Re: [PATCH net-next v7 4/5] net/x25: fix restart request/confirm handling

[Xie He]

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 10:27 PM Martin Schiller <ms@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Hi Martin,
> >
> > When you submit future patch series, can you try ensuring the code to
> > be in a completely working state after each patch in the series? This
> > makes reviewing the patches easier. After the patches get applied,
> > this also makes tracing bugs (for example, with "git bisect") through
> > the commit history easier.
>
> Well I thought that's what patch series are for:
> Send patches that belong together and should be applied together.
>
> Of course I will try to make each patch work on its own, but this is not
> always possible with major changes or ends up in monster patches.
> And nobody wants that.

Thanks! I admit that this series is a big change and is not easy to
split up properly. If I were you, I may end up sending a very big
patch first, and then follow up with small patches for "restart
request/confirm handling" and "add/remove x25_neigh on
device-register/unregister instead of device-up/down". (The little
change in x25_link_established should belong to the first big patch
instead of "restart request/confirm handling".)

But making each patch work on its own is indeed preferable. I see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/submitting-patches.html
says:
When dividing your change into a series of patches, take special care
to ensure that the kernel builds and runs properly after each patch in
the series. Developers using git bisect to track down a problem can
end up splitting your patch series at any point; they will not thank
you if you introduce bugs in the middle.