Source repositories

Since 2.6.29-rc1, Btrfs has been included in the mainline kernel.

Kernel module

The kernel.org git repository is not used for development, only for pull requests that go to Linus and for linux-next integration:

The following git repositories are used for development and are updated with patches from the mailing list:

Branches are usually pushed to both repositories, either can be used.

There are:

  • misc-next) - main queue with patches for next development cycle, this branch is usually based on the last rcN tag of Linus’ git tree

  • e.g. for-4.15 or misc-4.15 - queue with patches for current release cycle, the version changes

  • topic branches, e.g. from a patchset picked from mailing list

  • snapshots of for-next, that contain all of the above (e.g. for-next-20200512)

Note that the branches get rebased or updated (fixed typos, added Reviewed-by tags etc). The base point for patches depend on the development phase. See development schedule. Independent changes can be based on the linus/master branch, changes that could depend on patches that have been added to one of the queues should use that as a base.

btrfs-progs git repository

Official repositories

The sources of the userspace utilities can be obtained from these repositories:

The master branch contains the latest released version and is never rebased.

Development git repositories:

For build dependencies and installation instructions please see https://github.com/kdave/btrfs-progs/blob/master/INSTALL

Development branches

The latest development branch is called devel. Contains patches that are reviewed or tested and on the way to the next release. When a patch is added to the branch, a mail notification is sent as a reply to the patch.

The git repositories on kernel.org are not used for development or integration branches.

Note to GitHub users

The pull requests will not be accepted directly, the preferred way is to send patches to the mailing list instead. You can link to a branch in any git repository if the mails do not make it to the mailing list or for convenience.

The development model of btrfs-progs shares a lot with the kernel model. The github.com way is different in some ways. We, the upstream community, expect that the patches meet some criteria (often lacking in github.com contributions):

  • proper subject line: e.g. prefix with btrfs-progs: subpart, … , descriptive yet not too long

  • proper changelog: the changelogs are often missing or lacking explanation why the change was made, or how is something broken, what are user-visible effects of the bug or the fix, how does an improvement help or the intended usecase

  • the Signed-off-by line: this document who authored the change, you can read more about the The Developer’s Certificate of Origin here (chapter 11)]

  • one logical change per patch: e.g. not mixing bug fixes, cleanups, features etc., sometimes it’s not clear and will be usually pointed out during reviews

Administration and support tools

There is a separate repository of useful scripts for common administrative tasks on btrfs. This is at:

https://github.com/kdave/btrfsmaintenance/

Patches sent to mailing list

A convenient interface to get an overview of patches and the related mail discussions can be found at https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-btrfs/list/ .

It is possible to directly apply a patch by pasting the mbox link from the patch page to the command:

$ wget -O - 'https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/123456/mbox' | git am -

You may want to add --reject, or decide otherwise what to do with the patch.