Subject: Re: [PATCH V3] get_maintainer: Prepare for separate MAINTAINERS files
To: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
References: <51db101dddcde3115a6e834293cb1d79a2381a68.1501907539.git.joe@perches.com>
 <5987CD91.6000503@gmail.com> <1502076747.2219.13.camel@perches.com>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
From: Frank Rowand <frowand.list@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5988C06C.10409@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2017 12:33:00 -0700
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On 08/06/17 20:32, Joe Perches wrote:
> On Sun, 2017-08-06 at 19:16 -0700, Frank Rowand wrote:
>> On 08/04/17 21:45, Joe Perches wrote:
>>> Allow for MAINTAINERS to become a directory and if it is,
>>> read all the files in the directory for maintained sections.
>>>
>>> Optionally look for all files named MAINTAINERS in directories
>>> excluding the .git directory by using --find-maintainer-files.
>>>
>>> This optional feature adds ~.3 seconds of CPU on an Intel
>>> i5-6200 with an SSD.
>>>
>>> Miscellanea:
>>>
>>> o Create a read_maintainer_file subroutine from the existing code
>>> o Test only the existence of MAINTAINERS, not whether it's a file
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
>>> ---
>>
>> < snip > 
>>
>> Hi Joe,
>>
>> In the three versions of this patch, I have not seen any description
>> of what is wrong with the current single MAINTAINERS file, or why the
>> proposed change is an improvement. Could you please add that
>> information?
> 
> It's really up to Linus.
> 
> He's the one who wants to separate the MAINTAINERS
> file as he's the one that has to deal with the
> merges.
> 
> This is only to enable the script to still function
> if the file is split up.


Thanks, that gave me enough of a clue to find the threads titled

   [PATCH Y.A. RESEND] MAINTAINERS: fix alpha. ordering

and

   [PATCH RESEND v4] MAINTAINERS: fix lots of alphabetic ordering

tl;dr is that MAINTAINERS causes annoying merge conflicts for Linus,
and he is open to ideas to reduce that pain, including possibly
splitting MAINTAINERS into a number of files.

-Frank