Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: abandoning a series

From: Michael Montalbo <mmontalbo@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 8, 2026, 03:31 UTC
Message-ID: <CAC2QwmJ8Z7hZHk9SofRsprvAR3B=UXUkeyy7i4uofRi-xEymow@mail.gmail.com>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

> +  A discussion on the list might convince you that your changes are
> +  not such a good idea, in which case you are expected to explicitly
> +  retract the topic, to releave the maintainer from having to worry
> +  about it.

s/releave/relieve/

Also, I might reflow the end: ...in which case you are expected to explicitly retract the topic and relieve the maintainer from having to worry about it.

> ...It is a friendly thing to do to tell the list in such a case...

Again a slight reflow suggestion (ofc my own subjective taste): "...As a courtesy, tell the list in such a case so that..."

Finally, maybe a rule of thumb as to how old a topic a topic should get before a "staleness" update is provided would be helpful, or maybe that is too contextually dependent / would potentially introduce some unwanted scheduling contract?

Overall, I think the explicit guidance is helpful. Of course, an author whose topic is going stale may not be on top of updating its status, stale or otherwise, by definition. However, I think providing this advice up-front will encourage authors to be more proactive about taking action (notify of abandonment / handoff) before a topic gets too old.