On Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 1:14 PM Greg KH gregkh@linuxfoundation.org wrote:
On Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 11:43:26AM +0530, Shyam Prasad N wrote:
Hi Greg,
It recently came to my attention that this patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/patch/?id... [Upstream commit 69cba9d3c1284e0838ae408830a02c4a063104bc] ... which is marked with Fixes tag for a change that went into 5.9 kernel, was taken into 6.4 and 6.1 stable trees. However, I do not see this in the 5.15 stable tree.
I got emails about this fix being taken to the 6.4 and 6.1 stable. But I do not see any communication about 5.15 kernel.
Was this missed? Or is there something in the process that I missed? Based on the kernel documentation about commit tags, I assumed that for commits that have the "Fixes: " tag, it was not necessary to add the "CC: stable" as well. Please let me know if that understanding is wrong.
That understanding is wrong, and has never been the case. Please see: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-kernel-rules.html for how to do this properly.
There were two statements that led me to making this assumption.
In the link that you provided: “Note, such tagging is unnecessary if the stable team can derive the appropriate versions from Fixes: tags.”
Also, the below link says: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/process/submitting-patches.html#using-... “A Fixes: tag indicates that the patch fixes an issue in a previous commit. It is used to make it easy to determine where a bug originated, which can help review a bug fix. This tag also assists the stable kernel team in determining which stable kernel versions should receive your fix. This is the preferred method for indicating a bug fixed by the patch.”
But I can now see how this can also mean that additional tagging is not necessary if it has a "Fixes" tag, but "stable" tag is still necessary.
We just have been sweeping the tree at times to pick up the patches where people only put Fixes: tags. And then we do a "best effort" type of backporting.
Understood.
Odds are this commit does not apply to any older kernels, and yes, I just tried and it did not apply to 5.15 at all. Please provide a working backport.
Will do that soon.
Regarding this particular fix, I discussed this with Steve, and he agrees that this fix needs to go into all stable kernels as well.
Great, please provide working backports and we will be glad to queue them up.
And in the future, please properly mark your patches with cc: stable if you want to see them applied, AND for you to get FAILED notices if they do not apply as far back as you are asking them to be sent to.
Will do. Thanks.
thanks,
greg k-h