[ewg] Re: [ofa-general] ANNOUNCE ofed backports for 2.6.22 kernel bits

[Michael S. Tsirkin]

> i'd _really_ like to see a list of the advantages of
> patches over branches.  it's hard for me to know if
> i'm just missing something if the case is not laid out...

Here's a short list off the top of my head

- A single git pull merges any number of backport changes
- A single git reset ORIG_HEAD recovers from a conflicting merge
- A single tag tags all code for all kernels
- On update from upstream, if there is a conflict
  between upstream code and and a patch
  it's easy to temporarily remote the patch, complete the merge,
  and go bugger the patch author
- For recent kernels there are almost no patches.
  So an update from upstream for these kernels is free,
  with branches I will still need to update all branches.
- Adding a fix which only affects common code
  is currently straight-forward: make a change, commit.
  With multiple branches every fix must be pulled into
  all branches.

-- 
MST