Wait times for patch submission

Bjørn Mork bjorn at mork.no
Tue Jan 6 15:29:44 EST 2015


Mandeep Sandhu <mandeepsandhu.chd at gmail.com> writes:

> Hi All,
>
> I wanted to check with ppl who frequently post patches to LKML on how
> long should one should wait before resending the patches in case
> there's no response to them.

That depends on lots of factors.  Like how important the patch is, what
kind of patch management system the maintainer uses, etc, etc.

> I had sent a patch on Greg KH's staging-next tree, on 16 Dec '14 to
> LKML and the relevant maintainers.
>
> I got a mail from Greg's friendly bot stating that the branch was
> closed and that the patches will be looked at once the merge window
> closes.

Which usually (always?) is true.  Note that "once the merge window
closes" doesn't necessarily mean within days after -rc1.  It might mean
a few weeks if the maintainer is busy doing other stuff, like travelling
etc.  And maintainers are always busy :-)

Some maintainers even have a life, which implies taking time off with
their family at this time of the year.  You should therefore give them a
week or two extra slack.

And no, this does not count as "no response".  You got a reply giving a
precise description of how your patches will be handled and what you
need to do.

> Do I need to resend the patches again or will they be picked up from
> the maintainer's queue?

They will most likely be picked up as promised, and you'll get another
mail telling you which tree they were added to.

I would wait until at least -rc5 in any case before considering a
repost of something destined for the next release. That still leaves
plenty of time before the next merge window opens.


Bjørn



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