questions for my first patch

[Greg KH]

On Sat, Jul 02, 2011 at 07:25:50PM +0100, Mariano Guerra wrote:
> hi,
> 
>  I'm following the tutorial here:
> https://github.com/gregkh/kernel-tutorial/blob/master/lxf_article/write_kernel_patch.txt
> 
> and I have some questions before sending my first patches:
> 
>  * I read on another mail on this list that I should write the patches
> agains linux-next repository, is that right?

Yes.

>  * I tried sending the patches before (agains linux-2.6) configuring
> git send-email to use gmail and gmail disabled my account saying that
> there was "suspicious activity", then I tried using a local sendmail
> and it bounced saying that it looked like spam or something like that.
> my question is, can you recommend me a smtp server to use or some way
> to send it using my gmail account?

There is a tutorial online somewhere that shows how to use gmail with
git send-email, did you try that?

And are you sure you are sending with the right email address?  That is
one reason why gmail might not let you do this.

> now the more technical ones:
> 
>  * I'm trying to fix the warnings/erros from this file:
> drivers/staging/comedi/drivers/ni_mio_cs.c I have to add KERN_*
> facility to some printk calls, should I use INFO or DEBUG? how do I
> know when to use which? I used KERN_INFO for my patches, but I'm not
> shure

It depends on what is being printed out.

>  * the tools shows this error:
> 
> drivers/staging/comedi/drivers/ni_mio_cs.c:261: ERROR: do not
> initialise statics to 0 or NULL
> 
> which is the standard way to initialize statics?

Don't initialize them at all as they are initialized to 0 by default by
the loader/linker/compiler.

hope this helps,

greg k-h