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  6. Dates and figures

Dates and figures pertaining to the most recent Linux kernel versions

Linux
version		 number
of files¹		 lines of
source code²		 development
time		 number of
commits³		 diffstat⁴
2.6.25 23810 9232484
(8396250)		 83 days 12243 9738 files changed,
 777371 insertions(+),
 404514 deletions(-)
2.6.26 24270 9411724
(8535933)		 88 days 9941 8676 files changed,
 595393 insertions(+),
 416143 deletions(-)
2.6.27 24354 9709868
(8690888)		 88 days 10628 15127 files changed,
 1131171 insertions(+),
 912939 deletions(-)
2.6.28 25255 10195507
(9128690)		 76 days 9048 11090 files changed,
 975689 insertions(+),
 490047 deletions(-)
2.6.29 26668 11010647
(9871260)		 89 days 11718 10933 files changed,
 1347290 insertions(+),
 532055 deletions(-)
2.6.30 27879 11637173
(10419567)		 78 days 11989 10259 files changed,
 1086737 insertions(+),
 460298 deletions(-)
2.6.31 29111 12046317
(10778469)		 92 days 10883 8938 files changed,
 914315 insertions(+),
 504980 deletions(-)
¹ find . -type f -not -regex '\./\.git/.*' | wc -l
² find . -type f -not -regex '\./\.git.*' | xargs cat | wc -l (find . -name *.[hcS] -not -regex '\./\.git.*' | xargs cat | wc -l)
³ git-log --no-merges --pretty=oneline v2.6.(x-1)..v2.6.(x) | wc -l
⁴ git diff --shortstat v2.6.(x-1)..v2.6.(x)
⁵ As of 08/09/2009 8am

If you find these statistics interesting, the recently updated study "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast it is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It: An August 2009 Update" will provide more useful information, with further information on the key developers of 2.6.31 in the LWN.net article "Development statistics for 2.6.31"

Kernel Trends: What's coming in 2.6.32

Directly following the release of 2.6.31, the first, usually two-week long, merge window phase of the Linux kernel development cycle commences, during which the kernel development team incorporate the many changes for the next version of the kernel into the main development branch]. Numerous changes, some of which we have already mentioned, have already been prepared for this first phase of the next development cycle].

Among the particularly likely contenders is the DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device) replication solution mainly used in High-Availability (HA) environments. The VGA arbitration patches already mentioned in the Kernel Log are also likely to be merged with 2.6.32; in addition, the KVM developers have prepared numerous further improvements for integration. Microsoft's Hyper-V drivers are initially scheduled for inclusion into the staging area, which is also planned to accommodate rt3090, a further Wi-Fi driver for Ralink chip-sets.. A mail from the administrator of the staging branch lists a number of other proposed changes. Some drivers in the staging branch are being threatened with being thrown out because no one is maintaining the code. Greg Kroah-Hartman said "First off, drivers/staging/ is NOT a dumping ground for dead code. If no one steps up to maintain and work to get the code merged into the main portion of the kernel, the drivers will be removed". A fly in the ointment for the Hyper-V drivers is that they may be removed in Linux 2.6.33, after a lack of response from the Microsoft developers concerning maintenance.

Linux kernel development cycle

Thanks to the open development process and a long perusal of the tea leaves, The H and the Linux Weather Forecast maintained by the Linux Foundation are already in a position to talk about some of the new features likely to be part of the next kernel increment when a new kernel version is released. [...] (...more...)

Further likely contenders for integration into 2.6.32 are the patches for the run-time use of the power-saving techniques offered by I/O devices. – Find details about this "Core framework for run-time PM of I/O devices" in the article "Runtime power management" on LWN.net. The patches for adding the "data=guarded" mode to Ext3 we already discussed when introducing 2.6.30 missed the boat for 2.6.31 – the developers plan to give it another go with 2.6.32. The kernel hackers will probably also provide support for Intel's Simple Firmware Interface (SFI), which is planned to be used in the Moorestown platform tailored for smartphones, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and embedded environments.

In addition, Greg Kroah-Hartman has proposed devtmpfs for inclusion. The kernel uses it to create the device file system before udev, which is currently used for this purpose, takes over its administration. This is intended to simplify and speed up the boot process (see also the article "The return of devfs" on LWN.net). Some of the kernel developers, however, are far from enthusiastic about this idea, as it brings back memories from the time when devfs was given preference in 2.4/2.5 but didn't catch on and had lots of problems.

The Kernel Log in The H Open will, as usual, be reporting on the major changes integrated into the next kernel version in a "Coming in 2.6.32" mini series. In addition, the regular Kernel Log will summarise other developments in the Linux kernel field – these include new versions of the stable kernel series (2.6.x.y), which should, over the next few weeks, fix the odd bug or two overlooked by hackers and testers during 2.6.31 development.

Assuming that the kernel developers stick to their usual rhythm, Torvalds is likely to release Linux version 2.6.32 in mid to end November. A detailed summary of the major changes in 2.6.32 will then be published on The H Open in a Kernel Log like this one.

(thl/c't)

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