AI Reviews Bring 'New Normal' to Linux Release Candidates: Lots of Bug Fixes

Linux kernel developers are adapting to an AI-driven coding and review process, with the release candidate for Linux 7.2 seeing a high volume of bug fixes. Linus Torvalds, the Linux kernel's creator, revealed that the 7.2-rc7 release is expected to be released the following weekend, barring any significant issues. While the kernel usually stabilizes well before reaching the -rc7 stage, AI/LLM-based tools are now playing a significant role in the development process, leading to a surge in bug fixes.

The HWMON hardware monitoring subsystem experienced several critical and high-severity bug fixes, while memory management issues were addressed with a longstanding race condition that led to a use-after-free problem. Btrfs, the Linux filesystem, restored its fixup worker infrastructure to prevent silent data loss. In the networking realm, numerous AI patches were incorporated, and the kernel was fortified against the Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability.

Linus Torvalds acknowledged the size of the 7.2-rc7 release, stating that it may not be ideal, but it is the "new normal" with a multitude of fixes, many of which were identified through the use of AI tools. Most of the fixes are relatively small, but a few larger patches include s390/zcrypt changes and btrfs's restoration of the fixup worker infrastructure. The modifications span across various components, such as drivers (GPU, sound, networking), filesystems, core networking, and architecture code.