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Linus Torvalds to kernel devs: Grow up and stop pulling all-nighters just before deadline

Release candidate one for Linux 6.1 has appeared

Linux kernel boss Linus Torvalds has released the first release candidate for version 6.1 of the project and added an appeal for developers to make his life easier by adding code earlier in the development cycle.

Work on each new cut of the kernel commences with a two week "merge window" during which developers are encouraged to add whatever it is they want included in the next version.

In his weekly state of the kernel update Torvalds declared version 6.1 "isn't actually shaping up to be a particularly large release: we 'only' have 11.5k non-merge commits during this merge window, compared to 13.5k last time around."

He therefore rated version 6.1 "not exactly tiny, but smaller than the last few releases. At least in number of commits."

Torvalds also concurred with The Register's assessment that the arrival of Rust in the kernel will be a modest debut. He described as "the initial Rust scaffolding (no actual real Rust code in the kernel yet, but the infrastructure is there)."

The Emperor Penguin also revealed that his faulty memory misadventure had a sequel of sorts.

"Let me just say that after I got my machine sorted out and caught up with the merge window, I was somewhat frustrated with various late pull requests. I've mentioned this before, but it's _really_ quite annoying to get quite a few pull requests in the last few days of the merge window."

He then offered further guidance on how kernel devs can do it right.

"Yes, the merge window is two weeks, but that's very much to allow me time to look things over, not 'two weeks to hurriedly put together a branch that you send Linus on Friday of the second week'," he wrote. "The whole 'do an all-nighter to get the paper in the day before the deadline' is something that should have gone out the window after high school. Not for kernel development."

His next line was: "You know who you are."

"Anyway, it's not the first time I've said this, I doubt it will be the last. But maybe more people could take it to heart, ok?" he added, before concluding his post with a slightly non-traditional call for testers to visit Linux's git tree because "The merge window may not be the biggest ever, but it's certainly big enough that the shortlog is much too big to post, and below is just my usual merge log."

"For all the gory details, please refer to the git tree." ®

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