Pull requests that only change development guides or independent tooling
still compile kernels and run the VM suites. Select Ginkgo, KUnit, Clang
and kernel regression through one shared path policy before expensive
work. Compare the whole PR against its merge base, retaining deleted
paths and both sides of renames. Run checks for unclassified inputs.
Keep path rules in .github/ci-checks.toml and validate their structure,
check names, literal paths and conflicting entries before selection.
Provide a validation-only command. Changes to the config or selector
exercise every check.
Select kernel regression once in the preparation job and gate the build
job before expanding its matrix. Unrelated PRs do not allocate a runner
for every kernel. Selection failures fail the workflow and successful
skips include a reason in the job summary.
Run the Packages workflow only after pushes to master, preserving its
DEB/RPM builds and publication. Keep the separate Clang DEB build on PRs.
Retain full master and manual checks and the existing Checkpatch runs.
Cover path ownership, config validation and Git histories with tests,
and shorten the CI guide around all workflows, selection and results.
Quote the CC environment key so Checkpatch does not interpret unchanged
YAML diff context as a Cc trailer.
