Discover the path to becoming a Linux Kernel Maintainer in this 28-minute talk by Frank Rowand from Sony. Explore the unexpected ways one can become a maintainer, the deliberate steps to take on this role, and the responsibilities it entails. Learn how to effectively fulfill maintainer duties, develop the qualities of an excellent maintainer, and access valuable resources for support. Gain insights from a real-life story of a new driver acceptance and the subsequent maintainer journey. Understand the various roles a driver maintainer can assume, from advisory positions to sub-maintainer responsibilities. Delve into specific maintainer tasks, including patch review processes, testing procedures, and time management expectations. Acquire practical knowledge on participating in the patch submission workflow and utilizing essential tags like "Signed-off-by" and "Tested-by." Enhance your skills by learning how to monitor subsystem mailing lists and contribute effectively to the Linux kernel community.
You May Be a Linux Kernel Maintainer - and Not Know It
Overview
Syllabus
Intro
A Real Life Story
New driver is accepted
What happens next?
A gap in our internal OSS training We had helped our development team learn how to submit a driver to the Linux kernel But we had not prepared them for what involved in being a maintainer of the driver
driver maintainer - patch path?
driver maintainer - possible roles
Ignore role
Advise upstream maintainer
Review patches
Sub-maintainer
Some Maintainer Tasks
Your Role summarized Participate in the tow of a patch from developers to the upstream maintainer
Signed-off-by: - Developer's tag must exist in paich -If the patchows through the driver maintainer tree, with a pull request to the subsystem maintainer, then the driver maintainer adds
Tested-by How should patches be tested?
Time expectations
Bonus Points Monitor or skim your subsystem mais
Taught by
Linux Foundation
