Linus Torvalds Blasts Kernel Dev For 'making The World Worse' With 'garbage' Patches

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You can't opportunity Linux creator Linus Torvalds didn't springiness nan kernel developers adjacent warning. 

He'd told them: "The upcoming merge model for 6.17 is going to beryllium somewhat chaotic for me. I person aggregate family events this August (a wedding and a large birthday), and pinch said family being dispersed not only crossed nan US, but successful Finland too, I'm spending astir half nan period traveling." 

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Therefore, Torvalds continued, "That does not mean I'll beryllium much lenient to precocious pull requests (probably rather nan reverse, since it's conscionable going to adhd to nan imaginable chaos)."

So, erstwhile Meta package technologist Palmer Dabbelt pushed done a set of RISC-V patches and admitted "this is very late," he knew he was playing pinch fire. 

He conscionable didn't cognize really severely he'd beryllium burned. 

Torvalds fired backmost connected nan Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML): "This is garbage and it came successful excessively late. I asked for early propulsion requests because I'm traveling, and if you can't travel that rule, astatine slightest make nan propulsion requests good." 

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It went downhill from there.

Torvalds continued: "This adds various garbage that isn't RISC-V circumstantial to generic header files. And by 'garbage," I really mean it. This is worldly that cipher should ever nonstop me, ne'er mind precocious successful a merge window."

Specifically, Torvalds hated nan "crazy and pointless" measurement successful which 1 of nan patch's helper functions mixed 2 unsigned 16-bit integers into a 32-bit integer. 

How bad was it? "That point makes nan world actively a worse spot to live. It's useless garbage that makes immoderate personification incomprehensible, and actively *WORSE* than not utilizing that stupid 'helper.'"

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In summation to nan value issues, Torvalds was irritated that nan offending codification was added to generic header files alternatively than nan RISC-V tree. He emphasized that specified generic changes could negatively effect nan broader Linux community, writing:

You conscionable made things WORSE, and you added that 'helper' to a generic non-RISC-V record wherever group are apparently expected to usage it to make different codification worse too... So no. Things for illustration this request to get bent. It does not spell into generic header files, and it damn good does not hap precocious successful nan merge window. You're connected notice: nary much precocious propulsion requests, and nary much garbage extracurricular nan RISC-V tree."

Welcome to nan new, milder-tempered Torvalds. No, really. 

Torvalds' comments utilized to beryllium acold much toxic. Every fewer months, he'd burst into a fresh of swearing astatine individuals who triggered his ire. In 2018, he realized this was a problem and took a break from moving connected nan Linux kernel to attraction connected his behaviour toward different developers. After he sewage a grip connected it, Torvalds returned to nan kernel. As he said soon thereafter, he wouldn't beryllium "giving immoderate institution nan finger. I learned my lesson."

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That said, he's still a perfectionist who insists connected precocious standards and subject for kernel contributions, peculiarly for codification affecting halfway components. Any RISC-V improvements will person to hold for a early release, provided nan submissions travel early and "without nan garbage."

Dabbelt gets it. He replied, "OK, sorry. I've been dropping nan shot lately, and it benignant of piled up, taking a bunch of worldly late, but that conscionable leads to maine making mistakes. So I'll extremity being late, and hopefully that helps pinch nan value issues."