>> Someone (Alan?) suggested having something like a web interface
>> allowing anyone interested in any particular file to register their
>> interest, and get added to the cclist for that file. Which is also
>> a cool idea.
> Well, in the past I had suggested to ESR (and he agreed) that it
> would be nice to split up the MAINTAINERS file (and maybe even
> Configure.help) to be more heirarchical in nature, so that there
> would be a MAINTAINER file in each directory, and maybe even
> MAINTAINER.<file> for files in common directories like
> drivers/net/foo.c. In the top-level MAINTAINER file would only be
> something like "Marcello Tosatti" to cover the entire tree, and e.g.
> "David Miller" in the net/MAINTAINER, "Al Viro" in the
> fs/MAINTAINER, "Stephen Tweedie" in fs/ext3/MAINTAINER, etc.
Can I suggest an alternative: Retain the MAINTAINERS file as it
currently is, but add a PATCHES-TO file in each subdirectory that
states how to handle patches relating to that directory, and have
these files follow a strict format, possibly...
===8<=== CUT ===>8===
HomeDir = linux/subsystem/
List = subsystem@server.site
Maintainer = Guess Who <uessWho@hear.thou.me>
Watch * = Interested <interested@private.site>
Watch PATCHES-TO = John Doa <administrator@linux.org>
===8<=== CUT ===>8===
...where the lines are as follows...
HOMEDIR = relative-path
The directory in the tree that this PATCHES-TO
file belongs in. Must occur exactly once, and
must start with linux/ to indicate the base
directory this tree has been installed in.
LIST = mailing-list-email-address
A mailing list dealing with this part of the
kernel tree. Can be repeated if multiple lists
need to be specified, or omitted if there is no
specific mailing list for this subsystem.
NEWS = newsgroup
A newsgroup dealing with this part of the kernel
tree. Can be repeated if multiple newsgroups need
to be specified, or omitted if no newsgroups are
relevant to this section of the tree.
MAINTAINER = name <email-address>
The name and email address of the primary maintainer
for files in this directory. Can be repeated if
multiple maintainers need to be specified. Must
occur in the file in the base directory, but can
be omitted in any subdirectory in which case it
indicates that the maintainer of the parent also
maintains this subdirectory.
WATCH filespec = name <email-address>
Specifies that the email address specified is also
interested in patches relating to the specified
files, and should be CC'd patches relating to just
the files specified. Files of interest are selected
using ls style wildcards. Can be repeated as often
as required for either the same or different files.
The filespec can not contain / characters, and only
matches files in the current directory.
...and all unrecognised lines are taken to be valid comments and are
ignored by all tools.
Comments?
Best wishes from Riley.
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