[PATCH v1] Documentation/process: add soc maintainer handbook

[Krzysztof Kozlowski]

On 16/05/2023 11:16, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Tue, May 16, 2023, at 10:57, Conor Dooley wrote:
>> On Tue, May 16, 2023 at 10:31:19AM +0200, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
>>> On 15/05/2023 21:20, Conor Dooley wrote:
>>
>>>> + - Defer the devicetree changes to a release after the binding and driver have
>>>> +   already been merged
>>>> +
>>>> + - Change the bindings in a shared immutable branch that is used as the base for
>>>> +   both the driver change and the devicetree changes
>>>
>>> The policy told to me some time ago was that no merges from driver
>>> branch or tree are allowed towards DTS branch, even if they come only
>>> with binding header change. There are exceptions for this, e.g. [1], but
>>> that would mean we need to express here rules for cross-tree merges.
>>
>> I've got away with having an immutable branch for dt-binding headers!
>> That said, Arnd did actually have a look at this (and suggested some
>> changes) before I sent it & did not cry fowl about this section. IIRC,
>> this is actually his wording, not mine.
> 
> Yes, I merge a lot of shared branches with dt-binding changes into the
> soc/dt branch, and I wasn't aware of a policy against that, certainly did
> not enforce it.

Not as enforcement, but as your (or Olof's) preferred approach. See for
example:

https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAOesGMhfrWSvLtDtGRWBTJiAoeSwzGgsdUTm26j1mpoVu0ghDg@mail.gmail.com/

https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAOesGMi98hJnUYVLkgcbBpXsi-Xe6QPh-gtLaPWPO-EW+KcGuQ@mail.gmail.com/

I understand the "preferred approach" as part of discussions on the
patches, when the entire patchset can still be re-arranged or changed.
Not as strict policy applied on the actual git pull request from
sub-arch maintainer.

If we want to keep such recommendation, let's embed it into maintainer
handbook, so we will not have to dig the emails.

> 
> I generally object to changes touching drivers/* or anything else besides
> arch/*/boot/dts, Documentation/devicetree/bindings/ and include/dt-bindings
> in the dt branches, but I have made expections in the past when there
> was a particular important reason.

Best regards,
Krzysztof