Re: [PATCH] docs: submitting-patches: Require base tree information

[Eric Biggers]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2026 at 08:26:28AM +0200, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> On 20/10/2026 23:22, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > -Make sure that base commit is in an official maintainer/mainline tree
> > -and not in some internal, accessible only to you tree - otherwise it
> > -would be worthless.
> > +    If ``git format-patch`` with ``--base=auto`` (or
> > +    ``format.useAutoBase=true``) can't detect a base commit, e.g. due to
> > +    the current branch having no upstream tracking branch, it exits with
> > +    an error. In such cases, pass an explicit base commit to ``--base``
> > +    instead. This is also needed if git detects the wrong base commit,
> > +    such as when the upstream branch has local, unpublished commits.
> > +
> > +The base commit must be in a well-known public tree, such as the
> > +subsystem development branch the patch is targeting. See
> > +:ref:`obtain_a_current_source_tree`. Mainline or the latest linux-next
> > +can also be acceptable bases, depending on the subsystem.
> 
> I disagree, that's pointlessly too hard requirement.
> 
> For many of my contributions base is obvious and not needed to be
> explicitly defined. For all the patches I accept, answer is the same -
> base is either obvious or if not and patch does not apply, then the base
> does not matter.
> 
> Requiring it is just bureaucracy without actual benefit.
> 
> The only benefit would be if maintainer COULD change its base to apply
> some patch with odd base... but this cannot happen. Maintainer base is
> fixed - it's the HEAD of his development branch for given category of
> commits (e.g. DTS branch for SoC maintainers).

There are many use cases for applying patches besides the final patch
acceptance, such as review (by anyone, not just a maintainer), testing,
CI systems, etc.

HEAD of a branch is of course not fixed, and changes every time a patch
gets applied.  That's especially relevant when wanting to check out an
old patch for any reason.  Trying to guess a base commit based on the
date and patch subject is a waste of time.

- Eric