Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] get_maintainer: stop sending every patch to LKML

[Joe Perches]

On 2026-10-20 08:35, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> LKML has become mostly a firehose of patches that are already going to 
> a
> subsystem list. The reason is THE REST: it matches every file in the
> tree, so get_maintainer.pl adds linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to every
> single patch. During the week of Oct 1-7, 2026:
>
>   - LKML carried 13,641 messages (~1,950/day), 90% of which were also
>     sent to at least one other list;
>   - with ~2,100 subscribers, that is about 29 million deliveries per
>     week for LKML alone.
>
> This issue came up during the 2026 Maintainer Summit and the consensus
> was that "always include linux-kernel for every patch" was never the
> intent.

That's not actually true.

Lkml was the default mailing list and other lists were specific to their 
interests.

> This series makes THE REST a fallback as initially intended: it is only
> added for a file when no other matching MAINTAINERS section provides a
> mailing list that get_maintainer.pl would actually output for it.

> Patch 2 updates submitting-patches.rst, which currently tells 
> submitters
> to send every patch to LKML.

Which was the documented and then desired behavior.

No worries, things change.

I too stopped subscribing to lkml a long while ago.