# [PATCH] Better advice on using topic branches for kernel development

2 messages from 2010-10-21 to 2010-10-21. Participants: Luck, Tony, Jonathan Nieder.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/25504

## Luck, Tony, 2010-10-21 16:29

Subject: [PATCH] Better advice on using topic branches for kernel development
Message-ID: <4cc06a8128436b591e@agluck-desktop.sc.intel.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4cc06a8128436b591e%40agluck-desktop.sc.intel.com

```
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> The real problem is that maintainers often pick random - and not at
> all stable - points for their development to begin with. They just
> pick some random "this is where Linus -git tree is today", and do
> their development on top of that. THAT is the problem - they are
> unaware that there's some nasty bug in that version.

Maybe they do this because they read it in the Git user-manual.

Fix the manual to give them better guidance.

Signed-off-by: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>

---

Originally posted on October 1st ... no comments received.

diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
index fecc4eb..66a249d 100644
--- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt
+++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
@@ -2171,11 +2171,14 @@ $ git push mytree release
 
 Now to apply some patches from the community.  Think of a short
 snappy name for a branch to hold this patch (or related group of
-patches), and create a new branch from the current tip of Linus's
-branch:
+patches), and create a new branch from a recent stable tag of
+Linus's branch. Picking a stable base for your branch will:
+1) help you: by avoiding inclusion of unrelated and perhaps lightly
+tested changes
+2) help future bug hunters that use "git bisect" to find problems
 
 -------------------------------------------------
-$ git checkout -b speed-up-spinlocks origin
+$ git checkout -b speed-up-spinlocks v2.6.35
 -------------------------------------------------
 
 Now you apply the patch(es), run some tests, and commit the change(s).  If

```

## Jonathan Nieder, 2010-10-21 16:32

Subject: Re: [PATCH] Better advice on using topic branches for kernel development
Message-ID: <20101021163208.GC3732@burratino>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20101021163208.GC3732%40burratino
In-Reply-To: <4cc06a8128436b591e@agluck-desktop.sc.intel.com>

```
Hi Tony,

Luck, Tony wrote:

> Maybe they do this because they read it in the Git user-manual.
> 
> Fix the manual to give them better guidance.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>
[...]
> Originally posted on October 1st ... no comments received.

No comments received, but applied to "maint".  Sorry for the
confusion.

Occasionally there has been discussion of automating notification
that a patch was applied.  Maybe someone on the git@ list might
consider it worth trying (or maybe not).

Thanks.

```