Linus Torvalds to be ‘more hard-nosed’ for Linux 6.2 • The Register

Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds has warned contributors that the rhythm of the project’s development cycle will clash with Christmas, so developers need to make sure they ready their work before the holiday season.

The warning came in Torvalds’s weekly kernel development update in which he announced release candidate 7 for Linux 6.1 and observed that – contrary to his predictions – the Thanksgiving holiday did not slow work on the kernel.

“The end of the week was the usual ‘people send me their stuff on Friday’, and the weekend hardly slowed people down,” he wrote, before describing the work left on version 6.1 as “just a bit more than I’m comfortable with. It should just have slowed down more by now.”

“As a result, I’m now pretty sure that this is going to be one of those ‘we’ll have an extra week and I’ll make an rc8’ releases,” he added, noting that one consequence of that decision is the two-week merge window during which developers submit code for the next cut of the kernel “will be solidly in the holiday season.”

“Now, this means that I will be more hard-nosed than usual in the next merge window,” he warned. “The usual rule is that things that I get sent for the merge window should have been all ready _before_ the merge window opened. But with the merge window happening largely during the holiday season, I’ll just be enforcing that pretty strictly.”

“I want to see all that work in the pull requests having been done *before* the festivities, not while you’re imbibing your eggnog and just generally being stressed out about the season. If I get sent pull requests late, I’ll just go ‘this can wait’. Ok?”

Torvalds also laid down the law to developers working on version 6.1.

“Go test, and can we _please_ just start calming things down?” he wrote. “Don’t send me anything that isn’t a clear and present bug. No more last-minute cleanups. Hear?”

That request means that rc8 should emerge next Sunday, US time, and version 6.1 of the Linux kernel should emerge a week later on December 11. The merge window could then close on Christmas Day. Torvalds works most Sundays, but it’s hard to see him – or the rest of the Linux community – having much time or interest (or capacity?) to consider the state of the kernel on Christmas. The Register certainly won’t be around to cover it if the emperor penguin choses to work on the day! ®