Hi Folks
Here is a quick summary of the state of batman in mainline.
First a quick summary of how code gets into mainline in general. When Linus released a kernel version, eg 2.6.33, he opens the merge window for the next kernel version. This merge window is normally two weeks long. During these two weeks, all new development work which is intended for 2.6.34 is merged into his tree. At the end of the two weeks the first rc kernel is released, in this case 2.6.34-rc1. At this point no more development work can be merged, just bug fixes. Generally there is a new -rc kernel every week, for about 8 or 9 weeks. So after about three months, the kernel is released, and it all starts again.
This two week merge window is a busy period with all sorts of patches come together. In the past this did not always go too well, patches collided and conflicted. To try to find out about such problems early, before the merge window, the linux-next tree was created. linux-next is roughly all the patches which will be merged in the next merge window. It contains ongoing development work from all over the place. If patches are going to clash, they will likely clash in linux-next and then developers know about such problems early.
O.K. so what is the status of batman-adv?
Our first patch landed by GregKH just before the merge window for 2.6.33 opened. This patch made it into 2.6.33-rc1. So at around the end of march when 2.6.33 is released, we will be in mainline.
All patches submitted after this first big one was after the merge window closed. So they are currently queued up by GregKH. They appear in linux-next and should be accepted during the 2.6.34 merge window.
So we have a few issues to address in the next couple of weeks.
1) We should make it clear on www.open-mesh.org which version of batctl should be used with 2.6.33. The trunk version will not work correctly, an older version is needed. Probably we want to make a tarball release and put it somewhere prominent on the website.
2) We still have the chance to get bug fixes into 2.6.33. Is there anything in 2.6.33-rc5 which can cause oopses, deadlocks, etc?
3) It would be nice if the community actually downloaded 2.6.33-rc5 and tested it. Please report any problems you find.
4) We should review what is currently in subversion but not yet pushed to GregKH ready for 2.6.34. eg gateway support, vis server startup fix, bonding, etc. In another email i will produce a list of patches we should consider.
All this work is currently happening in staging. Once 2.6.33 is released we will get a bit more exposure and hopefully trigger some discussion. 2.6.34-rc1 will be a big step forward and i think at that point we should approach the linux networking guys and ask for a review. That would be one of the first steps of getting out of staging and somewhere under the net directory.
Andrew