Linux 3.6 has [https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/9/30/152 been released] on 30 Sep 2012
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NOTE: this document is incomplete and will be finished in the next few hours
Summary: This release includes . Many small features and new drivers and fixes are also available.
1. Prominent features in Linux 3.6
1.1. Wait for the release
2. Driver and architecture-specific changes
All the driver and architecture-specific changes can be found in the [http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_3.6_DriverArch Linux_3.6_DriverArch page]
3. Various core changes
Enable suspend to both for in-kernel hibernation. [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=62c552ccc3eda1198632a4f344aa32623d226bab (commit)]
Add symlink and hardlink restrictions to the Linux VFS, which helps to solve a long-standing class of security issues consisting in the symlink-based time-of-check-time-of-use race. Some distributions have been using this functionality for a while [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=a51d9eaa41866ab6b4b6ecad7b621f8b66ece0dc (commit 1], [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=800179c9b8a1e796e441674776d11cd4c05d61d7 2)]
PCI: Add PCIe runtime D3cold power state support. D3cold is the deepest power saving state for a PCIe device, where its main power is removed [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=448bd857d48e69b33ef323739dc6d8ca20d4cda7 (commit 1], [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=71a83bd727cc31c5fe960c3758cb396267ff710e 2], [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=4f9c1397e2e80e52b17ec4e39760caa807bd15c7 3)]
process scheduler: Remove broken power estimation [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=ee08d1284ea9235b29bd2d9b7493b4b4cf3da09c (commit)]
Thermal: Add Hysteresis attributes [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=27365a6c7d64a3bba22ee62109e4a071bbd7f933 (commit)], make Thermal trip points writeable [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=c56f5c0342dfee11a1a13d2f5bb7618de5b17590 (commit)]
cpuidle: add support for states that affect multiple CPUs [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=4126c0197bc8c58a0bb7fcda07b01b596b6fb4c5 (commit)]
RCU: Control RCU_FANOUT_LEAF from boot-time parameter [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=f885b7f2b2de70be266d2cecc476f773a1e2ca5d (commit)]
4. Memory Management
Allow swap readahead IOPS to be merged, it improves throughput and at the same time lowers CPU consumption [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=3fb5c298b04eb6e472f8db1f0fb472749d30041c (commit)]
5. Block
Add a new operation code (BLKPG_RESIZE_PARTITION) to the BLKPG ioctl that allows altering the size of an existing partition, even if it is currently in use [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=c83f6bf98dc1f1a194118b3830706cebbebda8c4 (commit)]
Device mapper RAID: Add support for MD RAID10 [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=63f33b8dda88923487004b20fba825486d009e7b (commit)]
Device mapper thin: add read-only and fail I/O modes [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=e49e582965b3694f07a106adc83ddb44aa4f0890 (commit)]
Device mapper: remove persistent data debug space map checker [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=3caf6d73d4dc163b2d135e0b52b052a2b63e5216 (commit)]
md/raid1: prevent merging too large request [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=12cee5a8a29e7263e39953f1d941f723c617ca5f (commit)]
6. Perf/tracing
7. Virtualization
Add mcelog support for Xen platform [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=cef12ee52b054282461a6d5fe7742755fa6e3bd3 (commit)]
8. Security
- SELinux
9. Networking
team: add multiqueue [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=6c85f2bdda2086d804e198a3f31b685bc2f86b04 (commit)], and netpoll support [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=bd2d0837abc0206ecdd3f6b9fc8c25b55b63c96b (commit)]
tun: experimental zero-copy tx support [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=0690899b4d4501b3505be069b9a687e68ccbe15b (commit)]
Add support for 40GbE link [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=e440cf2ca0a1b075c64016240d46c3aa9d877bbf (commit)]
Add 802.11ad (60 GHz band) support [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=3a0c52a6d82cc41da965284412608c74aece34e4 (commit)]
- netfilter
Add fail-open support [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=fdb694a01f1fcd30fd16d8aa290c34699fe98a17 (commit)]
Add user-space connection tracking helper infrastructure [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=12f7a505331e6b2754684b509f2ac8f0011ce644 (commit)]
Added kernel support in EEE Ethtool commands [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=80f12eccce775dc6bb93dba9b52529740f929237 (commit)]
Speedup /proc/net/unix [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=7123aaa3a1416529ce461e98108e6b343b294643 (commit)]
10. Cryptography
Hardware acceleration in Atmel processors for the following algorithms: AES [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=bd3c7b5c2aba0d806285700848f588ca482094d8 (commit)], DES/TDES [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=13802005d8f2db244ec1f5d7f6923de8f7a463db (commit)] and SHA-1/SHA-256 [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=ebc82efa1cd64efba0f41455460411b852b5b89c (commit)]
CRC hardware driver for Blackfin BF60x family processors. [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=b8840098b70c11d70c29263e0765f103e6cbe55e (commit)]
caam: add support for SEC v5.x RNG4 [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=281922a1d4f59bdebbe78c1d9f4c50a967eb6cff (commit)], ahash HMAC support [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=045e36780f11523e26d1e4a8c78bdc57f4003bd0 (commit)], hwrng support [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=e24f7c9e87d46fad06bf1097d48f9923acd8e61c (commit)]
serpent: add x86_64/avx assembler implementation [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=7efe4076725aeb01722445b56613681aa492c8d6 (commit)]
twofish: add x86_64/avx assembler implementation [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=107778b592576c0c8e8d2ca7a2aa5415a4908223 (commit)]
talitos: add sha224, sha384 and sha512 to existing AEAD algorithms [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=357fb60502ede168fa1b76b996298e0045e24b59 (commit)]
11. File systems
- Btrfs
- eCryptfs
Copy up POSIX ACL and read-only flags from lower mount [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=069ddcda37b2cf5bb4b6031a944c0e9359213262 (commit)]
- GFS2
Reduce file fragmentation [http://git.kernel.org/linus/;a=commit;h=8e2e00473598dd5379d8408cb974dade000acafc (commit)]
12. Other news sites that track the changes of this release