Re: [PATCH] checkpatch: warn about possible missing gitignore coverage in selftests

[Jakub Kicinski]

On Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:24:41 -0600 Cihan Karadag wrote:
> Per selftests documentation [1], every generated test binary must be
> added to gitignore to prevent leaving untracked files in the kernel
> tree.
> 
> This is an easy mistake to make when adding a new test. In fact, a
> search of selftests history turns up dozens of standalone follow-up
> patches with titles like "add missing gitignore for <binary>", each
> needed only because the original patch adding a new test
> didn't also update gitignore.
> 
> Add a SELFTESTS_GITIGNORE check that warns about gitignore coverage
> whenever a patch adds a new file under tools/testing/selftests/, the
> same way FILE_PATH_CHANGES warns about MAINTAINERS on any added,
> moved, or deleted file.

What percentage of changes to selftests from last 2 releases will
false-positive trigger this? Would be good to know, checkpatch has
a tendency of generating false positives which is quite counter
productive. In netdev CI at least we build the selftests and check
if there are any untracked files after.