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Linus Torvalds c1fe867b5b Updates for the timer/timekeeping core:
- A rework of the hrtimer subsystem to reduce the overhead for frequently
     armed timers, especially the hrtick scheduler timer.
 
       - Better timer locality decision
 
       - Simplification of the evaluation of the first expiry time by
         keeping track of the neighbor timers in the RB-tree by providing a
         RB-tree variant with neighbor links. That avoids walking the
         RB-tree on removal to find the next expiry time, but even more
         important allows to quickly evaluate whether a timer which is
         rearmed changes the position in the RB-tree with the modified
         expiry time or not. If not, the dequeue/enqueue sequence which both
         can end up in rebalancing can be completely avoided.
 
       - Deferred reprogramming of the underlying clock event device. This
         optimizes for the situation where a hrtimer callback sets the need
         resched bit. In that case the code attempts to defer the
         re-programming of the clock event device up to the point where the
         scheduler has picked the next task and has the next hrtick timer
         armed. In case that there is no immediate reschedule or soft
         interrupts have to be handled before reaching the reschedule point
         in the interrupt entry code the clock event is reprogrammed in one
         of those code paths to prevent that the timer becomes stale.
 
       - Support for clocksource coupled clockevents
 
       	The TSC deadline timer is coupled to the TSC. The next event is
       	programmed in TSC time. Currently this is done by converting the
       	CLOCK_MONOTONIC based expiry value into a relative timeout,
       	converting it into TSC ticks, reading the TSC adding the delta
       	ticks and writing the deadline MSR.
 
 	As the timekeeping core has the conversion factors for the TSC
 	already, the whole back and forth conversion can be completely
 	avoided. The timekeeping core calculates the reverse conversion
 	factors from nanoseconds to TSC ticks and utilizes the base
 	timestamps of TSC and CLOCK_MONOTONIC which are updated once per
 	tick. This allows a direct conversion into the TSC deadline value
 	without reading the time and as a bonus keeps the deadline
 	conversion in sync with the TSC conversion factors, which are
 	updated by adjtimex() on systems with NTP/PTP enabled.
 
      - Allow inlining of the clocksource read and clockevent write
        functions when they are tiny enough, e.g. on x86 RDTSC and WRMSR.
 
     With all those enhancements in place a hrtick enabled scheduler
     provides the same performance as without hrtick. But also other hrtimer
     users obviously benefit from these optimizations.
 
   - Robustness improvements and cleanups of historical sins in the hrtimer
     and timekeeping code.
 
   - Rewrite of the clocksource watchdog.
 
     The clocksource watchdog code has over time reached the state of an
     impenetrable maze of duct tape and staples. The original design, which was
     made in the context of systems far smaller than today, is based on the
     assumption that the to be monitored clocksource (TSC) can be trivially
     compared against a known to be stable clocksource (HPET/ACPI-PM timer).
 
     Over the years this rather naive approach turned out to have major
     flaws. Long delays between the watchdog invocations can cause wrap
     arounds of the reference clocksource. The access to the reference
     clocksource degrades on large multi-sockets systems dure to
     interconnect congestion. This has been addressed with various
     heuristics which degraded the accuracy of the watchdog to the point
     that it fails to detect actual TSC problems on older hardware which
     exposes slow inter CPU drifts due to firmware manipulating the TSC to
     hide SMI time.
 
     The rewrite addresses this by:
 
       - Restricting the validation against the reference clocksource to the
         boot CPU which is usually closest to the legacy block which
         contains the reference clocksource (HPET/ACPI-PM).
 
       - Do a round robin validation betwen the boot CPU and the other CPUs
         based only on the TSC with an algorithm similar to the TSC
         synchronization code during CPU hotplug.
 
       - Being more leniant versus remote timeouts
 
   - The usual tiny fixes, cleanups and enhancements all over the place
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Merge tag 'timers-core-2026-04-12' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip

Pull timer core updates from Thomas Gleixner:

 - A rework of the hrtimer subsystem to reduce the overhead for
   frequently armed timers, especially the hrtick scheduler timer:

     - Better timer locality decision

     - Simplification of the evaluation of the first expiry time by
       keeping track of the neighbor timers in the RB-tree by providing
       a RB-tree variant with neighbor links. That avoids walking the
       RB-tree on removal to find the next expiry time, but even more
       important allows to quickly evaluate whether a timer which is
       rearmed changes the position in the RB-tree with the modified
       expiry time or not. If not, the dequeue/enqueue sequence which
       both can end up in rebalancing can be completely avoided.

     - Deferred reprogramming of the underlying clock event device. This
       optimizes for the situation where a hrtimer callback sets the
       need resched bit. In that case the code attempts to defer the
       re-programming of the clock event device up to the point where
       the scheduler has picked the next task and has the next hrtick
       timer armed. In case that there is no immediate reschedule or
       soft interrupts have to be handled before reaching the reschedule
       point in the interrupt entry code the clock event is reprogrammed
       in one of those code paths to prevent that the timer becomes
       stale.

     - Support for clocksource coupled clockevents

       The TSC deadline timer is coupled to the TSC. The next event is
       programmed in TSC time. Currently this is done by converting the
       CLOCK_MONOTONIC based expiry value into a relative timeout,
       converting it into TSC ticks, reading the TSC adding the delta
       ticks and writing the deadline MSR.

       As the timekeeping core has the conversion factors for the TSC
       already, the whole back and forth conversion can be completely
       avoided. The timekeeping core calculates the reverse conversion
       factors from nanoseconds to TSC ticks and utilizes the base
       timestamps of TSC and CLOCK_MONOTONIC which are updated once per
       tick. This allows a direct conversion into the TSC deadline value
       without reading the time and as a bonus keeps the deadline
       conversion in sync with the TSC conversion factors, which are
       updated by adjtimex() on systems with NTP/PTP enabled.

     - Allow inlining of the clocksource read and clockevent write
       functions when they are tiny enough, e.g. on x86 RDTSC and WRMSR.

   With all those enhancements in place a hrtick enabled scheduler
   provides the same performance as without hrtick. But also other
   hrtimer users obviously benefit from these optimizations.

 - Robustness improvements and cleanups of historical sins in the
   hrtimer and timekeeping code.

 - Rewrite of the clocksource watchdog.

   The clocksource watchdog code has over time reached the state of an
   impenetrable maze of duct tape and staples. The original design,
   which was made in the context of systems far smaller than today, is
   based on the assumption that the to be monitored clocksource (TSC)
   can be trivially compared against a known to be stable clocksource
   (HPET/ACPI-PM timer).

   Over the years this rather naive approach turned out to have major
   flaws. Long delays between the watchdog invocations can cause wrap
   arounds of the reference clocksource. The access to the reference
   clocksource degrades on large multi-sockets systems dure to
   interconnect congestion. This has been addressed with various
   heuristics which degraded the accuracy of the watchdog to the point
   that it fails to detect actual TSC problems on older hardware which
   exposes slow inter CPU drifts due to firmware manipulating the TSC to
   hide SMI time.

   The rewrite addresses this by:

     - Restricting the validation against the reference clocksource to
       the boot CPU which is usually closest to the legacy block which
       contains the reference clocksource (HPET/ACPI-PM).

     - Do a round robin validation betwen the boot CPU and the other
       CPUs based only on the TSC with an algorithm similar to the TSC
       synchronization code during CPU hotplug.

     - Being more leniant versus remote timeouts

 - The usual tiny fixes, cleanups and enhancements all over the place

* tag 'timers-core-2026-04-12' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip: (75 commits)
  alarmtimer: Access timerqueue node under lock in suspend
  hrtimer: Fix incorrect #endif comment for BITS_PER_LONG check
  posix-timers: Fix stale function name in comment
  timers: Get this_cpu once while clearing the idle state
  clocksource: Rewrite watchdog code completely
  clocksource: Don't use non-continuous clocksources as watchdog
  x86/tsc: Handle CLOCK_SOURCE_VALID_FOR_HRES correctly
  MIPS: Don't select CLOCKSOURCE_WATCHDOG
  parisc: Remove unused clocksource flags
  hrtimer: Add a helper to retrieve a hrtimer from its timerqueue node
  hrtimer: Remove trailing comma after HRTIMER_MAX_CLOCK_BASES
  hrtimer: Mark index and clockid of clock base as const
  hrtimer: Drop unnecessary pointer indirection in hrtimer_expire_entry event
  hrtimer: Drop spurious space in 'enum hrtimer_base_type'
  hrtimer: Don't zero-initialize ret in hrtimer_nanosleep()
  hrtimer: Remove hrtimer_get_expires_ns()
  timekeeping: Mark offsets array as const
  timekeeping/auxclock: Consistently use raw timekeeper for tk_setup_internals()
  timer_list: Print offset as signed integer
  tracing: Use explicit array size instead of sentinel elements in symbol printing
  ...
2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
arch Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
block for-7.1/block-20260411 2026-04-13 15:51:31 -07:00
certs Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument 2026-02-21 17:09:51 -08:00
crypto CRC updates for 7.1 2026-04-13 17:36:04 -07:00
Documentation Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
drivers Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
fs Driver core changes for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-13 19:03:11 -07:00
include Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
init Kbuild/Kconfig updates for 7.1 2026-04-14 09:18:40 -07:00
io_uring for-7.1/io_uring-20260411 2026-04-13 16:22:30 -07:00
ipc Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument 2026-02-21 17:09:51 -08:00
kernel Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
lib Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -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 for-7.1/block-20260411 2026-04-13 15:51:31 -07:00
net Crypto library updates for 7.1 2026-04-13 17:31:39 -07:00
rust Power management updates for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-13 19:47:52 -07:00
samples Driver core changes for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-13 19:03:11 -07:00
scripts Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
security Crypto library updates for 7.1 2026-04-13 17:31:39 -07:00
sound ASoC: Fixes for v7.0 2026-04-09 07:00:53 +02:00
tools Kbuild/Kconfig updates for 7.1 2026-04-14 09:18:40 -07:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt vfs-7.1-rc1.bh.metadata 2026-04-13 12:46:42 -07:00
.clang-format Devicetree updates for v7.0: 2026-02-11 18:27:08 -08:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig
.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 kbuild: rust: provide an option to inline C helpers into Rust 2026-03-30 02:03:52 +02:00
.mailmap MAINTAINERS, mailmap: Change Ulf Hansson's email 2026-04-07 14:17:48 +02:00
.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
CREDITS MAINTAINERS: remove Thomas Falcon from IBM ibmvnic 2026-03-05 07:35:45 -08:00
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 Updates for the timer/timekeeping core: 2026-04-14 10:27:07 -07:00
Makefile Kbuild/Kconfig updates for 7.1 2026-04-14 09:18:40 -07:00
README docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00

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