Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 23 Jul 2014 12:07:48 -0400 | From | Steven Rostedt <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] edac: Remove fixmes in e7xxx_edac.c |
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On Wed, 23 Jul 2014 11:35:21 -0400 Nick Krause <xerofoify@gmail.com> wrote:
> Steve, I have make a few mistakes. That doesn't give you the right to > put me under a waste of time yet.
Nobody is upset at you for making a few mistakes. But ignoring advice from people is something quite different, and that is what tends to piss people off.
You were told time and time again to stop this fixme craze because you obviously didn't know the details of what you were fixing, but you continued to care on. The issue is with these patches that you probably caught a maintainer off guard, and they just accepted it thinking you had some clue to the code you were fixing. Thus, not only are you removing crucial comments about areas of code that needs more attention, you end up making things worse. Your actions are dangerous to the kernel and the fact you ignoring everyone telling you to stop it, makes you dangerous to the kernel. That gives me the right to put you under the "waste of time" folder.
Now it may seem that I'm being rather harsh to you, and I may be. The Linux kernel is a serious project and it can not afford having to deal with those that do not listen.
That said...
I see you stated in another email:
"Very well then I guess the community wants me to listen better to the maintainers and not do stupid things"
Finally, you are listening.
You obviously are very enthusiastic, and I would like you not to waste your own time and energy trying to help in a not so helpful way. If you really want to help the Linux community, here's what you do.
Find a single area to focus on. Not a key word throughout the kernel. Look at the USB stack, or find some driver in staging that is for some really cheap hardware that you can afford. And get it cleaned up and working nicely. Start simple. Try to understand that area completely.
Remember, nobody understand every aspect of the kernel. All the main kernel developers are experts in select parts. I wouldn't even try fixing "fixmes" in parts of the kernel that I'm unfamiliar with.
Find a part of the kernel, and learn every aspect of that part inside and out. Study the code. Boot the kernel. Make a modification of that code and see what happens. Yes! Break it (but don't submit a patch that does ;). Sometimes breaking stuff is the best way to understand why it worked in the first place. Use function graph tracing to see the code flow.
After you have done that, and you really have a good understanding of that part of the kernel, you should in the mean time see a way to enhance it, or better yet, find a real bug and fix it. Then you can submit a patch and that will be something of use.
Moral of the story: Learn the kernel before submitting a patch, do not submit a patch to help you learn the kernel.
-- Steve
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