Re: [PATCH] MAINTAINERS: orphan sections with qlogic.com group alias

[Lukas Bulwahn]

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020, James Bottomley wrote:

> On Fri, 2020-08-28 at 15:30 +0200, Lukas Bulwahn wrote:
> > 
> > On Fri, 28 Aug 2020, Roman Bolshakov wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 09:08:24AM +0200, Lukas Bulwahn wrote:
> > > > Previous attempts of getting an answer from the qlogic.com group
> > > > alias, i.e., QLogic-Storage-Upstream@xxxxxxxxxx, have remained
> > > > unanswered; see links below.
> > > > 
> > > > Mark those sections Orphan to prepare their deletion or give an
> > > > actual person a chance to step up to maintain those drivers.
> > > > 
> > > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spdx/20190606205526.447558989
> > > > @linutronix.de
> > > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spdx/alpine.DEB.2.21.20063006
> > > > 44130.4919@felia
> > > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spdx/alpine.DEB.2.21.20082707
> > > > 40140.31123@felia
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > CC'd Arun,
> > > 
> > > I think it's worth to update the alias to:
> > > 
> > > GR-QLogic-Storage-Upstream@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > > 
> > 
> > So, if these drivers are not orphans, you can answer Thomas
> > Gleixner's original email from 2019. If you can quickly ack that
> > patch set, I am happy to do the donkey work to get this apply nicely
> > on the current master (please CC me on that response).
> 
> I have to wonder what the object is here: to get the problem fixed or
> to make a public spectacle?
>

Let us get the problem fixed; no spectacle here.

> Because if the object had been to get the issue fixed, waiting a year
> before escalating to the SCSI list isn't the best way to achieve
> outcomes, nor is now demanding that the drivers be orphaned for lack of
> response to you ... particularly as you've seen the drivers updated
> over that time if you actually follow kernel releases.
>

I just followed Greg KH's advice; spdx licensing clean-up is not the top 
most priority thing; so it just happened to be laying around for a year.
Feel free to ignore this patch and we solve the problem instead.

> Qlogic or now Marvell tends to rely somewhat heavily on outsourcing for
> driver maintenance and support.  Outsourcers, fairly obviously, aren't
> going to respond to legal issues like this which are outside of their
> remit.  What needs to happen is that someone needs to find a person
> within the Qlogic org who can get this fixed ... possibly involving
> explaining the actual issue along the way.  Would you like us to use
> our contacts to do that?
> 

Yes, I (and I will bet the licensing clean-up janitors) welcome if that 
legal question can be resolved and the kernel can be cleaned up from 
unneeded files.

Lukas