Linux 7.2-rc2

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 06, 2026,
updated Jul 07, 2026

• LWN ☛ Kernel prepatch 7.2-rc2

  The 7.2-rc2 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Linus said: ""It's Sunday afternoon, and rc2 is out. Things look very normal - it's not a small rc2, but it's in line with recent releases, and slightly smaller than rc2 was in 7.1. Let's see how that all continues, but so far so good.""

• Linux mailing lists ☛ Linux 7.2-rc2

  It's Sunday afternoon, and rc2 is out. Things look very normal - it's
  not a small rc2, but it's in line with recent releases, and slightly
  smaller than rc2 was in 7.1. Let's see how that all continues, but so
  far so good.
  
  
  The diffstat looks normal too, with about half the patch being drivers
  - the usual suspects accounting for the bulk of it. The rest being
  spread all over (but mostly filesystems and networking).
  
  
  The only slightly unusual thing is the header file split where
  mod_devicetable.h was split into multiple smaller per-subsystem
  device-id headers, which is how it should always have been done, but
  wasn't. It's a cleanup, but it also means that we have one fewer of
  those monster headers that causes almost everything to be recompiled
  if you touch it - even when the changes are relevant only to a few
  small files.
  
  
  Anyway, that shows up in the diffstat, but is hopefully not really
  visible any other way as all the users hopefully got updates properly.
  Knock wood.
  
  
  Shortlog appended for your pleasure - easy enough to scrool through to
  get a quick feel for the kinds of things that have been going on.
  Nothing really stands out..
  
  
                     Linus
  

Update

More here in Neowin:

• Linux 7.2 should arrive on time with release candidates coming along well

  Linus Torvalds has released Linux 7.2 RC2. Based on what he said this week, it looks like the final release could arrive on time without delays.

Later coverage:

• Linux Kernel 7.2 RC2 Released: Cleaning Up the "Monster Headers"

  Linus Torvalds described this release as "very normal". Although the update is not small, it stays in line with what we usually see during this stage of development. Interestingly, this version is actually slightly smaller than the RC2 version for the previous 7.1 kernel.

  So far, the development cycle for 7.2 looks healthy. In the Linux 7.2-rc2 announcement mail, Linus noted that everything is going well, even though he took some time off during the first week of July.

It's also in Linux Magazine:

• More than 43 Million Lines of Code in Linux Kernel 7.2

Mels Dees:

• Linux 7.2 is on schedule after a smooth RC2

  The development of Linux 7.2 is proceeding without any significant issues so far. Linus Torvalds (photo) has released the second release candidate (rc2) and describes the update as “very normal.” This suggests it is highly likely that the final kernel will be released according to the usual schedule, without the need for an additional eighth release candidate.

  According to Torvalds, rc2 is comparable in size to recent kernel releases and even slightly smaller than the second release candidate for Linux 7.1. About half of all changes involve drivers, while the remaining patches are mainly distributed across file systems, networking functionality, and other parts of the kernel. NeoWin speculates that this relatively modest size also follows Torvalds’ recent criticism of the use of AI in submitting kernel patches.