From an Idea to a Patch in the Linux Mainline
summary
Recent kernels show more than 10% first-time contributors per release and thousands of first patches land each year; the workflow here is: clone the main tree, compile and boot a test kernel, reproduce a crash (example: an nvme NULL deref traced from an oops), write a fix, run scripts/checkpatch.pl, generate patches with git format-patch and send with git send-email to the lists found via get_maintainer.pl, include a Signed-off-by and iterate until accepted; tests use kselftest and KUnit.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (9)
- 0:00Start
- 4:06What Do You Need To Start Contributing to the Kernel
- 8:38The Kernel Search Tree
- 14:02Where To Look for Information
- 25:11The Linux Coding Style
- 32:13Submitting Your Patch
- 32:51Things Not To Do
- 34:58Review Process
- 44:36Questions
related talks
22mKeynote: A Fireside Chat with Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux Foundation Fellow
39mThe Life of a Kernel Bugfix
21mSyzbot To Mainline: How I Merged 21 Kernel Patches as a First-Time Contributor
39mGuiding Newcomers: A Mentor’s Journey Through Linux Kernel Development
58mUpstreaming 101
37mGetting Your Patches in Mainline Linux: What Not To Do (& a Few Things You Could Try
27mBaby Steps to Kernel Hacking
38mGuide To Become Linux Kernel Maintainer