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Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:00:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from spider.bream-herring.ts.net ([103.6.151.236]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id 98e67ed59e1d1-3a097663fd0sm10254338a91.9.2026.09.25.05.00.49 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:00:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthias Goergens To: corbet@lwn.net Cc: skhan@linuxfoundation.org, rdunlap@infradead.org, tytso@mit.edu, krzk@kernel.org, maz@kernel.org, cassel@kernel.org, ebiggers@kernel.org, workflows@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: [PATCH v2] MAINTAINERS: document the branch in git T: entries Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2026 20:00:47 +0800 Message-ID: <20260925120047.1093617-1-matthias.goergens@gmail.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.55.0 Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit A git T: entry can name a branch after the repository URL. The first to do so, commit a1aa5a770dc3 ("MAINTAINERS: update hwmon subsystem git trees"), added two T: lines for one repository, one per branch. Today 109 of the 846 git T: lines name a branch, and ten entries list one repository more than once with different branches. Commit 083bf9c56d06 ("get_maintainer: add more --self-test options") taught get_maintainer.pl to check the branch with git ls-remote. Neither the MAINTAINERS preamble nor submitting-patches.rst mentions any of this. Document the syntax only. What a named branch is for varies: many entries name the branch linux-next merges, others a fixes or topic branch, and some subsystems want patches based on a mainline tag rather than on any branch of their tree. maintainer-entry-profile.rst already asks a profile to say which branches go into linux-next and which one contributors should submit against, so point there. In submitting-patches.rst, say that fixes for the current release cycle and new development usually start from different places, and where to find out which. Suggested-by: Theodore Ts'o Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/arSMwd1bGO1vrif-@mit.edu/ Signed-off-by: Matthias Goergens --- v2: - Krzysztof: one patch instead of two. The header no longer says when to name a branch (v1 tied that to the repository's HEAD); it documents the syntax only. submitting-patches.rst names the branch that queues work for linux-next as the usual base for new development. The cgit about page he mentions is a good place to describe branches, but not every tree has one, so the text does not point there. - Marc: some trees are integration-only and want patches on a mainline tag, so what to base patches on is left to the P: profile or the maintainer: https://lore.kernel.org/all/875wzu4vuv.wl-maz@kernel.org/ - Niklas: fixes for the current release cycle are now told apart from new development. memblock is not alone: ten entries list one repository with several branches, so the header says an entry may do that, without recommending it over a single line. - Eric: his fsverity patch uses one T: line per branch, which the text allows: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260925041654.112935-1-ebiggers@kernel.org/ Pointing HEAD at the main branch with gitolite's symbolic-ref, as he suggested, is up to each maintainer and is not covered here: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260924040030.GB5048@sol/ - Ted: documenting the branch at all was his suggestion (Link: above). v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/64b0be79c535bb9545f9f81a5044146a8726c761.1790220653.git.matthias.goergens@gmail.com/ Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 8 ++++++++ MAINTAINERS | 5 +++++ 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst index 7ae79452e1b4..cfc72975a9d6 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst @@ -40,6 +40,14 @@ patches prepared against those trees. See the **T:** entry for the subsystem in the MAINTAINERS file to find that tree, or simply ask the maintainer if the tree is not listed there. +What to base a patch on also depends on what it is. A fix that should reach +mainline during the current release cycle, such as a regression fix, is +usually based on the latest mainline or on the subsystem's fixes branch. New +development is usually based on the branch where the subsystem queues work for +the next merge window, which linux-next merges and which the **T:** entry may +name. When in doubt, check the subsystem's **P:** profile, if there is one, +or ask the maintainer. + .. _describe_changes: Describe your changes diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS index c52ec2d7d3c1..c3f8fc52f3ec 100644 --- a/MAINTAINERS +++ b/MAINTAINERS @@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ Descriptions of section entries and preferred order See Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst for details. T: *SCM* tree type and location. Type is one of: git, hg, quilt, stgit, topgit + A git entry may name a branch after the URL, and an entry may + have several T: lines, for example one per branch. What each + branch is for, and what to base patches on, differs between + subsystems: see the P: profile, if there is one, or ask the + maintainer. F: *Files* and directories wildcard patterns. A trailing slash includes all files and subdirectory files. F: drivers/net/ all files in and below drivers/net base-commit: 165768bb70265b5c38cf0b73fafd75be235f8b14 -- 2.55.0