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How New, Polite Linus Torvalds Points Out Bad Kernel Code (phoronix.com)
Linus Torvalds "has shown already for the new Linux 4.20~5.0 cycle he isn't relaxing his standards but is communicating better when it comes to bringing up coding," reports Phoronix, adding "So far it looks like Linus' brief retreat is paying off with still addressing code quality issues -- and not blatantly accepting new code into the kernel as some feared -- but in doing so in a professional manner compared to his past manner of exclaiming himself over capitalized sentences and profanity that at time put him at odds with some in the Linux kernel community."
AmiMoJo quotes their report: Last Saturday he took issue with the HID pull request and its introduction of the BigBen game controller driver that was introduced: the developer enabled this new driver by default. Linus Torvalds has always frowned upon random new drivers being enabled by default in the kernel configuration driver. [H]e still voiced his opinion over this driver's default "Y" build configuration, but did so in a more professional manner than he has done in the past:
We do *not* enable new random drivers by default. And we most *definitely* don't do it when they are odd-ball ones that most people have never heard of.
Yet the new "BigBen Interactive" driver that was added this merge window did exactly that.
Just don't do it.
Yes, yes, every developer always thinks that _their_ driver is so special and so magically important that it should be enabled by default. But no. When we have thousands of drivers, we don't randomly pick one new driver to be enabled by default just because some developer thinks it is special. It's not.... Please don't do things like this.
Phoronix also describes another "kernel oops" testing Torvalds' patience, in which Linus responded tactfully that "What makes me *very* unhappy about this is that if I'm right, I think it means that code was literally not tested at all by anybody who didn't have one of the entries in that list."
AmiMoJo quotes their report: Last Saturday he took issue with the HID pull request and its introduction of the BigBen game controller driver that was introduced: the developer enabled this new driver by default. Linus Torvalds has always frowned upon random new drivers being enabled by default in the kernel configuration driver. [H]e still voiced his opinion over this driver's default "Y" build configuration, but did so in a more professional manner than he has done in the past:
We do *not* enable new random drivers by default. And we most *definitely* don't do it when they are odd-ball ones that most people have never heard of.
Yet the new "BigBen Interactive" driver that was added this merge window did exactly that.
Just don't do it.
Yes, yes, every developer always thinks that _their_ driver is so special and so magically important that it should be enabled by default. But no. When we have thousands of drivers, we don't randomly pick one new driver to be enabled by default just because some developer thinks it is special. It's not.... Please don't do things like this.
Phoronix also describes another "kernel oops" testing Torvalds' patience, in which Linus responded tactfully that "What makes me *very* unhappy about this is that if I'm right, I think it means that code was literally not tested at all by anybody who didn't have one of the entries in that list."
Compare 2010:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/5/20/218
This is just unbelievable SH*T: ...
First it says "only ask if EMBEDDED", and then it says "default to Y if
not embedded".
Why? Why the hell did somebody decide that everybody and their pet dog
should get that totally uninteresting driver, whether they want it or not?
I realize that every single developer thinks that their driver is the most
important thing in the universe, but come on! This kind of thing is
totally inappropriate, and to make matters worse, it looks like there are
a few commits that won't even compile because the whole file wasn't even
added until later.
And this piece of shit was made _mandatory_?
Get a grip, people. I'm not pulling idiotic crap like this. Some quality
control before you ask me to pull, for chissake!
2018:
We do *not* enable new random drivers by default. And we most *definitely* don't do it when they are odd-ball ones that most people have never heard of.
Yet the new "BigBen Interactive" driver that was added this merge window did exactly that.
Just don't do it.
Yes, yes, every developer always thinks that _their_ driver is so special and so magically important that it should be enabled by default. But no. When we have thousands of drivers, we don't randomly pick one new driver to be enabled by default just because some developer thinks it is special. It's not.... Please don't do things like this.
This is clearly developer behavior which Linus just HATES, but now he has to be polite in expressing his disdain for it.
I expect Linus to be committed to the looney bin in a matter of months.
...Who is he to tell this person what "we do" or we do not do...
The person who OWNS Linux (and the "we" is the group of people permitted to contribute code).
...Who the hell does Torvalds think he is, dishing out orders like a tyrant dictator?...
The person who OWNS Linux (ie the person who dictates what is or is not acceptable code).
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
I know we don't read TFA, but there is an example of how Linus dealt with almost the exact same situation before:
At this point I think Linus should just write a template "no seldomly used drivers enabled by default" response.
No need to invest all that time in writing a response when the committer didn't invest time in considering proper settings.
Even better if it can insert driver/hardware name automatically.