Submitting patches to non-staging

[Pratyush Patel]

Hello all,

I am new to Linux kernel development and am hoping to contribute to
the Linux community. I recently read Robert Love's LKD book, and have
gone through some of the documents and patch submitting guidelines on
kernelnewbies.org.

I will be pursuing my undergraduate thesis research in the field of
real-time (operating) systems and as such, I expect to be closely
involved with the timer and interrupt subsystems in Linux (as well as
other areas, but to a lesser degree). I am also hoping to work with
the hrtimer subsystem, and while going through the latest code
(4.5-rc6) of the same, I found a very minor code-level change that
could be incorporated (redundant #ifdef). Would such a change in a
core kernel file be acceptable coming from a beginner? Or should I aim
for the staging drivers first?

I very much look forward to contributing my first patch!

Thanks,
Pratyush