On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 09:19:15AM +0200, Christoph Böhmwalder wrote:

Hi all,

Here's a question that the various "how to help" documents about the linux-kernel mailing list couldn't help me answer:

Is anyone "allowed" to review patches on the mailing list?

Yes, please do so.

Is it considered appropriate for any random person to review a change and approve/disapprove of it (given, of course, they have an understanding of what's going on in and around the patch), or is this right reserved for subsystem maintainers and other "known" people?

Anyone can do this.

Let's say I saw a trivial patch on the linux-wireless mailing list, replacing a local function by a globally defined one (e.g. ARRAY_SIZE). If I know and understand what the patch does, is it appropriate for me to put an "Acked-by" or "Reviewed-by" under it, even if I'm technically not a part of this community?

There is no "technically" here, if you participate, you are part of the community, don't think there is some sort of "gatekeeper" here at all. Please, review away! greg k-h