On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 03:24:47PM +0300, Henri Rosten wrote:
We did some work on analyzing patches potentially missing from stable releases based on the Fixes: and Revert references in the commit messages. Our script is based on similar idea as described by Guenter Roeck in this earlier mail: https://lore.kernel.org/stable/20190827171621.GA30360@roeck-us.net/.
Although the list is not comprehensive, we figured it makes sense to publish it in case the results are of interest to someone else also.
The below list of potentially missing commits is based on 4.19, but some of the commits might also apply to 5.4 and 5.6.
For each potentially missing commit flagged by the script, we read the commit message and had a short look at the change. We then added comments on our own judgement if it might be stable material or not. No comments simply means the potentially missing patch appears stable material. "Based on commit" is the mainline patch that has been backported to 4.19 and is referenced by the missing commit. We did not check if the patch applies without changes, nor did we build or execute any tests.
That last sentence should have been a huge red flag when writing it and sending out this email...
6011002c1584 uio: make symbol 'uio_class_registered' static Based on commit: ae61cf5b9913
You looked at this patch and thought it was relevant for backporting?
Why? It "obviously" does not fix anything, and is just a cleanup patch.
Why did it pass your criteria?
968339fad422 powerpc/boot: Delete unneeded .globl _zimage_start Based on commit: ee9d21b3b358 Comment: not stable material?
Ok, I'm going to stop here.
I appreciate sending lists of commits that you have determined should be applied, and will be glad to review them, but you don't have to give me a list of all potential patches and your comments on them, as that doesn't help much.
I have scripts that can churn out the false-positive lists like these, that's relatively easy to create. It's the curated lists that you have looked at and reviewed and determined, in your opinion, should be applied that are much more valuable and better to work with.
61c347ba5511 afs: Clear AFS_VNODE_CB_PROMISED if we detect callback expiry Based on commit: ae3b7361dc0e Comment: likely requires manual backport
At this point, I will need others to do backporting for older kernels like this, unless there is a good reason why you can't do it yourself. That shows you actually want the patch to be backported, as you have done the effort to do so and check that it builds properly.
Again, random lists aren't all that helpful, but curated ones are.
2b74c878b0ea IB/hfi1: Unreserve a flushed OPFN request Based on commit: ca95f802ef51 Comment: earlier backport failed, this would likely require manual backport: https://lore.kernel.org/stable/15649835016938@kroah.com/
This was known not to work. I asked for help, and just asking for help again isn't probably going to do much :(
0fbf21c3b36a ALSA: hda/realtek - Enable micmute LED for Huawei laptops Based on commit: 8ac51bbc4cfe Comment: not stable material?
It doesn't apply and needs manual backporting. Why didn't you test that?
Again, curated ids, and backported patches are the best thing you can do to help out here. See Guenter's email for an example of the first, and Ben's emails of backported patches for examples of the second.
thanks,
greg k-h