Before now, if developers were contributing to the Linux kernel, were late getting the code in, it wasn't a big deal. Chances were it would be squeezed in anyway. That was then. This is now. Recently on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, the online working group for kernel development, an all too typical case of code being delivered late for the next merge into the next testing version of the operating system occurred.
In this particular case, several SCSI developers were not turning in their code with enough time for sufficient testing to make sure that the new code wouldn't break anything. Because of the lateness of the submissions, James Bottomley, CTO of Steeleye Technology Inc., a high-availability and disaster recovery company, and the Linux Kernel SCSI Maintainer, requested that he'd like to "regression test it for a day or two, so I plan to request the final merger on Friday," into the new test Linux kernel.
This drew a response from Linus Torvalds, who has recently been emphasizing that for the sake of efficient development and keeping Andrew Morton, another leading Linux developer who oversees bug-fixing, from burning out, close to finished code must be turned in during a two week period, before going into a four week test cycle.
"I'm hoping there aren't any infrastructure upheavals that break drivers again, because if there are, I think we're going to have to make a separate rule for things like that: they have to be merged early in the sequence or not at all," wrote Torvalds.
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News source: eWeek
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