Re: [Gdbheads] Re: Feb's patch resolution rate

Mark Kettenis
2004-03-25T11:08:33Z

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 23:13:31 -0500
From: Bob Rossi <bob@brasko.net>

Is quick linear with the size of the patch?

Defenitely not. Even if the time I need to review a patch is linear
with the size of the patch, the result would still be that longer
patches will take significantly longer to review. Very often I will
be able to review small patches immediately, i.e. right after I've
read the message that contains the patch. But if the patch is longer
I'll put it on my TODO list and come back to it when I've got some
spare time that I think is enough to review the patch. I've got many
small slots of spare time, but larger time slots are much scarcer. I
wouldn't be surprised if this results in exponential behaviour.

Also, if the testsuite passes, and the initial patch looks good, why
would it take so long to accept the patch? Isn't the definition of
"stable" for GDB, "The testsuite works the same way after the patch as
before"?

The simple fact that the patch works, doesn't mean that it is good.
Blindly applying such patches will threaten the maintainability of
GDB. Also, for everything but patches to target-dependent code, the
testsuite will have to be run on a fair number of targets.

Mark