Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 23.128.96.18 as permitted sender) client-ip=23.128.96.18;
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <89481e37-6723-6dd5-3549-85d1aa9fccbe@paragon-software.com>
In-Reply-To: <89481e37-6723-6dd5-3549-85d1aa9fccbe@paragon-software.com>
From:   Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date:   Fri, 24 Sep 2021 10:13:02 -0700
Message-ID: <CAHk-=wgaM64246C-Jz3a4eZtvez6-O83YGHT7j2CP3QCZifD=A@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Question about ntfs3 git pull request
To:     Konstantin Komarov <almaz.alexandrovich@paragon-software.com>
Cc:     Stephen Rothwell <sfr@canb.auug.org.au>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Precedence: bulk

On Fri, Sep 24, 2021 at 9:47 AM Konstantin Komarov
<almaz.alexandrovich@paragon-software.com> wrote:
>
>
> Right now my github repo still based on 5.14-rc7.
> Do I need to update it with git merge up to 5.15-rcX?

Oh, keep your previous base, and just send me a pull request with your
changes and no merge.

In fact, the best workflow is generally to avoid merging from me as
much as humanly possible, but then if you notice that we're all in
sync, and you have nothing pending in your tree, you can basically
fast-forward and start any new development at some new point.

But even then, it's a good idea to make that new point be something
well-defined - like a full release, or at least an rc release (usually
avoiding rc1 is good, since rc1 can be a bit experimental).

But I have no problems pulling from a git tree that is based on older
kernels. I much prefer than to having  people rebase their work overly
aggressively, or having people do lots of merges of my tree.

At some point, if you end up being multiple releases behind, it ends
up being inconvenient for both of us just because some infrastructure
has changed, so _occasionally_ syncing up is just a good idea.

In my experience, people tend to do it too much, rather than too
little. Don't worry too much about it.

               Linus