Kbuild speedups and BPF integration disputes

Kernel development centered on large kbuild series aiming at much faster builds, plus proposals for NVIDIA vGPU support, QUIC, and memory collapse, while BPF interfaces for Landlock and runtime verification drew maintainer objections. Activity spanned linux-kernel, bpf, netdev, and rust-for-linux lists.

Kbuild series claims faster allmodconfig builds

A 23-patch series proposes significant kbuild speedups through parallelization and Kconfig caching, with claimed gains of up to 36 percent on allmodconfig builds. Linus Torvalds and eleven other participants are discussing the changes on the linux-kernel list. Shorter compile times directly affect developer iteration speed on large kernel configurations.

v2 kbuild series parallelizes more build steps

A separate 21-patch v2 series extends kbuild parallelization to steps including pigz, modules, objtool, kallsyms, and rustc. The work claims build improvements of up to 90 percent. This continues infrastructure effort to reduce wall-clock time for kernel compilation.

NVIDIA vGPU manager lands in nova-core

NVIDIA posted a 32-patch v2 series that introduces a vGPU manager into nova-core. The patches cover GSP plugin RPC, instance lifecycle, and VFIO support. The addition expands kernel-level handling of NVIDIA virtual GPUs for virtualization workloads.

BPF Landlock ruleset interface meets resistance

A 15-patch v3 series adds a BPF interface for applying Landlock rulesets. The BPF maintainer objects to LSM kfuncs for Landlock policy application on stability and community-friction grounds, while the LSM maintainer pushes back. The exchange underscores ongoing tension over how security policy should expose itself to BPF.

BPF monitors for runtime verification nacked

An RFC with 20 patches proposes BPF-based pluggable monitors for the rv runtime verification subsystem. Alexei Starovoitov nacked the approach. The author and Steven Rostedt defended domain-specific use cases in the resulting heated discussion.

QUIC core infrastructure reaches v15

A 15-patch v15 series introduces QUIC protocol infrastructure and core subcomponents into the kernel networking stack. The work was posted to the netdev list. In-kernel QUIC support matters for developers tracking modern transport protocols.

Rust UFS driver RFC bypasses SCSI midlayer

An RFC proposes a Rust UFS host controller driver that bypasses the SCSI midlayer in favor of blk-mq. Maintainers objected to the duplication and referenced past USB precedent. The thread on rust-for-linux highlights architectural debates around Rust drivers in the block and storage path.

Collapse engine rebuilt on migration primitives

A 57-patch RFC rebuilds anonymous page collapse in mm around migration primitives. The redesign replaces the khugepaged approach with a migration-based engine intended to support mTHP on architectures that use large base pages. Memory-management developers working on transparent huge pages have a direct interest in the outcome.