If you have questions, comments or concerns about the F.A.Q. please contact us at webmaster@kernel.org.
Linux kernel is released under GNU GPL version 2 and is therefore Free Software as defined by the Free Software Foundation. You may read the entire copy of the license in the COPYING file distributed with each release of the Linux kernel.
As kernels move from the "mainline" into the "stable" category, two things can happen:
If the kernel version you are using is marked "EOL," you should consider upgrading to the next major version as there will be no more bugfixes provided for the kernel version you are using.
Please check the Releases page for more info.
Long-term support ("LTS") kernels announced on the Releases page will be marked as "stable" on the front page if there are no other current stable kernel releases. This is done to avoid breaking automated parsers monitoring kernel.org with an expectation that there will always be a kernel release marked as "stable."
Linus Torvalds PGP-signs git repository tags for all new mainline kernel releases, however a separate set of PGP signatures needs to be generated by the stable release team in order to create downloadable tarballs. Due to timezone differences between Linus and the members of the stable team, there is usually a delay of several hours between when the new mainline release is tagged and when PGP-signed tarballs become available. The front page is updated once that process is completed.
All timestamps on kernel.org are in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). If you live in the western hemisphere your local time lags behind UTC. Under Linux/Unix, type date -u to get the current time in UTC.
Kernel.org accounts are usually reserved for subsystem maintainers or high-profile developers. It is absolutely not necessary to have an account on kernel.org to contribute to the development of the Linux kernel, unless you submit pull requests directly to Linus.
If you are listed in the MAINTAINERS file or have reasons to believe you should have an account on kernel.org because of the amount of your contributions, please refer to the accounts wiki page for the procedure to follow.
Probably not. Kernel.org deals with the Linux kernel, various distributions of the kernel and larger repositories of packages. We do not mirror individual projects, software, etc as we feel there are better places providing mirrors for those kinds of repositories. If you feel that kernel.org should mirror your project, please contact ftpadmin@kernel.org with the following information:
The Kernel.org admin team will then review your request and talk to you about it. As with any kind of account on kernel.org it's up to the discretion of the admin team.
We are using an access control system called gitolite, originally written and maintained by Sitaram Chamarty. We chose gitolite for a number of reasons:
As well at the time of deployment the code had undergone an external code review.
-rc kernel patches are generated from the base stable release.
For example: to create the 2.6.14-rc5 kernel, you must:
Yes, you want 2.6.13, not 2.6.14. Remember, that's an -rc kernel, as in, 2.6.14 doesn't exist yet. :)
Kernel version numbers of this form are distribution kernels, meaning they are modified kernels produced by distributions. Please contact the relevant distributor; or check out https://mirrors.kernel.org/.
See the Releases page for more info on distribution kernels.
Please see the Kernel Newbies website.
There is also a wealth of knowledge on many topics involving Linux at The Linux Documentation Project (http://www.tldp.org)
For finding or reporting bugs, look through the archives for the various Linux mailing lists, and if no specific list seems appropriate, try the browsing the Linux Kernel Mailing List.
FTP service was terminated on March 1, 2017. All content that used to be available via ftp.kernel.org can be accessed by browsing https://www.kernel.org/pub/. If you would like to use a command-line tool for accessing these files, you can do so with lftp:
lftp https://www.kernel.org/pub
The next kernel will be released when it is ready. There is no strict timeline for making releases, but if you really need an educated guess, visit the Linux kernel PHB Crystal Ball -- it tries to provide a ballpark guess based on previous kernel release schedule.
It is hard to predict with certainty, but you can either take a peek at linux-next or read the Linux Weather Forecast, where Jonathan Corbet provides a broad forecast of what will likely be included into the next mainline release.