The description of the Fixes: tag does not say which commit to name when a later commit made an older bug reachable, or when more than one commit introduced the same bug, and both questions come up regularly. The commit that blame points at is also often one that only moved the code.
Say that the tag names the commit that introduced the bug, that the commit that exposed it may get a second tag, and that each commit that introduced the bug gets its own tag. Say that the tags tell the stable team which trees need the fix, and that trees without any of the tagged commits do not. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/[email protected] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/[email protected] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/[email protected] Assisted-by: LLM Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <[email protected]> --- Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 9 +++++++++ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst index 7ae79452e1b46..7c4e3c8272d2a 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst @@ -608,6 +608,15 @@ which stable kernel versions should receive your fix. This is the preferred method for indicating a bug fixed by the patch. See :ref:`describe_changes` for more details. +Name the commit that introduced the bug. ``git blame`` and ``git bisect`` can +point at a commit that only moved the code, or that made an older bug +reachable. If a later commit made an older bug reachable, name the commit that +introduced the bug; a second Fixes: tag for the later commit is fine. If the +same bug was introduced separately by more than one commit, add a Fixes: tag +for each, but do not add tags for commits that are only suspected. The Fixes: +tags tell the stable team which trees need the fix: those that contain one of +the tagged commits. Trees that contain none of them do not need it. + Note: Attaching a Fixes: tag does not subvert the stable kernel rules process nor the requirement to Cc: [email protected] on all stable patch candidates. For more information, please read -- 2.53.0
