[PATCH] add Doc/SubmitChecklist

Linux Kernel patch sumbittal checklist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some basic things that developers should do if they

want to see their kernel patch submittals accepted quicker.

These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided

in Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere about submitting

Linux kernel patches.

- Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and =n.

  No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.

- Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig

- Builds on multiple CPU arch-es by using local cross-compile tools

  or something like PLM at OSDL.

- ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it

  tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.

- Matches kernel coding style(!)

- Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.

- All new Kconfig options have help text.

- Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig

  combinations.  This is very hard to get right with testing --

  brainpower pays off here.

- Check cleanly with sparse.

- Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any

  problems that they find.  Note:  checkstack does not point out

  problems explicitly, but any one function that uses more than

  512 bytes on the stack is a candidate for change.

- Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs.  (Not required

  for static functions, but OK there also.)  Use 'make htmldocs'

  or 'make mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.

- Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,

  CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,

  CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP all simultaneously

  enabled.

- Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and

  CONFIG_PREEMPT.

- If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without

  CONFIG_LBD.

2006-APR-27