'Fairly bad core bug' crushed in Linux 4.4-rc5

Linux Lord Linus Torvalds says the fourth release candidate of Linux 4.4 contained “a fairly bad core bug” that's since been squashed, but may not have rung many alarm bells anyway.

“Another week, another rc,” Torvalds writes on the Linux Kernel mailing list, before going on to say that development work is progressing as usual save for “... a fairly bad core bug that was introduced in rc4 that is now fixed in rc5”.

Torvalds declares that bug “a bit embarrassing” but added “I don't think that many people actually ever hit the problem.”

Problem? What problem? Maybe this was the problem.

Torvalds' next problem is deciding when to schedule the release of version 4.4. He's tossing up pausing things for a week to let people enjoy the season, or proceeding at the usual pace and waiting a week before opening the version 4.5 merge window.

Either way, kernel coders will get a week or so off at a time of year it makes lots of sense to down keyboards. Speaking of which … ®