YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Linux 7.3 Released

203 points cjd8 2 hours ago 77 comments

mdspan 2 hours ago | parent

First time hearing about failfs. Does it have a niche use case or is it just for testing?

degamad 2 hours ago | parent

Reading the description, looks like a stricter chroot for purely-network applications, maybe?

rustyhancock 2 hours ago | parent

It looks like it's useful for sandboxing by preventing any possible filesystem movement.

https://docs.kernel.org/next/filesystems/failfs.html

rwmj 2 hours ago | parent

For sandboxing: https://hackaday.com/2026/08/07/this-filesystem-is-born-to-f...

A process which is chrooted into failfs cannot open new files. It is limited to the set of filesystem file descriptors it already has open (presumably set up before the chroot or inherited into the process from some container runtime).

shevy-java 1 hour ago | parent

So basically more fine tuned jail controls.

I'd love if chrooting would become easier. In particular a requirement to have bash or a specific shell is annoying; imo a simple REPL should suffice already there. I wrote one that works years ago, need to look into what is all needed for a chroot (I always used bash for this but I'd also want to change to my own shell eventually).

rwmj 1 hour ago | parent

We wanted capabilities[1]. Instead we get this over-complicated series of system calls with no design consistency that you have to use very carefully, else they can be bypassed (see the list of caveats on the failfs page).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability-based_security

saint-evan 1 hour ago | parent

Failfs is a pretty cool pseudo-filesystem where every path lookup fails. So if yu place a statically-linked process into failfs with ONLY pre-allocated file-descriptors at process birth, close down unneeded sockets and enforce a default-deny firewall discipline, compromised applications are effectively isolated and unable to access local files or spawn shells during an exploit. An attacker can NOT move adjacently from the exploited process to other parts of the system because to do so they'll need to navigate from root and that would fail since yu set root as failfs and you've got yourself a pure, isolated data-processing pipe that can only interact via the exact file descriptors it was given!!

Unfortunately, yu can't use dynamically-linked apps anyway since failfs would break absolute path resolution loading system libraries.

EDIT:: But I guess yu could put a statically linked app on the socket, wrap it in failfs and gave it proxy requests to a dynamically-linked app process if your app must use something like python.

wpyoga 1 hour ago | parent

Is it possible to load the dynamic libraries before fork()ing and somehow prevent the path lookup and library loading? This will open up new possibilities for hardened security models.

saint-evan 1 hour ago | parent

That's a fun idea but take python (very familiar)... It's very deeply dynamic and even if yu run imports at the top of your code yu still have many large libs with lazy code execution baked deep inside their internal functions so that assumes yu actually know what code paths the application will hit later. More importantly this goes in the opposite direction of Python's lazy imports thingy.. basically you've got a bomb and yu wouldn't wanna do that. Also, imagine the startup time for large apps. I'd just put a statically-linked binary in front and proxy back to the dynamically-linked process if I can't rewrite the main app in something like Go or Rust.

pandemic_region 1 hour ago | parent

Sorry man I've been out of the loop with the hip crowd for a good while, but is "yu" now a thing like "thru" once was?

saint-evan 1 hour ago | parent

no biggie... I just like how 'yu' looks. It's an aesthetic.

pandemic_region 1 hour ago | parent

Thanks, at first I thought it was the name of another tool or library ;)

asimovDev 5 minutes ago | parent

I immediately parsed it as some CLI i don't know about as well

jack_pp 1 hour ago | parent

idk if it's just me but deliberately using "yu" instead of "you" is annoying and makes me not really take whatever you say seriously

zero_k 1 hour ago | parent

I'd love to have one that randomly fails, so we could debug e.g. databases and other apps that are supposed to be resilient. I'd call it "havocfs". Doesn't corrupt data, just randomly fails reads/writes/etc. Some software is supposed to handle that gracefully. Would be a great test tool...

sippingabonedry 2 hours ago | parent

Linux has an in-kernel SMB server like Solaris? When the hell did this happen?

sirnicolaz 2 hours ago | parent

> This release is a record-breaker on all fronts; it brought in 18,765 non-merge commits from 3,021 developers, 807 of whom were first-time kernel developers.

hopefully without kernel-slops :P good job everyone btw!

colesantiago 1 hour ago | parent

I believe this is the first vibe coded or slop release of the kernel from Linus using AI.

Update accordingly.

LtdJorge 1 hour ago | parent

It might be written by the LLM, but I'm pretty sure Linus hasn't vibe coded it. Do you think he won't look at the output and nitpick to death?

sedan_baklazhan 1 hour ago | parent

There was a recent proof that he did

pandemic_region 1 hour ago | parent

https://lwn.net/Articles/1100449/

During peer review a race condition was found in his code. Would he have spotted it himself when writing the code manually? Maybe, maybe not. He's only human, and the AI is only AI.

LiamPowell 1 hour ago | parent

I wonder if humans would have spotted this one if no one knew a LLM wrote it. Obviously it's nearly impossible to test that though.

red75prime 1 hour ago | parent

It's not necessarily a human who found this one. Coding assistants are so widespread that people don't bother mentioning them.

sedan_baklazhan 1 hour ago | parent

Such LLM defensive positions seems fun to me for some reason.

rfgplk 1 hour ago | parent

Opus/Fable/Astra/Sol are outright better than Linus.

aa-jv 1 hour ago | parent

I think this is yet another case where Linus is leading the pack and showing the industry how to adapt to new technology, and indeed, adopt standard best practices for its application.

I'm in the "AI is great!" optimist camp myself, which is how I felt in the very early days of "this little crappy hobbyist Linux kernel thing that'll never go anywhere important" minix-list flamewars.

Once again, Linus demonstrating that those who understand the code, own the code.

outadoc 1 hour ago | parent

"Showing the industry how to adapt to new technology", as in, don't blindly trust whatever the big probability box committed to your repo but actually perform a good code review with the same standards as human-written code?

I think this says way more about the industry being completely out of touch and less about Linus leading the pack.

aa-jv 1 hour ago | parent

Yes, usually when the flock is lost in the wilderness, its leaders need to raise their heads and lead the way. Linus is applying the same great engineering methods he's always had.

teekert 1 hour ago | parent

Please stop with the "AI assisted development" = "Vibe coding slop" narrative. It comes across as pretty dumb (sorry, I mean "uninformed") nowadays. Please experiment with LLMs, find your way (or don't, but), learn to talk about it in an informed way and don't post obviously inflammatory one liners that are essentially just "AI is bad m'kay".

There are intelligent arguments against using AI, your comment is not referring to any of them.

In short: Linus feels responsible for the quality of the Kernel, he expects the same of other devs. He does not care about the tools used to generate the code. He (or some other human) will call out submitted slop, whether LLM generated or human generated.

jillesvangurp 1 hour ago | parent

It's increasingly the other way around, actually. You are being sloppy if you don't use the tools available to you. Including AI, static code analysis, testing tools, etc. to check if your work is any good. That doesn't mean you have to surrender to the AI tools and blindly generate everything and then commit without testing or any form of validation. That would be sloppy. But then if you manually write your code and did that, that would be sloppy too. Whether you manually type in all your code or have it generated is immaterial. What matters is the work you do to ensure it all works as advertised and is fit to be merged.

The kernel developers are probably a bit further in their thinking then some developers. They've been dealing with many thousands of contributors for decades. Git was invented by Linus Torvalds specifically to deal with ensuring only the best patches make it into the kernel.

Somebody posted a video with Greg Kroah-Hartman last week or so commenting on how he's been dealing with all the AI generated security bug reports. His key point is that AI generated reports are meaningless unless they come with a suggested fix as well. If you are going to generate the report, you might as well generate the fix. And it's a lot easier for him to review if the fix fixes anything worth fixing then to piece together a fix from a lengthy report. The larger the report, the less likely it is to get any attention. If the person contributing can't articulate why the fix is needed or how it works, they just reject the change and toss it back. That strikes me as very pragmatic. Judge a change on its merits. Not on how it was created. A report without a suggested fix is relatively meaningless.

teekert 38 minutes ago | parent

100%. I think there are a lot of people here on HN that are very threatened by LLMs, rightly so. I'm also afraid of my future and my day-to-day work has already changed from "loosing myself in a flow state solving technical puzzles" to "micro-managing LLMs". I don't like it, but hope I will learn to, at some point, or perhaps I find different work. I feel like I don't have a choice right now but to adapt and learn.

The answer to this issue is not to equate any code generated by LLMs to slop. It is just not true. As you say, the latest models often flag things that I would definitely miss, or they simplify my code significantly with a just-released feature. I see benefits to code quality all day from using LLMs.

I'm just saying (not to you but to comments below): Lets keep it constructive, which means: lets keep it real, as in close to truth. Yes vibe coding exists, and it has it's place (ie in prototyping?). But not in the kernel, and also not in my own line of works. LLMs do have a place there though.

MisterMunchkin 35 minutes ago | parent

There’s such a breadth of slop quality. Like I’ve seen people using ChatGPT with thinking disabled, which is just garbage. But you can also use an LLM to do automated testing of your product, in a real browser window, where it actually sees how it looks via screenshots. That’s insanely useful.

And it can read all of the logs in the backend and browser simultaneously and understand what is causing issues. I’ve used that a few times and it is such a game changer for weird bugs.

colesantiago 42 minutes ago | parent

no.

slop is slop.

teekert 35 minutes ago | parent

Hard to argue against X = X. Just curious, are you are including human slop in your statement?

colesantiago 25 minutes ago | parent

The rate at which AI introduces bugs is higher than human ones about 1.7x more bugs than humans.

Human slop is equally as bad, but this is not what Linus chose in this case, he chose to accept the higher risk of 1.7x more bugs using LLMs which lead to the introduction of LLM slop.

I don't care if it is Linus or anyone else, slop is slop human or not, with LLMs it is far worse.

amelius 1 hour ago | parent

Is Linus still checking every commit?

Hendrikto 1 hour ago | parent

That‘s what subsystem maintainers are for.

secondcoming 1 hour ago | parent

That's a big ask for those maintainers who are volunteers

cromka 47 minutes ago | parent

Most, if not all, are employed by different companies or Kernel.org.

lexicality 45 minutes ago | parent

It's a big ask to expect people to do the thing they volunteered to do and can step back from doing any time they want?

patadura 28 minutes ago | parent

Do people still think that Linux is being developed by unpaid hackers in a garage?

cjd8 1 hour ago | parent

Only if he finds something odd in the pull request summary.

sedan_baklazhan 28 minutes ago | parent

BTW, here we are: LOC metric everyone made fun of has suddenly became commit count metric.

Features? Bugfixes? What? Look how many commits we've got!

machomaster 17 minutes ago | parent

1. They weren't counting LOC though, but commits. It's a totally different metric.

2. This type of stat was always being shared with each new release, giving a general indication of the size of changes. They did not started posting it all of a sudden due to AI.

theden 2 hours ago | parent

SMB improvements (https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/lin...), I've moved to borg, but depending on how this goes may give time machine another try:

   - Add opt-in Apple Time Machine support

     Implement the AAPL negotiation and related Finder, stream,
     COPYCHUNK, sparse-file, CHANGE_NOTIFY, and RPC compatibility
     required for Time Machine shares, allowing macOS backupd to use
     ksmbd for backups
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-KSMBD

Still sucks that it has to be reverse-engineered

raverbashing 1 hour ago | parent

Wait so Time Machine works over SMB? Huh

robin_reala 1 hour ago | parent

Yep. My household backs up to a Synology NAS via Time Machine: https://kb.synology.com/en-global/DSM/tutorial/How_to_back_u...

tonyedgecombe 1 hour ago | parent

Works might be a stretch. Every time I hear someone complaining about Time Machine it turns out they are trying to do it over SMB.

egorfine 1 hour ago | parent

For like 15 years.

teekert 1 hour ago | parent

Over my life I have found that with any Apple technology it may work great with anything outside Apple's control... Until it doesn't, usually out of nowhere.

My father is mostly on Apple and tries to use his iPad as a PC, ie with files and "the filesystem", he tries to get out of using extra iCloud for pictures (using Proton, or he asks me about Immich, or he wants to use an external HDD, or use Synology Photos and backup). He's mostly on the iPad + keyboard because it's a nicely managed device update-wise and "what I can install"-wise, virus-wise.

But I recent told him: Just give up. Buy (rent!) the storage, you are too depended on me, there is always something with the non-Apple solutions. Yes, your iTunes library is a mess on the filesystem, just don't look at it through anything else than "Music". Yes, Proton Drive eats 400 GB of your iPad storage now, I don't know how to trim that regularly. I'm sorry, it's either Linux and I can help set some things up, or full Apple. Choose. His current mixed, "trying to get best-of-both-worlds", approach is just pure unexpected pain, every time again.

Edit: I also have an iPad, it does work for me, but where my father is trying to use his iPad as a central, primary device (the hub), for me it is a client (spoke) of my own infra. Apps get access to information and I never use Apple services for anything. So indeed, Immich, Proton, Home Assistant, government and banking apps, etc. My iPad is throw-away: If it dies, it dies... I buy a new one, log into all (self-hosed) services and I'm 100% back up and running. Doing the same for my father is also pain, because his Home Assistant will have issues, or his Immich instance, and it's real work to fix, and he won't tell me for months if it does not work and work piles up. So, I tell him to surrender to Apple... It die a little inside.

amelius 1 hour ago | parent

I think AI might change that. Reverse engineering has just become a lot simpler and more reliable.

teekert 1 hour ago | parent

Apple will also use AI to make it at least as painful and as unexpected as before. It's their business model (I have come to believe).

Edit: But good point of course, but I believe it will remain cat and mouse, no idea how Apple internally sees it, whether they really don't care, or actively break stuff (break your ** face tonight).

saagarjha 13 minutes ago | parent

Reverse engineering is not a magic wand you can wave on everything and expect something good to come out of it. You need to actually know what you are trying to get out of it.

amelius 10 minutes ago | parent

Computers are not a magic wand that will solve all your problems. Let's go back to the abacus!

msm_ 21 minutes ago | parent

>My father (...) tries to use his iPad as a PC (...) He's mostly on the iPad + keyboard because it's a nicely managed device update-wise and "what I can install"-wise, virus-wise. (...) But I recent told him: Just give up

Since he apparently wants a PC, isn't the logical conclusion the opposite? "Just give up. Buy a Windows/Linux laptop, you are too dependent on Apple, there is always something with the Apple solutions."

teekert 11 minutes ago | parent

We made the call to go Apple years and years ago when he was always fighting viruses and virus scanners on Windows. His Macbook was still (hardware-wise) perfectly functional, but does not receive security updates anymore, so he went iPad. Indeed there are more problems than expected. I expected even less IT support from me was needed. Instead he now complains about the lack of control (which I am certainly ok with btw, the complaining I mean.)

The current plan is to put Ubuntu on the Macbook, not sure what to do with the iPad but make it less "primary computer" will be one of the policies to implement indeed. Maybe he will be happy with an external disk and f-spot, and his music nicely sorted into files. Then some generic backup solution to a Synology NAS or something...

Hamuko 1 hour ago | parent

Gotta say, using SMB with Apple clients is a massive pain in the ass. I imagine a large part of that is just Microsoft cruft, leaving you to deal with limitations designed around Windows. And you don't really have another option after Apple deprecated AFP.

crossroadsguy 1 hour ago | parent

This really makes me sad. They devoted time and effort to support something as locked and as broken as Apple Time Machine. That thing is a bad choice even within a 100% Apple ecosystem.

spwa4 1 hour ago | parent

Wait ... the linux kernel has an SMB server?

buybackoff 42 minutes ago | parent

Time Machine support has been working on TrueNAS Scale, just via one checkbox on a SMB share config, for years. I thought it was just something in a share config that was always there. Now I wonder how did they do it.

e12e 19 minutes ago | parent

I think this is in-kernel smb?

djfergus 1 hour ago | parent

>ARM

> Device Tree Updates

> Apple platform gains support for M3 Pro, Max and Ultra SoC

Incredible how fast support for Apple silicon is progressing.

cromka 48 minutes ago | parent

I wouldn't call it fast, these are several years old and no GPU, Thunderbolt, etc. support still. It's steady, but not fast.

e12e 11 minutes ago | parent

On the other hand - I just had to send my Asus vivobook s15 to repair, because Linux (most likely) fried the wifi chip.

Pretty disappointed in Qualcomm's promise of upstream support for Snapdragon X Elite turning out to be: lol, not actually so you can run Linux on devices, only so you can maybe boot without most devices working...

Hope things will keep improving despite lack of help from vendors.

sgt 1 hour ago | parent

I wonder how many people nowadays see something like this, clicking on it and expecting a "Download and Install" button.

NamlchakKhandro 1 hour ago | parent

not an apple or anthropic announcement, so hackernews will be tumbleweeds on this.

JohnKemeny 51 minutes ago | parent

Can you point me to the `.msi` file?

Bluestein 30 minutes ago | parent

I'll take an NSIS installer meself :)

e12e 7 minutes ago | parent

There's WUBI:

https://github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi

INTPenis 1 hour ago | parent

> This release is a record-breaker on all fronts; it brought in 18,765 non-merge commits from 3,021 developers, 807 of whom were first-time kernel developers.

I'm reading that as many new AI assisted code patches. Not everyone does an obviously bad job at submitting AI assisted code.

Not a criticism, just an observation.

MisterMunchkin 44 minutes ago | parent

On the one hand it is concerning, on the other hand… I was getting quite worried the iPad generation was going to be incapable of developing operating systems. If AI is now capable of maintaining it, that will save us from collapse.

leonidasrup 17 minutes ago | parent

You can see the curreny Linux AI policy here:

https://docs.kernel.org/process/coding-assistants.html

Broadly it says: you can use AI as much as you like. You have to disclose use of AI. You, as a person, not the AI, are responsible for the quality of Linux kernel submissions.

machomaster 7 minutes ago | parent

The docs have not been properly updated to reflect the changes. Linux developers voted to stop requiring "Assisted-by" attribution.

KolmogorovComp 31 minutes ago | parent

It’d be interesting to see if rust pickup is improving or not.