Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] PCI: Patch series to support Thunderbolt without any BIOS support

[Bjorn Helgaas]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 04:22:47PM +0000, Nicholas Johnson wrote:
> 
> If possible, please try to include this in the upcoming release. I have 
> been slow in getting PATCH v2 out but overall, it should not be too much 
> to do.

Quick primer on the Linux development model: Major releases, e.g.,
v5.0, happen about every 9-10 weeks.  Subsystem maintainers typically
review and merge patches into their -next branches for about eight
weeks before the major release.

The first two weeks after a release are the merge window, during which
subsystem maintainers ask Linus to merge those -next branches into the
mainline.

Between the closing of the merge window and the next major release,
subsystem maintainers (1) ask Linus to merge fixes for regressions or
problems introduced during the merge window, and (2) accumulate
patches on their -next branches for the *next* merge window.

v5.0 was released a week ago, which means the v5.1 merge window is
half over.  Linus merged the PCI changes for v5.1 over the weekend, so
by default, PCI changes that weren't included in that merge will be
aiming for the v5.2 merge window.  Small fixes for regressions and
things we broke during the merge window can be merged any time, but we
have to be able to defend them as being critical enough to merge
outside the merge window.

See Documentation/process/2.Process.rst for more details.

Bjorn