On Jan 18, 2013, at 12:35 PM, Janis Johnson <janis_john...@mentor.com> wrote: > For primarily selfish reasons I'd like to backport several testsuite > fixes from mainline to the 4.7 branch. Should I request permission for > specific groups of changes, or just do it?
For changes that have withstood the test of time in later branches and changes you understand well and pose little risk of hurting future releases… you have the authority to just do it. If you'd like a review, you should ask. If a change could hurt the release, you can also ask a rm to weigh the risk/benefit. If you don't understand the patch, you can ask the author if there is any other work or dependancies and if they think it is suitable for the 4.7 release branch. This is how I see it, others, may see it differently. I'd defer to the rm, if they differ in substance. My rule, don't make the rm unhappy you broke his release! :-) Do this, and they will give you latitude. Don't do this, and, well, they should rein you in.
