Explore by tag: weather

Linus Torvalds released 2.6.28-rc1 and closed the merge window on October 23. So we can now see what will be in the 2.6.28 kernel. Once again, it looks like an active development cycle with a lot of new stuff for Linux users.

Memory management patches are notorious for taking a long time to get into the kernel. So it is not surprising that Rik van Riel’s scalability patches were years in the making. That code has been merged now; it should improve performance on any system with heavy memory loads. Also merged was Nick Piggin’s vmap rewrite which makes things run quite a bit quicker on multiprocessor systems.

Every development cycle brings in dozens of new device drivers, and 2.6.28 is no exception. One thing that is a bit different this time around is the inclusion of Greg Kroah-Hartman’s staging tree ...

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The agenda for the 2008 kernel summit has been posted. The summit is an annual, invitation-only event which is typically attended by 70-80 developers. It is a rare opportunity to bring part of the kernel community together for focused discussions on topics which affect the kernel as a whole.

What sorts of topics are those? In recent years, the summit has tended to emphasize process-oriented issues - those are the kinds of discussions which are hardest to have over electronic mail. So, for example, there will be a discussion on just when device drivers should be merged. There is a weak consensus that getting drivers into the kernel early is a good idea, but there are hazards there too: a premature driver merger can freeze a bad user-space API in place, and the UVC webcam driver, merged very late in the 2.6.26 cycle, brought a security vulnerability with it ...

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On July 28, Linus Torvalds released the 2.6.27-rc1 prepatch and closed the merge window for 2.6.27. That means we now know what will be in this kernel, which will probably be released sometime in October. Recent cycles have featured a lot of internal cleanup and relatively few new features, but 2.6.27 will reverse that trend somewhat. Linux users will see a lot of new things here.

First, though, let your author brag for a moment. Linus said that one of his favorite changes this time around is the BKL pushdown work, much of which was done by, well, me. Linux users won’t see the results of this work directly, though it should lead to better scalability and cleaner code internally. The removal of the big kernel lock is long overdue; in 2.6.27 we’ve made some significant steps in that direction ...

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Linus Torvalds released the 2.6.26 kernel on July 13 - somewhat later than most people had expected. At a full three months, this development cycle took longer than some others; that is especially surprising given that the number of patches merged and new features added is somewhat less than we have seen in recent development cycles. Still, at over 10,000 changesets, this is not a small release.

As always, I recommend that people wanting to know all about what’s in this release head on over to the KernelNewbies 2.6.26 page.

The new feature list for this kernel is huge. But there is a lot of good stuff there. One of my favorites is the incorporation of the kgdb debugger for the x86 architecture. Linus has been resisting the addition of an interactive debugger almost since the very beginning; he believes that such tools lead developers ...

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I fell a little behind on the weather forecast pages, sorry for that. I plead that I was vacationing with the in-laws and would have gotten into serious trouble had I gone too near a keyboard. Anyway, things are caught up now.

The current prepatch is 2.6.26-rc8; when he posted it, Linus said that it might just be the last one. Given that this development cycle is smaller (in terms of the amount of code merged), I had thought that it would come together a little quicker; thus the “late June” prediction which had appeared on the forecast pages. Well, it’s late June, and we’re not there yet. More worryingly, the length of the regression list is about the same as it has been for the last month or so. My guess is that there will be an -rc9 before it’s all done, but I ...

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On May 3, Linus announced the release of the 2.6.26-rc1 prepatch and the closure of the merge window for this development cycle. So now we know what will be in 2.6.26, which, I predict, will be released sometime around the beginning of July.

Many developers will be pleased by the addition of the KGDB debugger for the x86 architecture at last. For as long as I have been following Linux development, Linus has opposed interactive debuggers; he fears that they cause developers to look at symptoms and miss the true causes of bugs. After all this time, a dedicated group of developers was able to put together a version of KGDB that Linus could stand, though, and so in it went. The merged version lacks some useful features, such as KGDB-over-ethernet, but those can be obtained with external patches and, with luck, will make it into ...

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The 2.6.25 kernel has been released at last by Linus Torvalds. The plan had been to get it out a week or so ago, but a couple of stubborn problems prevented that. A marathon debugging session by Ingo Molnar turned up the last show-stopper on April 15, and the final kernel came out shortly thereafter.

When I predicted that the release would be “around tax day in the US” I came pretty close. Maybe I should do this sort of stuff for a living.

I was talking with one of the developers at the recently-held Collaboration Summit; he told me that 2.6.25 was notable in that it didn’t really have any new stuff that he was excited about. That’s pretty interesting given that this development cycle was the biggest on record: over 12,000 changesets merged from some 1200 developers and almost 370,000 ...

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I got around to updating the forecast pages for the 2.6.25-rc8 prepatch. At this point things are getting close. My guess is that there will be one more prepatch (-rc9) sometime in the near future and the final 2.6.25 release sometime around the U.S. tax day festivities. Such as they are.

Also finally, I got around to doing an entry on UBIFS for the filesystems page. UBIFS is a flash-based filesystem, meant to replace JFFS2 and compete with LogFS. It looks like it is relatively close to being ready; it might just win the race with LogFS for inclusion into the mainline. Time will tell, though; LogFS developer Jorn Engel doesn’t look like he plans to sit still and let UBIFS take all the thunder.

The filesytems page also has an introductory section now introducing the topic and describing the pressures facing filesystem developers ...

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The weather forecast pages are quite kernel centric - that’s the area I know best. There is a user-space page, though, featuring a few important components. Many of those have been revised in recent times:

• The long-awaited KDE 4.0 release happened in January. This major update of KDE is not quite ready for prime time yet, but it is getting there and the indications are that it’s going to be great.
• GNOME 2.22 just came out. This is a more incremental release, but it still features a lot of interesting new stuff.

• GCC 4.3.0 also just came out. Lots of improvements, but also an ABI change which could cause applications to experience weird crashes on older kernels.

I do still plan to expand this page someday. Meanwhile, those who are interested in the lower levels of user space may want to keep an eye on ...

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After updating the current conditions to reflect 2.6.25-rc4, I went into the security page and added some introductory text; I’ll probably do this with the other pages as well over time.

Security has been on my mind as a result of the somewhat embarrassing vmsplice() exploit. This vulnerability has renewed interest in various kinds of technical means for preventing vulnerabilities - stack smashing detection and the like. This is all good stuff, and we should have it. But much of that technology would not have helped in this case; the vmsplice() exploit was a subtle and complex thing.

This vulnerability was not a failure of the kernel’s anti-compromise technology. It was a failure of the review process which allowed code with obvious mistakes into the kernel. Review is the critical, limiting resource for a lot of free software projects, and the kernel is no exception. Reviewing code ...

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The 2.6.25-rc1 prepatch was released on February 10. The -rc1 release, of course, indicates the closing of the merge window and the beginning of the stabilization period for this cycle. So I’ve updated all of the weather forecast pages to reflect what went in and what didn’t, and generally updated it (often by extending potential merge dates into the future - I never promised I actually knew what I was talking about…)

About 9500 changesets were merged for this release - that’s a lot of new code. The pace of kernel development does not look like it will be slowing down anytime soon.

After my upcoming travels, I’ll do a cleanup pass. There’s some old-news topics which can come out at this point, and a few new ones which should certainly be there.

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As I predicted, Linus released 2.6.24 just before heading off to linux.conf.au in Melbourne. He’s slipping, though: usually he waits until I’ve gotten on a plane and can’t update web sites before shoving a release out the door. I’m still here, though, so the main Weather Forecast page has been updated to reflect the current state of affairs.

Normally, this would be the start of the 2.6.25 merge window. That will still be the case, but Linus’s travel (and that of many other kernel developers) will likely slow the process a bit. Once things get going I’ll update the pages to reflect the shape of this kernel and what might come afterward.

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We’re still waiting for the 2.6.24 release, which seems likely to come out near the end of the month - just before linux.conf.au. While waiting, I’ve gone through and made a large number of small updates throughout the forecast pages. The development kernel is at 2.6.24-rc8 - probably the last -rc for 2.6.24. I’ve tweaked other version numbers where appropriate, added links to stories, etc.

I also cleaned up a substantial number of rather embarrassing typos. I’m really not illiterate, honest.

Finally, the filesystems page has seen a number of updates, reflecting the large amount of work happening in that area currently. Btrfs is coming along quickly. I’ve added a new entry for unionfs, which has returned from relative obscurity with a big push for inclusion into 2.6.25.

Finally finally, I added a paragraph incorporating some of ...

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This is a relatively slow time of year for kernel development (not too surprisingly), so there have not been a great many updates to the forecast pages. Expect things to pick up in January. Meanwhile, I did catch up to the 2.6.24-rc6 release.

And yes, speaking of January… my prediction that 2.6.24 would come out “around the end of the year” may still prove to be strictly correct, but it was, nonetheless, a bit on the optimistic side. So now I’m saying it will be out in January, which should be safe.

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Linus took almost three weeks to get 2.6.24-rc4 out - the 2.6.24 process has, in general, been quite slow-moving this way. Normal practice is to try to get -rc releases out once per week. It only took me two days to update the corresponding forecast page, so I feel like I’m doing pretty well. The Btrfs entry has also seen minor updates - version 0.9 just came out. Things are getting better there, Btrfs almost doesn’t crash when the disk gets full…

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