Return-path: Received: from charlotte.tuxdriver.com ([70.61.120.58]:42422 "EHLO smtp.tuxdriver.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753344AbcAVPPP (ORCPT ); Fri, 22 Jan 2016 10:15:15 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 10:12:12 -0500 From: "John W. Linville" To: Kalle Valo Cc: Joe Perches , linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, kbuild test robot , kernel-janitors , LKML Subject: Re: wireless-drivers: random cleanup patches piling up Message-ID: <20160122151211.GB1500@tuxdriver.com> (sfid-20160122_161534_554764_1A7A1D54) References: <87wpr3x9ln.fsf@kamboji.qca.qualcomm.com> <1453423965.3856.22.camel@perches.com> <87k2n1x0sf.fsf@kamboji.qca.qualcomm.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 In-Reply-To: <87k2n1x0sf.fsf@kamboji.qca.qualcomm.com> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 02:21:20PM +0200, Kalle Valo wrote: > Joe Perches writes: > > > On Thu, 2016-01-21 at 16:58 +0200, Kalle Valo wrote: > >> Hi, > >> > >> I have quite a lot of random cleanup patches from new developers waiting > >> in my queue: > >> > >> https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?state=10&delegate=25621&order=date > >> > >> (Not all of them are cleanup patches, there are also few patches > >> deferred due to other reasons, but you get the idea.) > >> > >> These cleanup patches usually take quite a lot of my time and I'm > >> starting to doubt the benefit, compared to the time needed to dig > >> through them and figuring out what to apply. And this is of course time > >> away from other patches, so it's slowing down "real" development. > >> > >> I really don't know what to do. Part of me is saying that I just should > >> drop them unless it's reviewed by a more experienced developer but on > >> the other hand this is a good way get new developers onboard. > >> > >> What others think? Are these kind of patches useful? > > > > Some yes, mostly not really. > > > > While whitespace style patches have some small value, > > very few of the new contributors that use tools like > > "scripts/checkpatch.pl -f" on various kernel files? > > actually continue on to submit actual defect fixing > > or optimization or code clarity patches. > > That's also my experience from maintaining wireless-drivers for a year, > this seems to be a "hit and run" type of phenomenon. Should we be looking for someone to run a "wireless-driver-cleanups" tree? They could handle the cleanups and trivial stuff, and send you a pull request a couple of times per release...? John -- John W. Linville Someday the world will need a hero, and you linville@tuxdriver.com might be all we have. Be ready.