Repositories and Branches 

All the relevant repositories and branches are described below. For the current list of maintainers, mailing lists, etc. please refer to MAINTAINERS.

The Upstream Linux Kernel Repository 

See upstream for repository details. Maintained by Linus Torvalds.

master 

Linus’ master, the upstream, or mainline. This is where all features from all subsystems, including DRM and i915, are merged.

The upstream follows a single branch, time-based development model, with a new kernel release occurring roughly every 10 weeks. New features are merged from subsystem trees during the two week merge window immediately following a kernel release. After the merge window, the new development kernel is stabilized by only merging fixes until the next kernel release. During development, there’s a new release candidate (-rc) kernel each week.

The Upstream DRM Subsystem Repository 

See drm and drm upstream for repository details. Maintained by Dave Airlie of Red Hat. Consists mostly of drivers/gpu/drm and include/drm.

drm-next 

This is the branch where all new features for the DRM core and all the GPU drivers, including drm/i915, are merged.

The drm-next branch is closed for new features at around -rc5 timeframe of the current development kernel in preparation for the upcoming merge window for the next kernel, when drm-next gets merged to Linus’ master. Thus there’s a stabilization period of about 3-5 weeks during which only bug fixes are merged to drm-next.

drm-fixes 

This is the branch where all the fixes for the DRM core and all the GPU drivers for the current development kernels are merged. drm-fixes is usually merged to Linus’ master on a weekly basis.

The DRM Misc Repository 

See drm-misc and the drm-misc repository for repository details. Maintained by Maarten Lankhorst, Maxime Ripard, and Thomas Zimmermann, with a large pool of committers.

drm-misc-next 

This is the main feature branch where most of the patches land. This branch is always open to “hide” the merge window from developers. To avoid upsetting linux-next and causing mayhem in the merge window, in general no pull requests are sent to upstream after rc6 of the current kernel release. Outside of that feature freeze period, pull requests are sent to upstream roughly every 1-2 weeks, to avoid too much coordination pains.

If you’re unsure, apply your patch here, it can always be cherry-picked to one of the -fixes branches later on. But in contrast to the drm-intel flow cherry-picking is not the default.

drm-misc-next-fixes 

During the time between rc6 of kernel version X and rc1 of X+1, drm-misc-next will be targeting kernel version X+2 and drm-misc-fixes still targets kernel version X. This branch is for fixes to bugs introduced in the drm-misc-next pull request that was sent for X+1, which aren’t present in the drm-misc-fixes branch.

drm-misc-fixes 

This is for bugfixes which target the current -rc cycle.

The Upstream i915 Driver Repository 

See drm-intel and the drm-intel repository for repository details. Maintained by Jani Nikula, Joonas Lahtinen and Rodrigo Vivi, with a large pool of committers. Consists mostly of drivers/gpu/drm/i915 and include/drm/i915_*.h.

drm-intel-next (aka “din”) and drm-intel-gt-next (aka “dign”)

These are the branches where all drm/i915 patches, both new features and fixes, are applied.

drm-intel-gt-next is for gem/gt code, and drm-intel-next is for everything else, including i915 driver core and display.

These branches “hide” the merge window from the drm/i915 developers; patches are applied here regardless of the development phase of Linus’ upstream kernel. Pull requests to drm-next are sent as needed between -rc1 of the current kernel and the drm feature deadline (-rc5/-rc6 of the current kernel).

Note that drm-intel-next may be cross-merged directly to drm-intel-gt-next, but not vice versa. Syncing drm-intel-gt-next changes back to drm-intel-next must happen via a pull request to drm-next and a backmerge to drm-intel-next.

drm-intel-next-fixes (aka “dinf”)

This branch contains drm/i915 specific fixes to drm-next after the drm/i915 features have been merged there. Fixes are first applied to drm-intel-next, and cherry-picked to drm-intel-next-fixes by maintainers. Valid from drm feature deadline (-rc5/-rc6 of the current kernel) to -rc1 of the next kernel.

Pull requests to drm-next are sent as needed, with no particular schedule.

drm-intel-fixes (aka “-fixes”)

This branch contains fixes to Linus’ tree after drm-next has been merged during the merge window. Fixes are first applied to drm-intel-next, and cherry-picked to drm-intel-fixes by maintainers. The fixes are then merged through drm-fixes. Valid from -rc1 to the kernel release.

Usually Linus releases each -rc on a Sunday, and drm-intel-fixes gets rebased on that the following Monday. Usually this is a fast-forward. The pull request to drm-fixes for new fixes is typically sent on the following Thursday. This is repeated until final release of the kernel.

This is the fastest path to getting fixes to Linus’ tree. It is generally for the regressions, cc:stable, black screens, GPU hangs only, and should pretty much follow the stable rules.

The Upstream xe Driver Repository 

See drm-xe and the drm-xe repository for repository details. Maintained by Oded Gabbay, Thomas Hellström and Lucas De Marchi, with a large pool of committers. Consists of drivers/gpu/drm/xe, include/drm/xe_*.h and include/uapi/drm/xe_drm.h.

drm-xe-next 

This is the branch where all drm/xe patches, both new features and fixes, are applied.

This branch “hides” the merge window from the drm/xe developers; patches are applied here regardless of the development phase of Linus’ upstream kernel. Pull requests to drm-next are sent as needed between -rc1 of the current kernel and the drm feature deadline (-rc5/-rc6 of the current kernel).

drm-xe-next-fixes 

This branch contains drm/xe specific fixes to drm-next after the drm/xe features have been merged there. Fixes are first applied to drm-xe-next, and cherry-picked to drm-xe-next-fixes by maintainers. Valid from drm feature deadline (-rc5/-rc6 of the current kernel) to -rc1 of the next kernel.

Pull requests to drm-next are sent as needed, with no particular schedule.

drm-xe-fixes 

This branch contains fixes to Linus’ tree after drm-next has been merged during the merge window. The fixes are then merged through drm-fixes. Valid from -rc1 to the kernel release.

Usually Linus releases each -rc on a Sunday, and drm-xe-fixes gets rebased on that the following Monday. Usually this is a fast-forward. The pull request to drm-fixes for new fixes is typically sent on the following Thursday. This is repeated until final release of the kernel.

This is the fastest path to getting fixes to Linus’ tree. It is generally for the regressions, cc:stable, black screens, GPU hangs only, and should pretty much follow the stable rules.

topic/core-for-CI 

This branch contains hotfixes merged last on drm-tip to quickly address issues originating from outside of the DRM subsystem repositories. Typically local fixes to issues brought in from a -rc1 kernel, to ensure CI health. They may also be temporary cherry-picks from other subsystems until the commits hit the DRM subsystem via normal channels.

See Hotfixes in topic/core-for-CI for details.

The DRM Testing and Integration Repository 

See drm-tip and the drm-tip repository for repository details.

drm-tip 

This is the overall integration tree for drm, and lives in https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/tip.git. Every time one of the above branches is updated drm-tip gets rebuilt. If there’s a conflict see section on resolving conflicts when rebuilding drm-tip.

drm-rerere 

This branch contains the nightly.conf configuration file and the shared git rerere conflict resolutions for dim to generate drm-tip, as well as some kernel defconfig files for build testing.

The Maintainer Tools Repository 

This repository contains all the tools and documentation you’re reading about. See the project home page for more details.