[dpdk-stable] patch 'net/ixgbe/base: fix IXGBE LSWFW register' has been queued to stable release 16.11.1

[Mcnamara, John]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yuanhan Liu [mailto:yuanhan.liu at linux.intel.com]
> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2017 9:45 AM
> To: Dai, Wei <wei.dai at intel.com>
> Cc: Zhang, Helin <helin.zhang at intel.com>; Liu, Yu Y <yu.y.liu at intel.com>;
> stable at dpdk.org; Richardson, Bruce <bruce.richardson at intel.com>; Yigit,
> Ferruh <ferruh.yigit at intel.com>; Lu, Wenzhuo <wenzhuo.lu at intel.com>; Wu,
> Jingjing <jingjing.wu at intel.com>; Thomas Monjalon
> <thomas.monjalon at 6wind.com>; Mcnamara, John <john.mcnamara at intel.com>
> Subject: Re: patch 'net/ixgbe/base: fix IXGBE LSWFW register' has been
> queued to stable release 16.11.1
> 
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 08:14:08AM +0000, Dai, Wei wrote:
> > Hi, Yuanhan
> >
> > Remove the mail list.
> 
> Add it back.
> 
> > Each time we updated NIC shared code, we always submitted a patch set
> including multiple patches.
> > I notice that only patch with "fix" are applied into stable release.
> > I am not sure the NIC can work well without other patches without "fix".
> > Indeed the users like STV team always apply whole patch set for shared
> code update.
> > They regards the patch set as whole one.
> > So why not apply whole patch set for NIC shared code in stable release ?
> 
> Dai Wei, that's really a good question! And it deserves more discussion,
> thus more people are cc'ed.
> 
> Firstly, to answer your question: it's not proper to apply all patches.
> Stable tree is meant to apply bug fixes only. Applying all of them looks
> more like backporting a feature, which is too risk for a stable release.
> 
> OTOH, if we apply some base fixes, doesn't it mean user also has to do
> firmware update? If so, that doesn't sound good to me. I think we should
> avoid asking user to do firmware update for a LTS. Correct me if I'm
> wrong.
> 
> Maybe we could start with a simple rule first: no base fixes are allowed
> for a stable release, unless
> - they fixed some severe bugs, AND
> - the author can make sure that these fix doesn't require firmware
>   update and will not break anything.
> 
> Does that sound reasonable?

Hi,

That sounds like a reasonable approach to me.

John