Re: [RFC PATCH 0/7] scripts: convert remaining Perl utilities in scripts/

[Breno Rodrigues Alves]

Hi Heiko,

> That is an odd reason - if I'm not wrong then you have zero upstream
> commits, and now are proposing fundamental changes to tools maintained
> and used by others? I guess this is 100% LLM work(?).

You are right to suspect that I used an LLM as an aid for this series.
As required by the kernel policy, I will include an Assisted-by: tag in
every commit to make this fully transparent.

Regarding my lack of upstream history: that is true, I am a new
contributor. However, I fully understand the code I am submitting. The
LLM was used to speed up the mechanical translation, but I reviewed every
line, checked the logic, and tested the scripts' behavior to ensure 1:1
parity. I am aware that final responsibility for the code is mine.

> So an important part of describing any change is *why* you are doing it.
> Why are you doing all of these conversions? Some of these scripts have
> not seen changes in decades and are likely unused; why do we want to
> mess with them now?

I would like to clarify the motivation behind the conversion, because I
do not think I presented it convincingly in the cover letter. The goal
is not simply to "remove Perl", but to reduce the long-term maintenance
burden.

The kernel already has a clear track record of migrating critical
tooling to Python (e.g. get_maintainer and checkpatch). Keeping a
residual set of Perl scripts forces maintainers and contributors to deal
with two environments and two sets of idioms for the same class of
tasks. Unifying that code base in Python simplifies review, testing, and
future contributions. Even scripts that have not changed in decades are
still part of the tooling ecosystem and may be used by developers;
removing them from the Perl equation is a consistency gain.

To reduce the risk and demonstrate my commitment, I would like to
propose a different path: can we start with a single script? I could
prepare a patch focused only on checkstack.pl (or another script you
consider a priority), with a detailed justification and a test plan, so
you can evaluate the process and quality before we consider the rest of
the series.

I am happy to adjust the approach in whatever way is most productive for
you and the community.

Best regards,
Breno