Re: [PATCH] MAINTAINERS: Add Helge as fbdev maintainer

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi Javier,

On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 10:33 AM Javier Martinez Canillas
<javierm@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 1/18/22 09:54, Helge Deller wrote:
> > On 1/18/22 09:38, Jani Nikula wrote:
> >> On Mon, 17 Jan 2022, Helge Deller <deller@xxxxxx> wrote:
> >>> On 1/17/22 22:40, Jani Nikula wrote:
> >>>> On Mon, 17 Jan 2022, Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>>>> Seems like few people read linux-fbdev these days.
> >>>>
> >>>> How much traffic is there to linux-fbdev that is *not* Cc'd to dri-devel
> >>>> also?
> >>>
> >>> Doesn't seem like much traffic - which IMHO is OK for such a tree with
> >>> mostly just maintenance patches.
> >>>
> >>>> Do we still need a separate linux-fbdev mailing list at all?
> >>>
> >>> Yes. I want to have it seperate of dri-devel.
> >>> Actually I'd prefer to drop dri-devel from the list where patches
> >>> for fbdev are sent...
> >>
> >> Disagreed. If anything, this thread shows we can't have fbdev and drm in
> >> silos of their own.
> >
> > Patches to fbdev usually don't affect DRM.
>
> Patches for fbdev drivers don't usually affect DRM but that's not the
> case for patches to fbdev core and fbcon as you and others mentioned.
>
> > Patches which affect DRM needs to through to dri-devel.
>
> And how would people know which ones need to go through dri-devel ? Are
> you planning to add another entry to MAINTAINERS for fbdev core/fbcon ?

Those are nicely contained in drivers/video/fbdev/core/, so an entry
in MAINTAINERS listing both linux-fbdev and dri-devel would do.

> > In addition this would take the burden of the dri-developers to receive
> > unrelated fbdev driver updates and patches.
>
> In my opinion having fbdev patches in the dri-devel mailing list isn't
> a big burden, but rather getting people to review and push say patches.
>
> Since you are volunteering for the latter, that should improve things.
>
> I still fail to see the benefit of doing that split, same for having a
> separate fbdev tree. Using drm-misc only have advantages, among other
> things providing redundancy in cases that a maintainer isn't available
> for a period of time.

The above is the point of view from a DRM developer?
For an fbdev developer, the burden to receive unrelated DRM driver
updates and patches would be significant.

The first page of https://lore.kernel.org/dri-devel/ goes back to yesterday.
The first page of https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fbdev/ goes back to Nov 30th.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds