Re: [RFC] How to (automatically) find the correct maintainer(s)

[Richard Knutsson <ricknu-0@student.ltu.se>]

Matthias Schniedermeyer wrote:
> Richard Knutsson wrote:
>   
> > Stefan Richter wrote:
> >
> >     
> > > On 15 Jan, Matthias Schniedermeyer wrote:
> > >  
> > >
> > >       
> > > > Stefan Richter wrote:
> > > >    
> > > >
> > > >         
> > > > > On 14 Jan, Richard Knutsson wrote:
> > > > >      
> > > > >
> > > > >           
> > > > > > (Really liked the idea to have a "Maintainer"-button next to "Help"
> > > > > > in *config)
> > > > > >         
> > > > > >             
> > > > > Rhetorical question: What will this button be used for?
> > > > >       
> > > > >           
> > > > Having "all(tm)" information of something in one place?
> > > >     
> > > >         
> > > Or, "click here to say 'it does not work'"?
> > >
> > > My rhetorical question wasn't about what it is intended for, but what
> > > people would think it was intended for if it was there.
> > >
> > >   
> > >       
> > I think it could be practical to have an easy access to whom is
> > responsible for a driver and which mailinglist its development is
> > addressed to, both for people interested in helping develop the driver
> > and those who got an error (or fan-mail :).
> >
> >     
> > > > I think adding the Maintainers-data is more or less a logical next step.
> > > >
> > > > It's not always clear from the MAINTAINERS-file who is the right person
> > > > for what. Especially as it is a rather large text-file with only
> > > > mediocre search-friendlieness. It's a 3.5 K-lines file!
> > > >
> > > > So when you know that you have a problem with drivers X, wouldn't it be
> > > > great if you could just "go to" the driver in *config and see not only
> > > > the Help-Text but the Maintainers-Data also.
> > > >     
> > > >         
> > > Seems more like what you actually want to have there is links to users'
> > > mailinglists or forums.
> > >
> > > When this thread started, it was about assisting authors in submitting
> > > patches.
> > >
> > >   
> > >       
> > Yes, this is a bit out of scope, but just realized a simple way to
> > implement it if using the CONFIG_FLAG-approach, just "grep" after the
> > flag, under which the user hit the "Maintainer"-button, in the
> > MAINTAINER-file. Also, I think this solves the handler-problem since an
> > entry can have multiple CONFIG_FLAG's stated.
> >
> > I don't think we should add the maintainer-entries directly in Kconfig,
> > as you Stefan stated, because it is for configure the kernel. With the
> > above approach, it will just require minor fixes in the "make *config"
> > to handle it.
> >     
>
> But how do you suppose the user gets the CONFIG_-String, which the user
> then could for searching?
>
> I'd say only a small percentage of hardcore-users would use the
> .config-file directly, the others would deviate over *config, so i'd say
> if the MAINTAINERS-data is integrated into Kconfig it's the perfect(tm)
> 90% solution.
>
> OTOH you could just teach the *config to lookup a MAINTAINERS-entry when
> all they are properly flagged.
>   
Oh no, did'n mean like that. All entries in the Kconfig has a "config 
CONFIG_FLAG" (of course ;) ) and so *config "knows" which flag to search 
for (if added to MAINTAINERS, that is).

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