On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 15:05:06 +0000 Bird, Tim wrote:
Create a new ML for "all" of kselftests (tests and framework), replacing the old list. Use the old list for framework changes only. It would cause less churn to create a ML for just the framework, but I prefer to use the shorter name for the list which has much more practical use.
I'm not a fan of this split.
Not a fan of the split or of reusing the existing list for core?
The approach taken seems like it would create a lot of churn. You have 2 kinds of developers - a) developers of the framework and b) developers of the tests themselves.
Are you viewing the two groups "kernel-wide"? My subjective experience is that tests for larger subsystems only get reviewed within their subsystem. My mental model is not people who write tests vs people who create framework. For networking a lot of people write tests when they develop features and fixes, a small subset of those people also care about the framework. But they/we do not care about non-networking tests.
So it's (a) people who write tests but also care about framework and need cross-subsystem forum vs (b) people who just write tests within their subsystem.
Slight sidebar but the concept of "framework developer" scares me. I've seen "framework developers" in my corporate life too often creating complex and unmaintainable software that has to be rewritten from scratch every 2 years.. Maybe just my experience, but normal SW engineers tend to produce better results.
Are you trying to shield framework developers from discussions about tests, or test developers from discussions about the framework? It seems like framework developers would be interested in seeing discussions about tests, and vice-versa.
Not exactly. I can't think of a single case where netdev tests got meaningful feedback from the kselftest ML. I'm probably forgetting something but it's very very rare.
Every now and then we'd appreciate comments or a discussion with the broader community. I'm guessing current list doesn't serve this purpose because the occasional framework change gets drowned out by a lot of pure tests getting posted.
I'd myself subscribe to a ML with framework changes and discussions.
I'm not sure a new list is needed, but if the discussion needs to be split, I think it would be better to create a new list for framework-only discussions, and leave the old list handling all (both framework and tests).
Like maybe have the new list be something like "linux-kselftest-core@vger.kernel.org"?