Re: Fixed tag magic: was: Re: [PATCH v2 1/4] sys_info: add helper for callers that handle all_bt

[Bradley Morgan]

On 25 June 2026 19:38:14 BST, Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:30:15 +0200 Petr Mladek <pmladek@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> On Wed 2026-06-24 13:34:19, Andrew Morton wrote:
>> > On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:34:58 +0000 Bradley Morgan <include@xxxxxxxxx>
>wrote:
>> > 
>> > > Some callers handle SYS_INFO_ALL_BT themselves before calling
>sys_info().
>> > > Add a helper that strips that bit without turning an all_bt only
>mask into
>> > > a kernel_sys_info fallback.
>> > 
>> > I assume this patch wants a Fixes: and a cc:stable also.
>> > 
>> > It would be nice to have the conventional [0/N] cover letter to tell
>> > readers what this is all about.
>> > 
>> > The patches all have different Fixes: targets.  This risks inviting
>the
>> > -stable maintainers to merge only some of the patches into some
>> > kernels, resulting in an untested combination and which might break
>> > things.
>> 
>> I do not agree here. The Fixes tag should should point to a commit
>> which introduced the regression into the given code. And finding
>> some magic common point beause there is some magic undocumented
>> process for maintaining stable kernels sounds like a way to hell
>> to me.
>
>Well, as said, this potentially asks -stable maintainers to cherrypick
>individual patches from this series into various kernel versions. 
>Potentially resulting in code combinations which nobody has tested. 
>Heck, the individual patches may not even compile.
>
>If we're to add the series to mainline as a single atomic lump then we
>should add it to -stable as a single atomic lump, as that's the only
>thing which has been tested.  To communicate this to -stable
>maintainers we can choose a Fixes: target to which the series can be
>added as a single atomic lump.
>
>Of course, we could always discuss this with -stable maintainers ;)
>


Hi Andrew, I ended up deciding on a generic fixes tag on V3, if you
would like to have a look.

Thanks!