM port as I have done while being paid for it -
> that is entirely unreasonable.  I think you need to alter your
> attitude and expectations.
>

Nobody is expecting that. I merely suggested that there are other
options here besides paid full support by just you and unpaid odd
fixes by just you.

> I said in my email that I'm not going to be reading the mailing list
> quite as much because given that much of the list traffic is no longer
> relevant and sorting through it takes considerable time, I'd rather
> spend that time for more productive tasks.
>

I agree that there is a lot of noise on LAKML given that a lot of
driver patches that happen to be for IP present in ARM SoCs gets cc'd
there.
Andrew Morton March 26, 2018, 9:49 p.m. UTC | #4
On Sun, 25 Mar 2018 19:41:49 +0100 Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@linaro.org> wrote:

> Nobody is asking you to prioritise voluntary work over paid work. I am
> asking you to consider offloading some of the responsibility to others
> if you are failing to cope by yourself.

That's a sensible proposal and it can be discussed in the appropriate
venue at an appropriate time (if it is found that we actually have a
problem!).

But all of this seems unrelated to altering the MAINTAINERS file today,
so I'll scoop up Russell's patches.
diff mbox

Patch

diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index c4399af21986..fcb49a81a92b 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -1060,41 +1060,42 @@  ARM PORT
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
 L:	linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org (moderated for non-subscribers)
 W:	http://www.armlinux.org.uk/
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 T:	git git://git.armlinux.org.uk/~rmk/linux-arm.git
 F:	arch/arm/
+X:	arch/arm/boot/dts/
 
 ARM PRIMECELL AACI PL041 DRIVER
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 F:	sound/arm/aaci.*
 
 ARM PRIMECELL BUS SUPPORT
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 F:	drivers/amba/
 F:	include/linux/amba/bus.h
 
 ARM PRIMECELL CLCD PL110 DRIVER
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 F:	drivers/video/fbdev/amba-clcd.*
 
 ARM PRIMECELL KMI PL050 DRIVER
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 F:	drivers/input/serio/ambakmi.*
 F:	include/linux/amba/kmi.h
 
 ARM PRIMECELL MMCI PL180/1 DRIVER
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 F:	drivers/mmc/host/mmci.*
 F:	include/linux/amba/mmci.h
 
 ARM PRIMECELL UART PL010 AND PL011 DRIVERS
 M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
-S:	Maintained
+S:	Odd Fixes
 F:	drivers/tty/serial/amba-pl01*.c
 F:	include/linux/amba/serial.h
 
@@ -12859,6 +12860,19 @@  S:	Maintained
 F:	drivers/net/ethernet/socionext/netsec.c
 F:	Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/socionext-netsec.txt
 
+SOLIDRUN CLEARFOG SUPPORT
+M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
+S:	Maintained
+F:	arch/arm/boot/dts/armada-388-clearfog*
+F:	arch/arm/boot/dts/armada-38x-solidrun-*
+
+SOLIDRUN CUBOX-I/HUMMINGBOARD SUPPORT
+M:	Russell King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
+S:	Maintained
+F:	arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6*-cubox-i*
+F:	arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6*-hummingboard*
+F:	arch/arm/boot/dts/imx6*-sr-*
+
 SONIC NETWORK DRIVER
 M:	Thomas Bogendoerfer <tsbogend@alpha.franken.de>
 L:	netdev@vger.kernel.org