Re: [PATCH 1/2] MAINTAINERS: document the branch in git T: entries

[Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org>]

On 24/09/2026 05:35, Matthias Goergens wrote:
> T: entries have named a branch after the repository URL since commit
> a1aa5a770dc3 ("MAINTAINERS: update hwmon subsystem git trees"), and
> 109 of the 846 git T: lines do so today.  Commit 083bf9c56d06
> ("get_maintainer: add more --self-test options") taught
> get_maintainer.pl to parse that optional branch and check it with git
> ls-remote.  The preamble, however, still describes T: as it did after
> commit 50306fb5398f ("[PATCH] Clarify T: field in MAINTAINERS"), as
> "tree type and location", and does not mention the branch.
> 
> Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst sends contributors to the
> T: entry to find the tree to prepare patches against.  When
> development happens on a branch other than the repository's HEAD, a
> branch-less entry points them at the wrong tree; on 2026-09-24, 173 of
> the 273 repositories named without a branch had a HEAD that mainline
> already contained.
> 
> Document the existing practice and say when to name a branch.
> 
> Suggested-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/arSMwd1bGO1vrif-@mit.edu/
> Signed-off-by: Matthias Goergens <matthias.goergens@gmail.com>
> ---
> Ted, as I said in my reply on the ext4 patch
> (https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260924033200.3615554-1-matthias.goergens@gmail.com/),
> I'm sending only a few of the per-tree T: patches for now, and would
> value your view before sending the rest.
> 
>  MAINTAINERS | 2 ++
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
> index cc3cae2e378b..6edc17d66b44 100644
> --- a/MAINTAINERS
> +++ b/MAINTAINERS
> @@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ 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; name one when
> +	   development does not happen on the repository's HEAD.

What is repository's HEAD? The one ref in remotes/origin/HEAD? Pointing
almost always to the master branch? I think no one works on master
branch, because that mirrors origin/master. So basically this would
expect EVERY tree entry to be renamed... and then - which branch - since
almost all of us have more than one (at least fixes and for-next).
Basically the DEFAULT is that you do not work on master.

If you disagree, please point me where is the HEAD:
https://web.git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/krzk/linux.git/
(and all branches are active, meaning nothing is stalled or some wip-dev
work)

I don't think this change in that form and naming is useful for developers.

What contributors need is the branch feeding next, because this is the
base for them.

Best regards,
Krzysztof