Kernel release status

The current development kernel is 2.5.67, which was released by Linus on April 7. This big patch includes more IDE work, a big x86-64 merge, more preparation for an enlarged dev_t type, a bunch of PCMCIA work, a new SCSI debug module, some IPSec patches, some driver model work, and many other fixes and updates. See the long-format changelog for the details.

Linus's BitKeeper repository contains the first steps in a process of marking user-space pointers with a new __user attribute. This attribute is meant to be used by static code checkers to find places where these pointers are being dereferenced directly. There also a small change to the semantics of msync(MS_ASYNC) (it no longer actually starts any I/O), some reverse-mapping VM speedups, a new requirement that gcc version 2.95 (or later) be used to compile the kernel, a big pile of small fixes from Alan Cox, an NFSv4 update, a big IA-64 update, and a number of other fixes.

The current prepatch from Alan Cox is 2.5.67-ac1; The most significant change here is the inclusion of Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz's new taskfile IDE I/O implementation (covered briefly here last week). "Handle with care, no naked flames, do not inhale...."

The current stable kernel is 2.4.20. Marcelo released the seventh 2.4.21 prepatch on April 4; it is, he says, hopefully the last prepatch in the 2.4.21 series (before the release candidates start). This prepatch includes e1000 and e100 updates, another large set of fixes from the -ac tree, a bluetooth update, some ext3 fixes, and a number of other tweaks.

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