From 6d11555054c742bca6b0f22a67aaad092a5c731c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Aelin Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:13:07 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] docs/kconfigcheck: Clarify version baselines It is extremely tedious to keep track of what the name of a particular option was for every kernel release and when they were added. To keep kconfigcheck maintainable, let's ease the burden on people adding new options for community categories or other categories only required by close-to-mainline kernel packages and only have them look back a reasonable number of kernel versions. Part-of: --- docs/kconfigcheck.md | 20 +++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/docs/kconfigcheck.md b/docs/kconfigcheck.md index 16e801e81..11fc33550 100644 --- a/docs/kconfigcheck.md +++ b/docs/kconfigcheck.md @@ -50,6 +50,25 @@ and main categories, see the [device categorization requirements](./device-categorization) for more information. +## Version baselines + +Different categories in `kconfigcheck.toml` have different kernel version +baselines. This means that specifying the minimum kernel version for a config +option can be omitted if it was added in a version prior to the baseline +version for the category, which greatly simplifies the file since things can be +grouped more closely together and differences through the version history don't +need to be accounted for anymore in many cases. + +The baseline for the `default` category is Linux 2.6.0. All categories that are +included in the `community` category and any other ones that are expected to +only be opted into by close-to-mainline kernels (such as, for example the +`uefi` category) can assume a baseline of the newest major kernel release (X.Y) +not tagged in the last 4 years. + +For example: Assuming today is the 22nd of April 2026, the newest major kernel +release tagged more than 4 years ago would be Linux 5.17, which was released on +the 20th of March, 2022. + ## Changing the requirements Changes to `kconfigcheck.toml`, like requiring new options, removing @@ -68,4 +87,3 @@ requests via `@teams/kconfigcheck`. Trivial changes that are not expected to break any usecases and don't conflict with our policies can be merged with approval of one team member. Any other, nontrivial changes require approval of all team members. -