Zack's Kernel News
What Is Staging?
Greg Kroah-Hartman recently offered some clarification on the nature of the "Staging Tree" because its role had changed; also, there seemed to be some confusion about it.
The staging tree, he explained, was the drivers/staging directory in the official kernel. Code submitted to that directory in the linux -next git repository would be fed directly to Linus during the merge window and would be included in the next official kernel release with little or no objection from him.
Appropriate projects for staging are drivers and filesystems that require no code changes anywhere else in the tree (i.e., they are standalone patches). The only exceptions to this are: firmware can (and should) live in the firmware directory, symbols may be exported from the main kernel code if the relevant subsystem maintainer approves, documentation may live in the Documentation directory, although that is frowned upon.
The value of putting code into staging is that it exists in the main kernel tree; therefore, it has the full universe of kernel users available to test it while presenting minimal danger to kernel stability. It answers a need that has been addressed in a variety of ways through the years: How can developers get their code tested by enough users to make it acceptable in the main tree before it actually goes into the main tree?
The restrictions placed on projects going into staging are to make sure that all code preserves kernel stability and is moving in a direct line toward migrating out of staging and into its proper location in the official source tree. Therefore, any project going into staging should be well maintained, either by the person submitting it or by a volunteer who's willing to "babysit" the code. Staging is not a place to "dump code and run away," as Greg puts it. Any code that lives in staging will taint the kernel logs when executed (i.e., it'll print a message saying it ran code from staging).
Bug reports from a tainted kernel will be less likely to find folks willing to debug them. If you're working on code in staging, this puts most of the onus on you to debug it yourself, and if you think the bug wasn't triggered by your code, you should reproduce it on an untainted kernel and submit the report. Then, you'll find plenty of willing hackers to help you.
All of this is by way of isolating staging development from the rest of kernel development. As a developer of staging code, you benefit from an audience of potentially millions of users, but the responsibility of dealing with reports from those users, as well as the behavior of your own code, lies with you.
To me, this seems like a really elegant solution to a problem that has stymied kernel developers for years; no doubt it'll be improved as time goes by.
« Previous 1 2 3 4
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.
-
DebConf24 to be Held in South Korea
Busan will be the location of the latest DebConf running July 28 through August 4
-
Fedora Unleashes Atomic Desktops
Fedora has combined its solid distribution with rpm-ostree system to make it possible to deliver a new family of Fedora spins, called Fedora Atomic Desktops.
-
Bootloader Vulnerability Affects Nearly All Linux Distributions
The developers of shim have released a version to fix numerous security flaws, including one that could enable remote control execution of malicious code under certain circumstances.