Linus Torvalds expresses concerns over unusually large Linux 7.0 RC6 patch count

The sixth release candidate for Linux 7.0 sees a spike in fixes, potentially driven by AI coding tools, leaving the final launch date uncertain.

Linus Torvalds has just released the sixth release candidate of Linux 7.0 for developers to try out. If all goes well, next week’s release candidate should be the final version before a final release the week after. This week’s patches came in thicker than usual, which Torvalds suspects could be linked to improved AI coding tools. At this point, he even said he’s feeling a bit nervous about the number of patches, this late in the cycle, and isn’t making any promises for a timely Linux 7.0 release.

Last week, we reported that Linux 7.0 development had started to calm down with the fifth release candidate; however, Torvalds notes that this was a mirage, and RC6 is back with many more fixes than are normal at this point in the release cycle. He said nothing seems particularly alarming, as many fixes are small, but the consistently larger-than-normal commits are not giving him the “warm and fuzzies.”

In this release, filesystem fixes stand out, with many of the diffstats being filesystem or VFS fixes. Among these, patches for EXT4 and XFS led the way. Torvalds said that there were the usual driver fixes too for GPU, RDMA, networking, sound, and more, but these only made up a third of the changes.

Topping off the post, Torvalds said:

“At the same time, while we have noticeably many more fixes than usual, most of it is very small and none of it strikes me as being very scary. A lot of pretty trivial - but real - fixes. I wonder if some of it is just AI tools being better - and we've hit some "bump" related to that.

Anyway, exactly because it's just "more than usual" rather than feeling *worse* than usual, I don't currently feel this merits extending the release, and I still hope that next weekend will be the last rc. But it's just a bit unnerving how this release doesn't want to calm down, so no promises.”

We have been speculating for the whole cycle that it could be extended, but even now we do not truly know what will end up happening. Interestingly, this prediction website believes the cycle will be extended, based on historical development time, so that’s something.

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Posted Monday 30 March 2026 at 5:43 pm AEST (my time).

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