Joe Perches <j...@perches.com> writes: > On Thu, 2016-01-21 at 16:58 +0200, Kalle Valo wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I have quite a lot of random cleanup patches from new developers waiting >> in my queue: >> >> https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?state=10&delegate=25621&order=date >> >> (Not all of them are cleanup patches, there are also few patches >> deferred due to other reasons, but you get the idea.) >> >> These cleanup patches usually take quite a lot of my time and I'm >> starting to doubt the benefit, compared to the time needed to dig >> through them and figuring out what to apply. And this is of course time >> away from other patches, so it's slowing down "real" development. >> >> I really don't know what to do. Part of me is saying that I just should >> drop them unless it's reviewed by a more experienced developer but on >> the other hand this is a good way get new developers onboard. >> >> What others think? Are these kind of patches useful? > > Some yes, mostly not really. > > While whitespace style patches have some small value, > very few of the new contributors that use tools like > "scripts/checkpatch.pl -f" on various kernel files > actually continue on to submit actual defect fixing > or optimization or code clarity patches.
That's also my experience from maintaining wireless-drivers for a year, this seems to be a "hit and run" type of phenomenon. -- Kalle Valo
