---
breadcrumbs:
- - /chromium-os/developer-library/guides
  - Chromium OS > Developer Library > Guides
page_name: large-scale-changes
title: ChromeOS Platform Large Scale Changes (LSC)
---

*** promo
This is a ChromeOS Platform-specific version of the [Google
LSC process]. For Chrome Browser, refer to the [Chrome LSC process]
***

[TOC]

## What is it?

ChromeOS Platform has a lot of code. Sometimes, we want to change code that has
been used for years and is referenced from thousands of places throughout the
codebase. These sorts of changes are referred to as LSCs (Large Scale Changes)
and generally require complex planning.

This page and the referenced docs describe the policies and best practices that
go into the planning, creating, and executing changes that impact many distinct
packages.

## What is it good for?

Fixing old mistakes, crufty interfaces, and bad usage requires making many small
changes across the codebase. Individually, these changes are tiny, but taken all
together, they allow us to deprecate old interfaces and pay down our technical
debt. The simpler we can make the code base, the more that developers can focus
on their actual problems, instead of coping with artificial complexity because
of accumulated cruft.

Although there are many ways that these changes can be handled, most will be
handled by an ChromeOS LSC reviewer and a domain reviewer.

## What is it NOT good for?

Given the cost of large scale changes (review cost often being a significant
factor), we want to prioritize changes that have high value.

For example, while cosmetic changes have some positive value, we want reviewers
to spend their time on higher value changes. This means that changes which are
primarily cosmetic are rarely worth doing unless they interact with other
automation, such as fixing a spelling mistake that then makes other refactorings
work more consistently. If in doubt, send your proposal to [chromeos-lsc-review]
before spending too much time on it.

## Who uses it?

Anyone making "large" changes. (Currently this is roughly defined as changes
covering more than 10 distinct directories with OWNERS files.) We are aiming to
enable a process where the processes and practices for making sweeping changes
are more broadly accessible, enabling teams to more readily change the APIs they
export while keeping a bound on how much time is spent coping with codebase
churn.

## Practical matters

### Why do we have this process?

At the highest level, we want to make sure anything going out in
tens/hundreds/thousands of CLs is moving the codebase in the right direction and
that it's worth the work it takes to get such changes tested, reviewed, and
submitted. ChromeOS LSC Review will rarely say "This isn't impactful enough",
although it may happen (especially in cases where there is little or no distinct
benefit). The more common role of the review is to ensure that the necessary
documentation is in place: you will be sending CLs that are seen by dozens or
hundreds of engineers who may not have any knowledge about your change. Some CL
description updates and documentation can go a long way to making the process
smooth.

### What happens if my LSC Proposal is approved?

In ChromeOS, we will grant the LSC Requestor the Gerrit Global Owners Approver
power for the duration of their change, i.e. a member of ChromeOS LSC Review
will approve the LSC Proposal which when then gives the LSC Requester the
ability to bypass OWNERS in the interest of efficiency. (For external
contributors, a Googler sponsor will act as the Global Owners Approver power
holder. If you’re an external contributor, everything else is the same.) Each CL
will still need a second human to review it to satisfy “two sets of eyes” code
review policy requirements. This reduces the code-review burden on the rest of
Chrome reviewers and increases the rate at which your change gets submitted.
However, this also means that these kinds of LSCs have a high bar of being
low-risk and non-controversial.

As the LSC Requestor, the process of getting the LSC fully submitted looks like:

1.  Create all of the CLs in the set, using a hashtag to identify them. This can
    be done in small batches (using automation or manually), if desired.
1.  Use a command-line tool to mark them all of them as Owners-Override +1 using
    Global Owners Approver power (or have your Googler sponsor do it for you)
1.  Ask a ChromeOS peer to use the same command-line tool to mass Code-Review
    +1 the set (spot-checking the CLs for correctness)

After the LSC is fully submitted, the LSC Requestor will lose their Global
Owners Approver power.

If global owners approval does not seem appropriate, we will ask you to send
your changes for local approval by owners of the individual directories you're
changing.

### Multiple repositories

To build ChromeOS, we have many other repos which are included via the Repo
manifest. Most of these are under the ownership of the Chrome org and this
process (and have identical policies). But, some are not. For those that are
under Chrome, this policy applies to all repos. Partners' proprietary repos are
not yet included in this process.

As a LSC Requestor, you can split your CLs across these boundaries.

### Historical examples of candidates for this new process

*   [Get rid of hardcoded libchrome version in platform2](https://crbug.com/920513)
*   [Restrict abilities of MessageLoop::current() (and ultimately remove it)](https://crbug.com/825327)

## Best practices

### Docs for authors

*   [ChromeOS Platform LSC Template] - If you only look at one thing, this
    should be it.
*   [ChromeOS LSC Workflow] - The high-level steps to get a new LSC approved.

### FAQ for authors

#### Do I have to use this process?

This depends on how large your change is—specifically, how many child CLs your
large refactoring will split it into—and whether all sub-CLs affect the same
OWNERS.

| Number of child CLs | Action                                                                                                                     |
|---------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| >= 30               | Follow the [ChromeOS LSC Workflow] (i.e. create an LSC doc, get domain approval, email lsc-review@, wait for approval).   |
| < 29                | No requirements                                                                                                            |

* If you would like to request global owners approval for safe or trivial
changes of any size, please also follow this process and wait for the LSC
committee to respond to your document.

* If all sub-CLs affect the same OWNERS, you do not need to follow the LSC
process and instead can talk to an area owner for how to proceed with your
change.

#### What do I have to do?

Follow the steps at [ChromeOS LSC Workflow].

#### How long will this process take?

You should expect an initial response from a cleanup approver within two
business days.

#### I'm in a hurry; Is there a fast track?

ChromeOS LSC Reviewers may fast-track low-risk changes, with a response
estimated between a few hours to one business day. If you'd like to request fast
tracking, email [chromeos-lsc-review] with a link to the doc that you created at
the end of [ChromeOS LSC Workflow] and we'll get to it as quickly as we can.

#### Why this process?

Changes that operate broadly across the codebase affect many engineers and teams
and these changes may generate discussion on the change or the best way to roll
it out. This process is in place to make sure that these changes are useful,
well-communicated, and to minimize the risk of having to attempt difficult
rollbacks.

#### I have an idea for a change, but I’m not sure who to ask about it?

Definitely email the chromeos-lsc-review@chromium.org list. We should be able to
give you at least a vague idea of whether your idea has merit and who to
approach as a domain expert to move ahead.

#### My LSC touches third_party, do I have to do anything special?

These changes are likely to be rare. If it does occur, please obey the normal
rules for third_party changes. Be aware that some parts of third_party have an
external codebase as their source-of-truth, and so are mechanically generated
(e.g. by Copybara [[external](https://opensource.google/projects/copybara),
[internal, Googlers only](http://go/copybara)]). This means that your changes
will be overwritten by the next import.

#### My proposal was accepted for "local approval", now what?

Get your CLs submitted. For changes at this scale, it's usually best to use
Suggest Owners and Auto-Submit. If anything surprising comes up during this
process, or you need to ask questions to someone familiar with the process, try
your assigned committee reviewer (see your LSC document). As with any wide-scale
change, you should also consider announcing it on a mailing list that covers the
target audience.

#### My proposal was accepted for "global approval", now what?

Contact your LSC-Review reviewer: they should have granted you (or your Googler
sponsor) Global Approver power. The techniques for getting these submitted via
global owner approval vary based on what is being changed, your approver will
know what's what for your particular LSC. As with any wide-scale change, you
should also consider announcing it on a mailing list. Any coworker or
contributor can be your second-set of eyes to mass Code-Review +1 all of your
CLs.

#### My proposal requires multiple large changes, do I need multiple LSC docs & approvals?

No. You can use a single LSC document to describe your entire series of changes
even if you are asking for a mix of local and global approvals. Be sure to break
each change out into an easily identifiable step in the document.

#### How do I deal with backsliding?

Backsliding (others submitting changes which reverse the intended change) is
something which cannot be completely avoided in all cases. A useful technique
to reduce them is to use Tricium (see
[go/luci/tricium [internal, Googlers only]](https://goto.google.com/luci/tricium)
for details) or Presubmit.

### Docs for Domain Reviewers

*   [The ChromeOS LSC Workflow](lsc_workflow.md)

### FAQ for Domain Reviewers

#### How do I pick a domain reviewer?

Your domain reviewer should be someone with the expertise and authority to
approve the technical direction of the change you're proposing. For example, if
you're proposing migrating all users from library A to library B, your domain
reviewer might be an OWNER of library A who can confirm the direction of your
proposed LSC. This can also be someone from your team, if they're a domain
expert. The idea is to get permission from anyone who could say "No, please roll
back all these migration CLs."

#### Why am I being asked to comment?

You’ve been selected as a relevant owner/expert for a large-scale change. We
need your input as to whether or not the change is a good idea. You don’t need
to review in detail (like a code review), but we want to make sure the relevant
parties are convinced that the change is good. What we don’t want is to have to
roll back after getting part way through a change involving hundreds of CLs.

#### What if I disagree?

That is exactly why you’re being asked: if you don’t like the change, we want to
stop it before it gets split up and submitted.

#### What if I think someone else should be contacted?

Absolutely bring them into the discussion. The goal is to make sure that no
LSC-approved change will have to be rolled back because of a lack of information
or planning. We want to bring any and all relevant experts and stakeholders into
the discussion early to minimize the risks.

### FAQ for Local CL Reviewers

#### How do I review this CL?

Because these tiny cleanup CLs may differ from your normal reviews, you can
likely look at them in the context of the entire change process and its
approval.

#### I don’t like this change.

You can say no, but must have a good reason. These changes generally involve
mass refactoring - if you refuse the change, you may block the payoff of that
refactoring for all of ChromeOS. Be prepared to justify your objections. If
your objections to a CL amounts to wanting to do it differently, consider
whether it's really worth objecting to - there is value in simply getting things
done, and at our scale, it's not always possible to find a solution that is
optimal for everyone.

That said, as with any CL, the author should be able to provide justification
for it, and part of the purpose of LSC policy is to ensure that justification
exists and is sufficient. You can ask the author about the change, but first
read the description and CL email carefully, including any linked supporting
documentation. You may find it interesting to know more about what's going on,
and it may save the need for a one-on-one conversation.

If you wish to share your concerns, see the contact info below.

#### I get too many cleanup CLs.

We’ll try to use global owners approvers as often as possible to avoid spreading
the burden to teams who maintain code/libraries commonly affected by
refactorings.

#### I don't actually work on that anymore.

Have you considered removing yourself from the OWNERS file? If you aren't
willing and capable of doing reviews, you probably shouldn't be an OWNER.

## Whom to contact

*   chromeos-lsc-policy@chromium.org for questions about best practices,
    documentation, or this FAQ.
*   chromeos-lsc-review@chromium.org for questions about a particular change.

## Additional resources

*   [ChromeOS LSC Workflow] - Overview of the steps you need to do in order to
    start a new ChromeOS LSC.
*   [ChromeOS Platform LSC Template] - Use this form to propose a change.

[Chrome LSC process]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/process/lsc/large_scale_changes.md
[ChromeOS Platform LSC Template]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iLGbamQyUEgfsYXX8a4p2oop9MDzxi3S6-NeXG6bJqE/preview
[ChromeOS LSC Workflow]: lsc_workflow.md
[chromeos-lsc-review]: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromeos-lsc-review
[Google LSC process]: https://goto.google.com/lsc
