Welcome to the LWN.net Weekly Edition for August 20, 2026

• Debian weighs eight options in vote on LLM usage: after much discussion, Debian developers are voting on what position the project should take on the use of LLM-based tools.
• Representing Python paths using pathlib: Trey Hunner wants Python developers to stop representing filesystem paths as strings.
• Bootstrappable builds: how and why: building a modern Linux user space from a tiny seed.
• Fedora prepares for the end of AF_ALG: the upcoming Fedora 45 release will restrict use of the kernel's user-space interface (AF_ALG) to the Crypto API.
• 128-Bit page tables for Arm: a patch series to add support for 128-bit PTEs on Arm, just in case 72PB of RAM is not enough.
• BPF, continuous testing, and stable kernels: an update on the status of the BPF testing infrastructure.
• Development statistics for the 7.2 kernel: a look at one of the busiest development cycles in kernel history.

This week's edition also includes these inner pages:

• Brief items: Brief news items from throughout the community.
• Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

Please enjoy this week's edition, and, as always, thank you for supporting LWN.net.