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LinuxProgramming: Linus Torvalds: A Refresher on Submitting Patches

Ever-interested in slaking our curiosity on how to best go about
submitting a patch for inclusion in Linux, we came across this mail
from Linus, written in response to a curious developer, which
spells it out rather concisely.

Date:   Wed, 25 Apr 2001 14:31:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
>
>       I've got a question... I would like where to send my driver
>       patches...

Probably both me and Alan.

[ General rules follow. Too few people seem to have seen them
before ]

Most importantly, when sending patches to me:

  • specify clearly that you really want to see them in the
    standard kernel, and why. I occasionally get patches that just say
    “this is a good idea”. I don’t apply them. Especially if they are
    cc’d to somebody else too, in which case I pretty much assume that
    it’s a RFC, not a “real patch”.


Complete Mail at LinuxProgramming

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