Will We Ever See a Linux Merge Window Without Drama? Linus Calls RISC-V Patches "Garbage"

The Linux kernel development process has seen its fair share of drama over the years, with heated debates and last-minute patch submissions often stirring the pot.

Just a few months ago, we covered the controversy surrounding the bcachefs file system being dropped from the Linux kernel, which raised questions about code quality and maintainability.

Now, the spotlight moves again as RISC-V patches for the upcoming Linux 6.17 merge window hit a rough patch with Linus Torvalds himself rejecting them over timing and quality concerns.

RISC-V Patches Rejected Over Delays

there is a bunch of text in this picture, the original author of that text is linus torvalds, I would've copy-pasted it, but it is too long

Linus Torvalds has rejected a set of RISC-V patches for Linux 6.17 because they were sent in too late. He had asked for early submissions since he was traveling, but these came right before the deadline.

In this instance, the main problem was a helper function added in the patches. Linus said it was confusing and made the code harder to read. He prefers simple and clear code instead.

Linus also didn’t like that some changes were made outside the RISC-V parts, calling those changes "garbage" and saying they don’t belong in the general code.

Replying in the thread, Palmer Dabbelt, the RISC-V maintainer, apologized for the late patches and promised to send them earlier next time while keeping unrelated changes out.

Linus has said Palmer can try again for the next release, but only if the patches come in early and clean.

If you want to see the full discussion, then you can check out the mailing list thread related to these RISC-V patches.

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