From: Dan Williams Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2026 01:22:56 +0000 (-0800) Subject: Documentation: Project continuity X-Git-Tag: v6.19-rc7~10 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=102606402f4f5943266160e263c450fdfe4dd981;p=thirdparty%2Fkernel%2Flinux.git Documentation: Project continuity Document project continuity procedures. This is a plan for a plan for navigating events that affect the forward progress of the canonical Linux repository, torvalds/linux.git. It is a follow-up from Maintainer Summit [1]. Co-developed-by: Jonathan Corbet Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman Reviewed-by: Miguel Ojeda Reviewed-by: Kees Cook Reviewed-by: Jiri Kosina Reviewed-by: Steven Rostedt Link: https://lwn.net/Articles/1050179/ [1] Signed-off-by: Dan Williams Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- diff --git a/Documentation/process/conclave.rst b/Documentation/process/conclave.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..6a1234f54612 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/process/conclave.rst @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +Linux kernel project continuity +=============================== + +The Linux kernel development project is widely distributed, with over +100 maintainers each working to keep changes moving through their own +repositories. The final step, though, is a centralized one where changes +are pulled into the mainline repository. That is normally done by Linus +Torvalds but, as was demonstrated by the 4.19 release in 2018, there are +others who can do that work when the need arises. + +Should the maintainers of that repository become unwilling or unable to +do that work going forward (including facilitating a transition), the +project will need to find one or more replacements without delay. The +process by which that will be done is listed below. $ORGANIZER is the +last Maintainer Summit organizer or the current Linux Foundation (LF) +Technical Advisory Board (TAB) Chair as a backup. + +- Within 72 hours, $ORGANIZER will open a discussion with the invitees + of the most recently concluded Maintainers Summit. A meeting of those + invitees and the TAB, either online or in-person, will be set as soon + as possible in a way that maximizes the number of people who can + participate. + +- If there has been no Maintainers Summit in the last 15 months, the set of + invitees for this meeting will be determined by the TAB. + +- The invitees to this meeting may bring in other maintainers as needed. + +- This meeting, chaired by $ORGANIZER, will consider options for the + ongoing management of the top-level kernel repository consistent with + the expectation that it maximizes the long term health of the project + and its community. + +- Within two weeks, a representative of this group will communicate to the + broader community, using the ksummit@lists.linux.dev mailing list, what + the next steps will be. + +The Linux Foundation, as guided by the TAB, will take the steps +necessary to support and implement this plan. diff --git a/Documentation/process/index.rst b/Documentation/process/index.rst index aa12f2660194..492b808a6977 100644 --- a/Documentation/process/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/process/index.rst @@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ beyond). stable-kernel-rules management-style researcher-guidelines + conclave Dealing with bugs -----------------