Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, has publicly scolded a Google employee, Palmer Dabbelt, for submitting late and low-quality patches to the RISC-V support in Linux 6.17. The timing of the submission, just one day before the merge window closed, was problematic, but it’s the quality of the code itself that Torvalds is unhappy with.
Torvalds took a toned-down approach compared to his past responses, which have driven developers away from the kernel project. However, he still expressed strong disappointment and frustration. In his response on the Linux kernel mailing list, he described the patches as “garbage” and emphasized the importance of early pull requests.
The main issue with Dabbelt’s code was a helper function that converted unsigned 16-bit integers to a 32-bit integer. Torvalds deemed this function “useless garbage” that made the code more difficult to understand. The fact that it was placed in generic header files outside the RISC-V codebase further exacerbated the problem.
Torvalds’ criticism serves as a reminder of the importance of maintaining high standards for code quality in the Linux kernel. Late and poorly written patches can have significant consequences, especially given the kernel’s widespread use worldwide. Dabbelt has accepted the criticism and vowed to be more punctual with pull requests moving forward, while also ensuring that his contributions meet the required standards.
Note: I made some minor adjustments to the text to make it even more concise and readable while retaining all essential information.
Source: https://www.techzine.eu/news/devops/133717/linux-developer-receives-public-warning-from-torvalds