Linux 4.8-rc7 Kernel Released: Final In 1~2 Weeks

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 18 September 2016 at 08:55 PM EDT. Add A Comment
LINUX KERNEL
Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 4.8-rc7 a few minutes ago and it's looking like this release cycle will likely drag on with a 4.8-rc8 release being likely next week.

Linus wrote that while nothing huge is going on, there is more noise at this stage than he'd like, so probably will end up having 4.8-rc8 next week and the final release one week later than planned. However, that could still change if the week ahead is quiet.

At least Linux 4.8 is looking quite good and bringing a wide array of new features. As the kernel mailing list archives seem slow at the moment, Torvalds' message is embedded below.
Another week, another rc.

Normally rc7 is the last in the series before the final release, but by now I'm pretty sure that this is going to be one of those releases that come with an rc8. Things did't calm down as much as I would have liked, there are still a few discussions going on, and it's just unlikely that I will feel like it's all good and ready for a final 4.8 next Sunday.

That said, there's nothing *huge* going on, there was just more noise than I'd like. Part of rc7 is obviously the networking fixes that missed rc6 by mere minutes, but there are various other driver updates too (rdma, nvme and even a few pcmcia fixes - yeah, it's not quite dead yet). And a fair number of small architecture fixes (Al's uaccess fixes stand out, but there's some perf and KVM fixes and other random things going on too).

The shortlog may not be quite as short as I'd like, but it's appended and it's not exactly huge either - you can easily scroll through it and get a rough feel for the details).

Another thing that makes me say "might as well do an rc8" is that it doesn't look like linux-next is all that big, so I don't get the feeling that there is any particular pressure to open the merge window. There's a few features that look to be scheduled for merging up for 4.9 that I'm looking forward to, but another week won't hurt.

Of course, maybe things go *so* swimmingly the upcoming week that I decide that 4.8 is ready, and there really isn't anything in particular that worries me, but seeing fixes for fixes happening the last week just makes me go "Ehh, thing are still in flux".

But please go out and test,

Linus
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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