bug#57041: [PATCH] Add a word about warnings to CONTRIBUTE

bug#57041: [PATCH] Add a word about warnings to CONTRIBUTE

[Stefan Kangas]

Severity: wishlist

Any comments?

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTE b/CONTRIBUTE
index 94d757daaf..fe03fe0afc 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTE
+++ b/CONTRIBUTE
@@ -165,6 +165,11 @@ test 'out-of-tree' builds as well, i.e.:
     ../path-to-emacs-sources/configure
     make

+In most cases, any given change is required not to introduce any test
+failures or warnings.  There are exceptions: for example, we don't
+usually care about warnings from ancient or buggy compilers, but we do
+try to pacify warnings from stable versions of GCC.
+
 ** Commit messages

 Ordinarily, a change you commit should contain a log entry in its

bug#57041: [PATCH] Add a word about warnings to CONTRIBUTE

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
> Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2022 09:42:16 -0500
> 
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> Any comments?

You mean, this existing text

  ** Testing your changes

  Please test your changes before committing them or sending them to the
  list.  If possible, add a new test along with any bug fix or new
  functionality you commit (of course, some changes cannot be easily
  tested).

doesn't already tell the same?  If so, I'm okay with making the first
sentence say

  Please test your changes before committing them or sending them to the
  list, by running the Emacs test suite and making sure there are no
  regressions.

But I see no particular reasons to describe exceptions.

bug#57041: [PATCH] Add a word about warnings to CONTRIBUTE

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> But I see no particular reasons to describe exceptions.

This does seem useful to state explicitly:

+ we don't
+usually care about warnings from ancient or buggy compilers, but we do
+try to pacify warnings from stable versions of GCC.

Because it has happened that people have submitted patches to pacify
ancient gcc versions, and that's not useful work.

bug#57041: [PATCH] Add a word about warnings to CONTRIBUTE

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>
> Cc: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>,  57041@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:05:09 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > But I see no particular reasons to describe exceptions.
> 
> This does seem useful to state explicitly:
> 
> + we don't
> +usually care about warnings from ancient or buggy compilers, but we do
> +try to pacify warnings from stable versions of GCC.
> 
> Because it has happened that people have submitted patches to pacify
> ancient gcc versions, and that's not useful work.

Why do we have to say this in CONTRIBUTE, though?  It's already too
long; making it longer will just increase the probability of TL;DR,
and no one's the wiser.

bug#57041: [PATCH] Add a word about warnings to CONTRIBUTE

[Stefan Kangas]

tags 57041 + wontfix
close 57041
thanks

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Why do we have to say this in CONTRIBUTE, though?  It's already too
> long; making it longer will just increase the probability of TL;DR,
> and no one's the wiser.

It doesn't sound like we want to make any changes here.  I'm therefore
closing this bug report.  Thanks.