[U-Boot] Question about U-Boot development model

[deanzerder]

Hi,

I'm a bit confused about the U-Boot development model,
so I am hoping that someone might be able to clear it up:

In Linux, you can send patches at any time to the maintainer of a subsystem.
They will apply them to a fixes/next branch and it will be merged into mainline
during the next merge window.

It seems to me that this is not really the case for U-Boot.
There is much more code without a custodian Git tree, and even many of the
existing custodian Git trees seem to have deserted "next" branches.

Does that mean that patches which add new functionality are essentially
supposed to be posted during the merge window?

I would say that it's usually helpful to send out patches early to get feedback.
What happens if the patch is reviewed/deemed ready while the merge window
is closed? Will it just get picked up automatically during the next merge window,
or does it need to be sent again?

Thanks,
Dean