Linux Kernel 6.1 LTS Released with Initial Support for the Rust Programming Language
More than two months in the works, Linux kernel 6.1 is here to introduce experimental support for the Rust programming language. While this may sound very exciting for some, you should keep in mind that "experimental" means that it’s only a very basic implementation of Rust that cannot be used for any real-world use cases.
Another major change in Linux 6.1 is the multi-generational LRU VM work to better identify the memory pages that are actually in use. In addition, the new kernel series brings the ability to perform PKCS#7 signature verifications in BPF programs and to create destructive BPF programs, and a new security-module hook for controlling how user namespaces are created.
Update (by Roy)
Torvalds:
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Linux 6.1
So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I'm much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago when things didn't seem to be slowing down.
Of course, that means that now we have the merge window from hell, just before the holidays, with me having some pre-holiday travel coming up too. So while delaying things for a week was the right thing to do, it does make the timing for the 6.2 merge window awkward.
That said, I'm happy to report that people seem to have taken that to heart, and I already have two dozen pull requests pending for tomorrow in my inbox. And hopefully I'll get another batch overnight, so that I can try to really get as much of the merge window done with early. We all want to have a calm holiday season.
And because of that "we all want to have a calm holiday season", I want to re-iterate that I'm going to be pretty strict about the merge window rules. The rules are that the pull requests sent to me during the merge window should have been ready _before_ the merge window, and have seen some time in linux-next. No last-minute batch of experimental new development that hasn't been seen by our test automation.
So to make my life easier, I will just drop any pull requests that come in late, or that look like they haven't been in linux-next. This time of year, we're all going to be much happier to deal with the stress of the season _without_ having to deal with the stress of any late development. So if you already realize that work hasn't been in linux-next, let's just all agree to not even send me the pull request at all, and we'll all be happy with the calm end-of-the-year season. Ok?
Anyway, I think I've harped on that enough, let's just enjoy this release and the upcoming festivities. As can be seen from the shortlog below, last week really was very quiet, and it's mainly a few last-minute fixes mostly dominated by drivers (networking in particular, but there's some media, HID and GPU noise in there too).
Linus
Now in LWN:
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The 6.1 kernel is out [LWN.net]
Headline features in 6.1 include reworked, LLVM-based control-flow integrity, initial support for kernel development in Rust, support for destructive BPF programs, some significant io_uring performance improvements, better user-space control over transparent huge-page creation, improved memory-tiering support, fundamental memory-management rewrites in the form of the multi-generational LRU and the maple tree data structure, the kernel memory sanitizer, and much more. See the LWN merge-window summaries (part 1, part 2) and the KernelNewbies 6.1 page for more information.
By Joey Sneddon:
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Linux Kernel 6.1 Released, This is What’s New - OMG! Ubuntu!
Linus Torvalds is giving Santa Claus competition as the FOSS-lovin’ Finn is putting the best possible present under the tree this festive season: a brand new Linux kernel.
Yes, Linux kernel 6.1 is here, ready to power the world’s servers, desktops, smartphones, switches, routers, and everything in between. Announcing the arrival on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, Linus Torvalds says: “So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I’m much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago”.
The Linux kernel is developed and maintained by a worldwide community of engineers and enthusiasts. While a great number of those who contribute to the Linux kernel as part of their day job others choose to do so in their free time, of their own accord, and on their own terms.
Let’s take a closer look at what those awesome folks have been up to recently…
Typical clickbait from Simon Sharwood:
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Linus Torvalds reveals Linux kernel 6.1 • The Register
Linux kernel overseer Linus Torvalds has released version 6.1 of the project, and warned that "the merge window from Hell" has now opened.
Each release of the Linux kernel is followed by two weeks in which contributors submit code they'd like to see in the next version. The release of Linux 6.1 today means that window closes on December 26 – the day after a certain popular holiday.
Torvalds today revealed that he's travelling ahead of that holiday, so has even less time than usual to tee up the next cut of the kernel.
He's therefore laid down the law to would-be contributors.
"I want to re-iterate that I'm going to be pretty strict about the merge window rules," he wrote. "The rules are that the pull requests sent to me during the merge window should have been ready _before_ the merge window, and have seen some time in Linux-next. No last-minute batch of experimental new development that hasn't been seen by our test automation."
Linux-next is the staging area the kernel dev team uses to queue up code that has been flagged as destined for the next kernel release, and therefore gets some attention before the merge window commences.
Slashdot and It's FOSS:
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Linux 6.1 Released With Initial Support for Rust-Based Kernel Development - Slashdot
Meanwhile, Linux 6.1 also includes "support for destructive BPF programs, some significant io_uring performance improvements, better user-space control over transparent huge-page creation, improved memory-tiering support."
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Linux Kernel 6.1 Released With Initial Rust Code
Linux Kernel 6.1 is finally here, and it comes bearing early Christmas gifts in the form of improvements and support for new hardware. 🎄
It comes a few months after the release of Linux Kernel 6.0, where the naming scheme was changed from 5.x.x to 6.x in favor of a less confusing alternative.
As usual, the last kernel release of the year may be considered a long-term release version that gets support for a couple of years.
Bootlin contributions:
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Linux 6.1 released, Bootlin contributions - Bootlin's blog
Linux 6.1 has been released yesterday, a week later than expected. Head over to LWN (part 1, part 2) or KernelNewbies for an overview of the major features merged in this release.
Microsoft's longterm media mole, Liam Tung, uses a negative twist on a Linux release. As usual...
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Linux 6.1 stable lands as Linus Torvalds frets over a frantic pre-holidays 6.2 merge | ZDNET
Linus Torvalds is happy with some early pull requests after blasting developers for late submissions, and says he'll maintain strict rules to keep the merge window calm as the holiday season approaches.
WebProNews:
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Linux Kernel 6.1 Is Out With Rust Support
Linux Torvalds has pushed out version 6.1 of the Linux kernel, with initial Rust support being one of the headline features.
Linux kernel development has been done exclusively in C until now. The addition of Rust could open new doors, making it easier for other developers to contribute to the open source project.
Liam Dawe:
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Linux kernel 6.1 is out now
Linus Torvalds has officially released the Linux kernel 6.1, and as usual there's absolutely tons of new features and fixes.
Jack Wallen:
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Initial Support for Rust in the Linux Kernel is Finally Released - Linux Magazine
The 6.1 LTS version of the Linux kernel, which includes initial support for Rust, has been made available for general usage.
Linus Torvalds finally announced that the latest LTS version of the Linux kernel (version 6.1) includes the initial support for the Rust programming language that has been hyped of late. This, of course, comes on the heels of what Torvalds calls the "merge window from hell," thanks to the holidays and his pre-holiday travel.
On this, Torvalds announced he would be very strict with the merge window rules, saying "The rules are that the pull requests sent to me during the merge window should have been ready _before_ the merge window and have seen some time in linux-next. No last-minute batch of experimental new development that hasn't been seen by our test automation."
Of course, the big news for Linux 6.1 is the inclusion of experimental Rust support. It's important to know that this is very much still in the early phase of development, so the implications aren't nearly as game-changing as you might think. This is the very basic implementation of Rust in the kernel, so don't expect to find new and improved Rust-built drivers functioning within the kernel.
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Linux 6.1 LTS release - Main changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures - CNX Software
Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.1, likely to be an LTS kernel, last Sunday:
So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I’m much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago when things didn’t seem to be slowing down.
Microsofters again:
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Rust: Officially Released in Linux 6.1 Kernel - Security Boulevard
At the weekend, Linus Torvalds hit the button, releasing Linux 6.1 to the world. Among other security features is support for writing parts of the kernel in Rust.
Last month, the NSA pleaded with devs to switch to memory-safe languages—such as Rust. The reason: Most security vulnerabilities are caused by bugs in memory usage.
Linux’s initial focus is to write new device drivers in Rust. In today’s SB Blogwatch, we love to oxidize.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Disney voice actors.
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno:
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Kernel 6.1: Multi-generational improvements
In our v6.0 blog post we mentioned that Rust for Linux support was pending for v6.1: its basic infrastructure is now merged.
Moving on to other exciting news, thanks to Google and community efforts, this release cycle brings the much-awaited Multi-Generational Least-Recently-Used lists (MGLRU) mechanism giving outstanding performance improvements. As presented by the Google ChromeOS team and in the Android mini-conference at this year's Linux Plumbers Conference, the enhancements provided by MGLRU include an overall app launch time decrease of around 47%, direct reclaiming efficiency improved to a maximum of 43%, kswapd's CPU usage dropped by an outstanding 92%, and more.
Another remarkable advance is the introduction of the Kernel Memory Sanitizer (KMSAN), helping developers worldwide improve security by adding a code testing mechanism based on compiler instrumentation (for now, Clang only) that will detect various issues including information leaks, uninitialized variables, and more.
Another very late coverage:
It's FOSS:
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FOSS Weekly #22.47: Kernel 6.1, Xfce 4.18, ArchBang and More Linux Stuff
The holiday season is about to begin. Several distributions and open source projects have released their final version of the year 2022. A few remaining ones will do it around Christmas before going for the year-end holidays.
Another architecture:
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Linux 6.1
I'm a little behind on stuff since I'm waiting for parts to get my T2 booting again (doing everything on my Mac laptop and my long-suffering Quad G5), but kernel version 6.1 came out, and there's some really good stuff on Power to mention.
But first the marquee general improvements: first, general support for Rust in kernel, which is now fairly mature on Power ISA (every Firefox build I make has it) and has obvious security benefits — assuming you're on a platform it supports, that is. The other change I think is a big one, possibly even bigger than Rust support, is the enhanced multi-generational LRU (Least Recently Used) memory page evictor: it's not on by default, but it ships as a configurable option, and some of the reports show some impressive performance wins. Finally, the new implementation of in-kernel maple trees means better cache hit rates and less lock contention for those kernel structures reimplemented with them (if you're 64-bit and have an MMU, which naturally we do), and I know people will appreciate the updates to AMD GPU support.