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Linus Torvalds 11260c335e sched_ext: Changes for v7.3
This depends on the arena argument support in the BPF tree and should be
 pulled after the scheduler core and BPF pulls. The patches based on bpf-next
 were kept on a separate branch which was merged into for-7.3 just now. The
 same merged result was in linux-next for several days.
 
 Most of this cycle completes the enqueue-path support for hierarchical
 sub-scheduling, which makes sub-scheduler support feature complete: a root
 BPF scheduler can now hand a cgroup subtree over to a nested sub-scheduler
 together with revocable CPU grants, and the sub-scheduler owns all
 scheduling decisions for its tasks on those CPUs.
 
 Development volume was high and a number of changes plugging holes in the
 new support landed late in the cycle. Also included are core scheduling
 fixes that were completed too late for the v7.2 release and are routed
 through this pull request.
 
 - Sub-scheduler CPU delegation:
 
   - Parent schedulers now grant and revoke per-CPU capabilities (enqueueing,
     preemption, CPU frequency control) on their children, enforced on every
     path a scheduler can reach a CPU through. Previously only dispatching
     could be delegated; this lets sub-schedulers fully schedule their CPUs.
 
   - Rescue execution: a task whose scheduler doesn't have access to the CPUs
     the task needs to run on starved until the watchdog ejected the whole
     scheduler. The kernel now runs such tasks directly on a small bandwidth
     budget, turning a scheduler-killing failure into bounded degradation.
 
   - Cgroup integration: tasks migrating across a sub-scheduler boundary
     weren't re-homed to the new owner, causing wrong-scheduler scheduling
     and a use-after-free. Sub-schedulers now take over their cgroup subtree
     and receive its cgroup callbacks.
 
   - Arena objects now cross the kernel/BPF boundary as typed pointer
     arguments, translated transparently by the BPF tree's new arena argument
     support, replacing untyped arguments with manual translation.
 
   - scx_qmap now demonstrates full hierarchical sub-scheduling.
 
 - Robustness improvements: the abort path is now NMI-safe, fixing deadlocks
   when errors are raised from NMI context and making hardlockup recovery
   direct. Reenqueue loops that could monopolize a CPU ahead of the watchdog
   now eject the offending scheduler, and stalls are blamed on the scheduler
   actually responsible.
 
 - Hardening: BPF-writable arena memory is validated before kernel use, and
   task slice and vtime writes got explicit synchronization rules, closing
   corruption vectors open to buggy or malicious schedulers.
 
 - Core scheduling: sched_ext dispatching can drop the rq lock inside the
   core-wide pick, which let interleaving selections corrupt each other's
   state and hard-hang the machine. The selection now restarts when the lock
   was released. The task ordering callback was also invoked with its
   arguments swapped, and the default ordering is updated to work across
   sub-scheduler boundaries. The fixes are marked for stable.
 
 - Other fixes headed for stable: a task init leak on fork failure during
   enable, tooling compat macros that silently failed to detect newer
   kernels, and a crash on reenqueueing against a destroyed dispatch queue.
 
 - Tooling: scx_pair moves off deprecated callbacks, and the deprecated
   scx_bpf_cpu_rq() kfunc is removed.
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Merge tag 'sched_ext-for-7.3' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/sched_ext

Pull sched_ext updates from Tejun Heo:
 "Most of this cycle completes the enqueue-path support for hierarchical
  sub-scheduling, which makes sub-scheduler support feature complete: a
  root BPF scheduler can now hand a cgroup subtree over to a nested
  sub-scheduler together with revocable CPU grants, and the
  sub-scheduler owns all scheduling decisions for its tasks on those
  CPUs.

  Development volume was high and a number of changes plugging holes in
  the new support landed late in the cycle. Also included are core
  scheduling fixes that were completed too late for the v7.2 release and
  are routed through this pull request.

  Sub-scheduler CPU delegation:

   - Parent schedulers now grant and revoke per-CPU capabilities
     (enqueueing, preemption, CPU frequency control) on their children,
     enforced on every path a scheduler can reach a CPU through.
     Previously only dispatching could be delegated; this lets
     sub-schedulers fully schedule their CPUs.

   - Rescue execution: a task whose scheduler doesn't have access to the
     CPUs the task needs to run on starved until the watchdog ejected
     the whole scheduler. The kernel now runs such tasks directly on a
     small bandwidth budget, turning a scheduler-killing failure into
     bounded degradation.

   - Cgroup integration: tasks migrating across a sub-scheduler boundary
     weren't re-homed to the new owner, causing wrong-scheduler
     scheduling and a use-after-free. Sub-schedulers now take over their
     cgroup subtree and receive its cgroup callbacks.

   - Arena objects now cross the kernel/BPF boundary as typed pointer
     arguments, translated transparently by the BPF tree's new arena
     argument support, replacing untyped arguments with manual
     translation.

   - scx_qmap now demonstrates full hierarchical sub-scheduling.

  Other fixes and updates:

   - Robustness improvements: the abort path is now NMI-safe, fixing
     deadlocks when errors are raised from NMI context and making
     hardlockup recovery direct. Reenqueue loops that could monopolize a
     CPU ahead of the watchdog now eject the offending scheduler, and
     stalls are blamed on the scheduler actually responsible.

   - Hardening: BPF-writable arena memory is validated before kernel
     use, and task slice and vtime writes got explicit synchronization
     rules, closing corruption vectors open to buggy or malicious
     schedulers.

   - Core scheduling: sched_ext dispatching can drop the rq lock inside
     the core-wide pick, which let interleaving selections corrupt each
     other's state and hard-hang the machine. The selection now restarts
     when the lock was released. The task ordering callback was also
     invoked with its arguments swapped, and the default ordering is
     updated to work across sub-scheduler boundaries. The fixes are
     marked for stable.

   - Other fixes headed for stable: a task init leak on fork failure
     during enable, tooling compat macros that silently failed to detect
     newer kernels, and a crash on reenqueueing against a destroyed
     dispatch queue.

   - Tooling: scx_pair moves off deprecated callbacks, and the
     deprecated scx_bpf_cpu_rq() kfunc is removed"

* tag 'sched_ext-for-7.3' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/sched_ext: (144 commits)
  sched_ext: Drop the dead SCX_DEQ_CORE_SCHED_EXEC test in dequeue_task_scx()
  sched_ext: Make core-sched task ordering hierarchy-aware
  sched_ext: Use runnable_at for the default core-sched task ordering
  sched_ext: Fix inverted ops.core_sched_before() invocation
  sched_ext: Move the config-off sub-cap kfunc stubs into sub.c
  sched_ext: Rename balance-era identifiers to dispatch terms
  sched_ext: Drop the stale keep_prev fixup in dispatch_pick()
  sched_ext: Keep kick_sync waiting on the rq's own CPU
  sched_ext: Make SCHED_CLASS_EXT select GENERIC_ALLOCATOR
  sched_ext/scx_flatcg: Fix cvtime true-up on slice expiry
  sched_ext: Don't BUG_ON a destroyed DSQ in process_deferred_reenq_users
  sched_ext: Fix scx_bpf_dsq_move_to_local___v2 compat detection
  sched_ext: Make scx_bpf_events() read the calling scheduler's counters
  sched_ext: Drop unlocked scx_rq_clock_invalidate() from scx_root_disable()
  selftests/sched_ext: Fix flaky ddsp failure tests on busy systems
  selftests/sched_ext: Make numa idle validation race-free
  sched_ext: Fix scx_bpf_dsq_reenq___compat kfunc extern prototype
  sched_ext/scx_flatcg: expire cached hweights on weight changes
  sched_ext: Fix exit_task leak on fork failure during enable
  sched_ext: fix stale references in doc comments
  ...
2026-08-20 11:01:37 -07:00
arch Summary 2026-08-20 08:46:41 -07:00
block fscrypt updates for 7.3 2026-08-17 19:04:16 -07:00
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto This update includes the following changes: 2026-08-19 17:25:42 -07:00
Documentation sched_ext: Changes for v7.3 2026-08-20 11:01:37 -07:00
drivers Networking changes for 7.3. 2026-08-20 08:16:04 -07:00
fs Summary 2026-08-20 08:46:41 -07:00
include sched_ext: Changes for v7.3 2026-08-20 11:01:37 -07:00
init sched_ext: Changes for v7.3 2026-08-20 11:01:37 -07:00
io_uring io_uring/rsrc: reject overflowing regvec bvec byte counts 2026-08-12 19:53:35 -06:00
ipc vfs-7.3-rc1.lookup 2026-08-17 12:03:34 -07:00
kernel sched_ext: Changes for v7.3 2026-08-20 11:01:37 -07:00
lib Summary 2026-08-20 08:46:41 -07:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm memblock: updates for 7.3-rc1 2026-08-18 10:03:54 -07:00
net Summary 2026-08-20 08:46:41 -07:00
rust lsm/stable-7.3 PR 20260814 2026-08-19 16:28:23 -07:00
samples tracing updates for v7.3: 2026-08-19 14:06:14 -07:00
scripts It has been a not-too-busy cycle for docs; here's the highlights: 2026-08-20 10:31:50 -07:00
security integrity-v7.3 2026-08-19 17:17:17 -07:00
sound sound updates for 7.3-rc1 2026-08-19 10:04:59 -07:00
tools sched_ext: Changes for v7.3 2026-08-20 11:01:37 -07:00
usr usr: Correct a spelling by changing a letter 2026-08-05 14:51:58 +02:00
virt KVM/arm64 fixes for 7.2, take #2 2026-07-15 12:13:30 +02:00
.clang-format clang-format: fix formatting of guard() and scoped_guard() statements 2026-05-28 21:24:41 -07:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-04-02 16:48:25 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
.mailmap There is a known WiFi/mt76 regression, waiting for a complete fix that 2026-08-13 08:37:26 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS It has been a not-too-busy cycle for docs; here's the highlights: 2026-08-20 10:31:50 -07:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS It has been a not-too-busy cycle for docs; here's the highlights: 2026-08-20 10:31:50 -07:00
Makefile Kbuild/Kconfig updates for 7.3 2026-08-18 09:26:31 -07:00
README README: remove out of place emdashes 2026-07-15 10:51:29 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer: Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher: Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert: Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer: Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator: Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer: Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor: Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer: Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant: LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst