linux/Documentation/process
Linus Torvalds 734bef548a Networking changes for 7.4.
Core & protocols
 ----------------
 
  - Continue the work on removing rtnl_lock dependencies:
     - per-netns ARP and ND neighbour tables, with the default settings
       now configurable per netns (inheritance from init_net is
       controlled by the new net.core.neigh_inherit_init_net sysctl)
     - RCU-protected configuration and rtnl_lock-less fill_info() for
       hsr, netkit, sit, vlan and vxlan devices
     - per-netns device unregistration for ip tunnel and gre devices
     - use the netdev instance lock instead of rtnl_lock when reading
       speed and duplex via sysfs
     - batch the flushing of uncached routes at device unregistration
       time, relieving rtnl_lock contention on netns dismantle.
 
  - Add hardware pacing offload support, admin-controlled via a new
    rtnetlink attribute, with sch_fq integration (implemented in idpf).
 
  - Re-segment BIG TCP GSO packets into GSO packets fitting the
    egress device limits instead of plain MSS-sized segments,
    improving throughput for mixed BIG TCP / non-BIG TCP paths
    by up to 70%.
 
  - Generate RSS keys that spread flows over all the RX queues; the
    previous random keys could leave some queues unused.
 
  - Optimize the bridge VLAN forwarding paths: cache the port-VLAN in fdb
    entries and consider only VLAN members when flooding, for ~10% more
    Mpps in the fdb forwarding path.
 
  - A few TCP/IP performance improvements aimed at efficient cache
    usage and reducing contention.
 
  - Add the TCP ROCCET congestion control, a CUBIC variant aimed at
    avoiding bufferbloat in cellular networks.
 
  - Continue the conversion of getsockopt callbacks to sockopt_t.
 
  - Add an ethtool command to list the front-facing ports of an
    interface, including SFP cages and modules, using the phy_port
    representation.
 
  - Enable BIG TCP support for bareudp tunnels.
 
  - Remove the IPV6_ADDRFORM socket option and disallow buggy TCP state
    transitions (listen() + shutdown() + connect() and connect() +
    connect(AF_UNSPEC) + listen()).
 
  - Remove most BUG_ON()s from core packet processing, replacing them
    with error paths.
 
 Wireless
 --------
 
  - Latency improvements, including lockless station get/dump and beacon
    updates, plus RTNL reduction and locking cleanups.
 
  - Infrastructure for non-station TX/RX with MLO.
 
  - NAN (Wi-Fi Aware) Instant Communication support and other NAN
    improvements.
 
  - Control frame Integrity Protocol (CIP) and protected TWT support.
 
  - Improvements for AP regulatory checks.
 
 Netfilter
 ---------
 
  - Disable br_netfilter in user namespaces and schedule it for removal
    in 2027.
 
  - Restrict the raw table in nft_compat to the specific family, hook and
    priority.
 
  - Prepare the flowtable for mixed IPv4-over-IPv6 tunneling (and
    vice versa).
 
  - Use GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT for most netfilter allocations, for better
    integration with memcg.
 
  - Allow discovering conntrack zone filtering support in ctnetlink
    dumps, and fix nfnetlink_hook handling of large dumps.
 
 Deletions
 ---------
 
  - Move the LLC type 2 sockets out of tree. There are no known users and
    the code attracts a never-ending stream of LLM-driven fixes.
 
 Device drivers
 --------------
 
  - New drivers:
     - Meta Platforms NIC (mpnic), the second-generation NIC from Meta
     - initial skeleton of the Nebula-matrix NICs driver (nbl)
     - X-Powers AC200/AC300 Fast Ethernet PHYs
 
  - Ethernet high-speed NICs:
     - Intel:
        - i40e: XDP metadata support for RX hash and VLAN tag
        - ice: expose the E825 TSPLL state via the DPLL subsystem
     - nVidia/Mellanox:
        - move the data direct infrastructure from IB to core, in
          preparation for netdev support.
        - reduce the memory used per offloaded TC rule
     - Meta (fbnic):
        - support large io_uring zero-copy RX buffers
     - Microsoft vNIC (mana):
        - add BQL support
 
  - Ethernet NICs consumer, and embedded:
     - Airoha:
        - LRO offload support
     - Cadence (macb):
        - context swapping for ringparam and MTU changes, avoiding
          buffer loss under memory pressure
     - Mucse (rnpgbe):
        - TX/RX and link status support
     - NXP (enetc):
        - SR-IOV improvements and VF support for ENETC v4
     - Qualcomm (ppe):
        - IPQ5424 support
     - Realtek PCI (r8169):
        - phylink support
        - RSS support for RTL8127
     - Renesas (ravb):
        - gPTP support for R-Car Gen4
     - Synopsys (stmmac):
        - XDP multi-buffer support on the TX side
        - tc mqprio hw queue priority offload
        - support for RK3568 SGMII, Allwinner H616 EMAC1, UltraRISC
          DP1000 and Qualcomm sa8255p
 
  - Ethernet switches:
     - Mediatek (mt7530):
        - fast age and change conduit support
     - Microchip (ksz):
        - support for KSZ8995XA/KS8995XA
     - Microchip (lan966x):
        - PCIe FDMA support, ~20x throughput increase in PCIe endpoint
     - Microchip (sparx5):
        - Time Aware Shaper (taprio) offload
     - Motorcomm (yt921x):
        - LED and SerDes PCS support
     - Realtek (rtl8365mb):
        - EEE support
 
  - Ethernet PHYs:
     - Broadcom:
        - enable jumbo frames on BCM54xx
     - Realtek:
        - support for RTL8261CE_CG and RTL8261D_VM
        - MDIO support for RTL838x and RTL839x
 
  - WiFi drivers:
     - Broadcom (brcmfmac):
        - FT/OKC roaming offload
     - Intel (iwlwifi):
        - UHR sniffer support
        - support for newer UEFI/BIOS tables
     - MediaTek (mt76):
        - mt7925 NAN improvements
        - offchannel/scan improvements and MLO fixes
     - Morse Micro (mm81x):
        - monitor mode support
     - Qualcomm (ath12k):
        - IPQ5332 platform infrastructure
     - Realtek (rtw88):
        - RTL8723BS support
        - SDIO TX performance improvements
     - Realtek (rtw89):
        - P2P_DEVICE support
        - BT-coex updates for RTL8922D
 
  - Bluetooth:
     - move H:4 reassembly into the Bluetooth core
     - add generic support for vendor packets
     - MGMT: add security level changed event
 
  - Bluetooth drivers:
     - btusb: support Bulk Serialization Mode
     - Intel: support Draco and Titan Lake, allow unsigned firmware
     - Mediatek: MT7928 support
     - Qualcomm: QCC2072 support
     - Broadcom: Synaptics 4384 support
 
 Signed-off-by: Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>
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Merge tag 'net-next-7.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next

Pull networking updates from Paolo Abeni:
 "This includes a significant number of low-priority fixes - especially
  in the NIC drivers area - that we deferred from the last few RCs in
  the previous cycle, which can't be easily outlined in the synopsis
  below.

  Core & protocols:

   - Continue the work on removing rtnl_lock dependencies:
      - per-netns ARP and ND neighbour tables, with the default settings
        now configurable per netns (inheritance from init_net is
        controlled by the new net.core.neigh_inherit_init_net sysctl)
      - RCU-protected configuration and rtnl_lock-less fill_info() for
        hsr, netkit, sit, vlan and vxlan devices
      - per-netns device unregistration for ip tunnel and gre devices
      - use the netdev instance lock instead of rtnl_lock when reading
        speed and duplex via sysfs
      - batch the flushing of uncached routes at device unregistration
        time, relieving rtnl_lock contention on netns dismantle.

   - Add hardware pacing offload support, admin-controlled via a new
     rtnetlink attribute, with sch_fq integration (implemented in idpf).

   - Re-segment BIG TCP GSO packets into GSO packets fitting the egress
     device limits instead of plain MSS-sized segments, improving
     throughput for mixed BIG TCP / non-BIG TCP paths by up to 70%.

   - Generate RSS keys that spread flows over all the RX queues; the
     previous random keys could leave some queues unused.

   - Optimize the bridge VLAN forwarding paths: cache the port-VLAN in
     fdb entries and consider only VLAN members when flooding, for ~10%
     more Mpps in the fdb forwarding path.

   - A few TCP/IP performance improvements aimed at efficient cache
     usage and reducing contention.

   - Add the TCP ROCCET congestion control, a CUBIC variant aimed at
     avoiding bufferbloat in cellular networks.

   - Continue the conversion of getsockopt callbacks to sockopt_t.

   - Add an ethtool command to list the front-facing ports of an
     interface, including SFP cages and modules, using the phy_port
     representation.

   - Enable BIG TCP support for bareudp tunnels.

   - Remove the IPV6_ADDRFORM socket option and disallow buggy TCP state
     transitions (listen() + shutdown() + connect() and connect() +
     connect(AF_UNSPEC) + listen()).

   - Remove most BUG_ON()s from core packet processing, replacing them
     with error paths.

  Wireless:

   - Latency improvements, including lockless station get/dump and
     beacon updates, plus RTNL reduction and locking cleanups.

   - Infrastructure for non-station TX/RX with MLO.

   - NAN (Wi-Fi Aware) Instant Communication support and other NAN
     improvements.

   - Control frame Integrity Protocol (CIP) and protected TWT support.

   - Improvements for AP regulatory checks.

  Netfilter:

   - Disable br_netfilter in user namespaces and schedule it for removal
     in 2027.

   - Restrict the raw table in nft_compat to the specific family, hook
     and priority.

   - Prepare the flowtable for mixed IPv4-over-IPv6 tunneling (and vice
     versa).

   - Use GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT for most netfilter allocations, for better
     integration with memcg.

   - Allow discovering conntrack zone filtering support in ctnetlink
     dumps, and fix nfnetlink_hook handling of large dumps.

  Deletions:

   - Move the LLC type 2 sockets out of tree. There are no known users
     and the code attracts a never-ending stream of LLM-driven fixes.

  Device drivers:

   - New drivers:
      - Meta Platforms NIC (mpnic), the second-generation NIC from Meta
      - initial skeleton of the Nebula-matrix NICs driver (nbl)
      - X-Powers AC200/AC300 Fast Ethernet PHYs

   - Ethernet high-speed NICs:
      - Intel:
         - i40e: XDP metadata support for RX hash and VLAN tag
         - ice: expose the E825 TSPLL state via the DPLL subsystem
      - nVidia/Mellanox:
         - move the data direct infrastructure from IB to core, in
           preparation for netdev support.
         - reduce the memory used per offloaded TC rule
      - Meta (fbnic):
         - support large io_uring zero-copy RX buffers
      - Microsoft vNIC (mana):
         - add BQL support

   - Ethernet NICs consumer, and embedded:
      - Airoha:
         - LRO offload support
      - Cadence (macb):
         - context swapping for ringparam and MTU changes, avoiding
           buffer loss under memory pressure
      - Mucse (rnpgbe):
         - TX/RX and link status support
      - NXP (enetc):
         - SR-IOV improvements and VF support for ENETC v4
      - Qualcomm (ppe):
         - IPQ5424 support
      - Realtek PCI (r8169):
         - phylink support
         - RSS support for RTL8127
      - Renesas (ravb):
         - gPTP support for R-Car Gen4
      - Synopsys (stmmac):
         - XDP multi-buffer support on the TX side
         - tc mqprio hw queue priority offload
         - support for RK3568 SGMII, Allwinner H616 EMAC1, UltraRISC
           DP1000 and Qualcomm sa8255p

   - Ethernet switches:
      - Mediatek (mt7530):
         - fast age and change conduit support
      - Microchip (ksz):
         - support for KSZ8995XA/KS8995XA
      - Microchip (lan966x):
         - PCIe FDMA support, ~20x throughput increase in PCIe endpoint
      - Microchip (sparx5):
         - Time Aware Shaper (taprio) offload
      - Motorcomm (yt921x):
         - LED and SerDes PCS support
      - Realtek (rtl8365mb):
         - EEE support

   - Ethernet PHYs:
      - Broadcom:
         - enable jumbo frames on BCM54xx
      - Realtek:
         - support for RTL8261CE_CG and RTL8261D_VM
         - MDIO support for RTL838x and RTL839x

   - WiFi drivers:
      - Broadcom (brcmfmac):
         - FT/OKC roaming offload
      - Intel (iwlwifi):
         - UHR sniffer support
         - support for newer UEFI/BIOS tables
      - MediaTek (mt76):
         - mt7925 NAN improvements
         - offchannel/scan improvements and MLO fixes
      - Morse Micro (mm81x):
         - monitor mode support
      - Qualcomm (ath12k):
         - IPQ5332 platform infrastructure
      - Realtek (rtw88):
         - RTL8723BS support
         - SDIO TX performance improvements
      - Realtek (rtw89):
         - P2P_DEVICE support
         - BT-coex updates for RTL8922D

   - Bluetooth:
      - move H:4 reassembly into the Bluetooth core
      - add generic support for vendor packets
      - MGMT: add security level changed event

   - Bluetooth drivers:
      - btusb: support Bulk Serialization Mode
      - Intel: support Draco and Titan Lake, allow unsigned firmware
      - Mediatek: MT7928 support
      - Qualcomm: QCC2072 support
      - Broadcom: Synaptics 4384 support"

* tag 'net-next-7.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next: (2126 commits)
  Bluetooth: btusb: disable by default Qualcomm multi-subsystem
  tipc: fix broadcast sender hang on last acker departure
  tipc: fix use-after-free of broadcast reception link at node release
  r8169: clear TX LPI on RTL8168h at link up after phylink conversion
  tun: Require CAP_NET_ADMIN to attach to an ownerless device
  net/sched/sch_cake: drop dead nla_nest_end() error check
  net/sched/sch_cake: widen buffer_used to u64
  net/sched/sch_cake: reduce parent backlog when clearing a tin
  net/sched/sch_cake: serialize reconfiguration with the datapath
  tg3: Add Datto SIRIS 5 1U Server to restart AER quirk table
  net/mlx5e: Stop asserting for RTNL when closing channels
  net: shrink the payload-only part of skb dataref to one bit
  net: wwan: iosm: validate msg_head before indexing msg_ring
  net: bgmac: rate limit RX error messages
  selftests: net: veth: test XDP_TX to a peer with GRO enabled
  veth: schedule the peer's NAPI after XDP_TX when only GRO is enabled
  pppoe: delete session hash entries by pointer match
  net: lan969x: don't disable hardirqs in fdma tx clear
  net: sparx5/lan969x: do not clobber the PSFP cycle timer update period
  net: lan969x: fix DSM calendar for empty taxis
  ...
2026-10-22 15:58:00 -10:00
..
debugging docs: kgdb: Fix path of driver options 2026-06-23 14:35:50 -06:00
1.Intro.rst Documentation: process: Capitalize Git, Quilt, and Mercurial consistently 2026-08-31 15:41:09 -06:00
2.Process.rst docs: process: use gender-neutral pronouns 2026-09-15 13:06:59 -06:00
3.Early-stage.rst Documentation: process: Capitalize Git, Quilt, and Mercurial consistently 2026-08-31 15:41:09 -06:00
4.Coding.rst coccinelle: update Coccinelle website URL 2026-08-23 22:12:10 +02:00
5.Posting.rst docs: process: use gender-neutral pronouns 2026-09-15 13:06:59 -06:00
6.Followthrough.rst docs: process: use gender-neutral pronouns 2026-09-15 13:06:59 -06:00
7.AdvancedTopics.rst Documentation: process: Capitalize Git, Quilt, and Mercurial consistently 2026-08-31 15:41:09 -06:00
8.Conclusion.rst
adding-syscalls.rst docs: fix 're-use' -> 'reuse' in documentation 2026-02-02 09:54:15 -07:00
applying-patches.rst
backporting.rst Documentation: process: Capitalize Git, Quilt, and Mercurial consistently 2026-08-31 15:41:09 -06:00
botching-up-ioctls.rst
changes.rst kbuild: compress the kernel with pigz if available 2026-09-26 00:16:36 +01:00
code-of-conduct-interpretation.rst Documentation/CoC: Spell out the TAB role in enforcement decisions 2025-03-12 16:31:48 -06:00
code-of-conduct.rst
coding-assistants.rst docs: remove Assisted-by references 2026-10-14 10:51:49 -06:00
coding-style.rst Documentation: Fix syntax of kmalloc_objs example in coding style doc 2026-06-01 12:48:20 -06:00
conclave.rst Documentation: Project continuity 2026-01-24 16:16:47 -08:00
contribution-maturity-model.rst
cve.rst
deprecated.rst string: Remove strncpy() from the kernel 2026-06-18 16:39:31 -07:00
development-process.rst
email-clients.rst docs: process: email-client: add Thunderbird "Toggle Line Wrap" extension 2026-01-06 14:38:28 -07:00
embargoed-hardware-issues.rst Documentation: process: Capitalize Git, Quilt, and Mercurial consistently 2026-08-31 15:41:09 -06:00
generated-content.rst docs: link AI coding assistants and tool-generated content pages 2026-07-22 14:36:03 -06:00
handling-regressions.rst docs: process: use gender-neutral pronouns 2026-09-15 13:06:59 -06:00
howto.rst docs: process: use gender-neutral pronouns 2026-09-15 13:06:59 -06:00
index.rst Documentation: security-bugs: explain what is and is not a security bug 2026-05-12 11:09:14 -06:00
kernel-docs.rst kernel-docs: Add book to process/kernel-docs.rst 2025-02-18 13:24:01 -07:00
kernel-driver-statement.rst
kernel-enforcement-statement.rst
license-rules.rst LICENSES: Explicitly allow SPDX-FileCopyrightText 2026-03-20 11:42:50 +01:00
maintainer-devicetree.rst docs: dt: maintainer: Add Devicetree and OF maintainer profile document 2026-08-07 09:38:47 -05:00
maintainer-handbooks.rst docs: maintainers_include: Only show main entry for profiles 2026-05-03 09:24:30 -06:00
maintainer-kvm-x86.rst
maintainer-netdev.rst docs: netdev: additional info requirements for bug fixes 2026-10-01 18:16:30 -07:00
maintainer-pgp-guide.rst Documentation: process: Capitalize Git, Quilt, and Mercurial consistently 2026-08-31 15:41:09 -06:00
maintainer-soc-clean-dts.rst docs: process: maintainer-soc-clean-dts: linux-next is decisive 2025-02-26 13:15:57 -06:00
maintainer-soc.rst Documentation/process: maintainer-soc: Mention expectation about dt-check-style 2026-08-10 11:25:09 +02:00
maintainer-tip.rst Documentation/maintainer-tip: Fix grammar 2026-03-03 09:59:23 -07:00
maintainers.rst docs: maintainers: add SPDX license to the file 2026-05-03 09:24:30 -06:00
management-style.rst
programming-language.rst A handful of small, late-arriving documentation fixes. 2026-02-15 10:47:59 -08:00
researcher-guidelines.rst Documentation: update mailing list addresses 2024-02-21 13:44:21 -07:00
security-bugs.rst docs: security-bugs: clarify some mandatory steps for AI reports 2026-08-04 16:24:50 +02:00
stable-api-nonsense.rst
stable-kernel-rules.rst docs: stable-kernel-rules: fix typo sent->send 2024-05-02 10:20:27 -06:00
submit-checklist.rst docs/.../submit-checklist: Use Documentation/admin-guide/abi.rst for cross-ref of README 2025-03-12 16:41:56 -06:00
submitting-patches.rst docs: remove Assisted-by references 2026-10-14 10:51:49 -06:00
threat-model.rst A handful of late-arriving fixes, a Japanese translation that was ready 2026-08-26 09:25:12 -07:00
volatile-considered-harmful.rst