From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932372AbWFEBrQ (ORCPT ); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 21:47:16 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932380AbWFEBrQ (ORCPT ); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 21:47:16 -0400 Received: from smtp.osdl.org ([65.172.181.4]:20380 "EHLO smtp.osdl.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932372AbWFEBrP (ORCPT ); Sun, 4 Jun 2006 21:47:15 -0400 Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 18:47:11 -0700 From: Andrew Morton To: Jeff Garzik Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: merging new drivers (was Re: 2.6.18 -mm merge plans) Message-Id: <20060604184711.0a328d18.akpm@osdl.org> In-Reply-To: <20060605013223.GD17361@havoc.gtf.org> References: <20060604135011.decdc7c9.akpm@osdl.org> <20060605013223.GD17361@havoc.gtf.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.2.4 (GTK+ 2.8.17; i686-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 21:32:23 -0400 Jeff Garzik wrote: > On Sun, Jun 04, 2006 at 01:50:11PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote: > > areca-raid-linux-scsi-driver.patch > > > I'm going to start sending the Areca driver to James, too. The vendor > > has worked hard and the hardware is becoming more important - let's help > > them get it in. > > > In general, I'm a bit disappointed at the time it takes new drivers to > reach the upstream kernel. I grant that a lot of vendor drivers are > unreadable, unmergable shite... but on the other side of the coin, I > see a lot of decent drivers get stalled simply because they aren't > perfect. > > I would rather see a driver get "95% there" -- because once a driver is > merged into the upstream kernel, it has a lot more visibility, and will > inevitably receive the remaining changes and cleanups anyway. > Yes, I agree. As long as we reasonably think that a piece of code *will* become acceptable within a reasonable amount of time then going early is safe. A large part of that calculation is non-technical: do we believe that the originator will do the work to get things finished off. Often, that's a pretty easy call to make.