diff mbox series

[net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence

Message ID 20231120200109.620392-1-kuba@kernel.org (mailing list archive)
State Accepted
Delegated to: Netdev Maintainers
Headers show
Series [net] docs: netdev: try to guide people on dealing with silence | expand

Checks

Context Check Description
netdev/series_format success Single patches do not need cover letters
netdev/codegen success Generated files up to date
netdev/tree_selection success Clearly marked for net
netdev/fixes_present success No Fixes tags, but series doesn't touch code
netdev/header_inline success No static functions without inline keyword in header files
netdev/build_32bit success Errors and warnings before: 8 this patch: 8
netdev/cc_maintainers success CCed 7 of 7 maintainers
netdev/build_clang success Errors and warnings before: 8 this patch: 8
netdev/verify_signedoff success Signed-off-by tag matches author and committer
netdev/deprecated_api success None detected
netdev/check_selftest success No net selftest shell script
netdev/verify_fixes success No Fixes tag
netdev/build_allmodconfig_warn success Errors and warnings before: 8 this patch: 8
netdev/checkpatch success total: 0 errors, 0 warnings, 0 checks, 26 lines checked
netdev/build_clang_rust success No Rust files in patch. Skipping build
netdev/kdoc success Errors and warnings before: 0 this patch: 0
netdev/source_inline success Was 0 now: 0

Commit Message

Jakub Kicinski Nov. 20, 2023, 8:01 p.m. UTC
There has been more than a few threads which went idle before
the merge window and now people came back to them and started
asking about next steps.

We currently tell people to be patient and not to repost too
often. Our "not too often", however, is still a few orders of
magnitude faster than other subsystems. Or so I feel after
hearing people talk about review rates at LPC.

Clarify in the doc that if the discussion went idle for a week
on netdev, 95% of the time there's no point waiting longer.

Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
---
v2:
 - rephrase the first paragraph
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20231118152232.787e9ea2@kernel.org/

CC: corbet@lwn.net
CC: workflows@vger.kernel.org
CC: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
---
 Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst | 20 +++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Comments

Mark Brown Nov. 20, 2023, 8:13 p.m. UTC | #1
On Mon, Nov 20, 2023 at 12:01:09PM -0800, Jakub Kicinski wrote:

> +Emails saying just "ping" or "bump" are considered rude. If you can't figure
> +out the status of the patch from patchwork or where the discussion has
> +landed - describe your best guess and ask if it's correct. For example::

> +  I don't understand what the next steps are. Person X seems to be unhappy
> +  with A, should I do B and repost the patches?

This bit (modulo the reference to patchwork) feels like it's generically
good advice and could find a home in submitting-patches.rst or similar,
not that it isn't worth repeating here.
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
index 7feacc20835e..84ee60fceef2 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/maintainer-netdev.rst
@@ -193,9 +193,23 @@  Review timelines
 Generally speaking, the patches get triaged quickly (in less than
 48h). But be patient, if your patch is active in patchwork (i.e. it's
 listed on the project's patch list) the chances it was missed are close to zero.
-Asking the maintainer for status updates on your
-patch is a good way to ensure your patch is ignored or pushed to the
-bottom of the priority list.
+
+The high volume of development on netdev makes reviewers move on
+from discussions relatively quickly. New comments and replies
+are very unlikely to arrive after a week of silence. If a patch
+is no longer active in patchwork and the thread went idle for more
+than a week - clarify the next steps and/or post the next version.
+
+For RFC postings specifically, if nobody responded in a week - reviewers
+either missed the posting or have no strong opinions. If the code is ready,
+repost as a PATCH.
+
+Emails saying just "ping" or "bump" are considered rude. If you can't figure
+out the status of the patch from patchwork or where the discussion has
+landed - describe your best guess and ask if it's correct. For example::
+
+  I don't understand what the next steps are. Person X seems to be unhappy
+  with A, should I do B and repost the patches?
 
 .. _Changes requested: