Kernel Summit 2006: Development process II [LWN.net]

Kernel Summit 2006: Development process II

Posted Jul 19, 2006 23:34 UTC (Wed) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359)
In reply to: Kernel Summit 2006: Development process II by smoogen
Parent article: Kernel Summit 2006: Development process II

One of the many colourful characters in the kernel community is
Christoph Hellwig.

He has very high standards and wants to do what he can to keep the
kernel code up to those standards. So he sometimes reviews other peoples
code that gets submitted to the kernel - a very important and often valuable service.

Christop seems to perfer bluntness to tact (and is not alone in this).
If he thinks your code is rubish, he will tell you in very clear terms.

Some people find this bluntness a bit too painful or confusing, and
choose to leave the party, which is unfortunate.

So to be "Christophed" is to be told - with fairly precise detail -
exactly why your code is below standard.

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Kernel Summit 2006: Development process II

Posted Jul 20, 2006 9:34 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Actually, in rather too many cases it's been to be told that your code is crap because Christoph doesn't like the idea, e.g. if I recall correctly this happened to kprobes / systrace. You can tell when that happens because there's even less actual information there than normal and because this often happens before you even submit patches (and often because other kernel devs tell him to shut up: i.e. this *is* self-correcting, and when not misfiring Christoph does a useful service. He *could* do with lessons in tact from, say, Al Viro. ;} )