> Seeing a submission to gdb getting stuck on missing line breaks got me > a bit on my nerves. Fortunately it wasn't only about that, but also > important changes, so I carried on, but having to resubmit only for > missing spaces or new lines would have been really hard to me, since I > don't really plan to submit many patches to gdb, and I know I'll > always make this kind of mistakes since I'm submitting patches to a > lot of various projects with very differing coding styles.
I understand the fustration, and I certainly would agree if you said that GDB is very particular with its CS. Aiming for a consistent coding style is important for long-term maintainability, though, which is why we almost systematically mention violations we see. If it makes you feel any better, we make mistakes too, sometimes, and have to re-edit as a result. One thing I will say, however, is that I often let go of minor violations, and only mention them if there are other adjustments I'd like to request in the same area. And I know others can be the same. So we try not be be overly picky (you may not believe me on that one ;-)!). As Sergio mentioned, we do not have a script we can use to check coding-style violations. We would very much like to have one, but no one really sent anything so far. What I can do to help is being your CS corrector - just send me your patch privately before submitting, and I will fix all CS violations for you. Another important part I can see contributing to the fustration is review delays. I can see how trivial requests can be extra fustrating if you feel like your patch is being delayed quite a bit because each review cycle is very long. You can help with that by pinging us. The accepted practice is to ping after a week or two, and every week thereafter. -- Joel