The Linux 7.2 kernel: nearly 600,000 lines of new code

On August 17, Linus Torvalds announced the release of the Linux 7.2 kernel. The release went ahead despite the fact that the number of incoming fixes, by his own admission, turned out to be “larger than one would like.” Even so, the release was deemed ready.

By LWN.net's assessment, the 7.2 development cycle was one of the most intense in the kernel's entire history. Nearly 600,000 lines of code were added to the new version — a figure that in itself speaks to how hard the community worked over the past period.

Traditionally, the arrival of each new release gives LWN.net an occasion to sum up the statistics: to see who contributed to development and to what extent, which companies stand behind the changes, and how the community that maintains the kernel is changing overall. Reviews like this help gauge not only the technical content of a release but also the dynamics of the development process itself — the distribution of effort between independent participants and corporate teams.

A detailed breakdown of the 7.2 cycle statistics is available in the original publication.

Source: LWN.net