KernelNewbies:

Linux 4.16 has been released on Sun, 1 Apr 2018.

Summary: Besides the latest code to deal with CPU security bugs, this release declares the reverse mapping and reflink features as stable, membarrier(2) adds expedited support, SMB3 Direct (RDMA) support, adds the x86 jailhouse hypervisor which is able to statically partition a multicore system into multiple so-called cells, support for PowerPC memory protection keys, the hypervisor part of AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization; and many new drivers and other improvements.

1. Prominent features

1.1. Improved protection for CPU security bugs

This release adds:

The reverse mapping and reflink features, merged back in 4.8 and 4.9 respectively, have been declared stable. These features allow for cp --reflink=always support, data deduplication, data copy-on-write ...

Code: commit and reflink features commit

1.3. membarrier(2) expedited support

This release provides expedited command in membarrier(2) for registration and use of membarrier across processes communicating through shared memory mappings. The non-expedited command has proven to be really too slow (taking 10ms and more to complete) for real-world use. The expedited version completes in a matter of microseconds.

Recommmended LWN article: Expediting membarrier()

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

1.4. SMB3 Direct (RDMA) support

Starting with SMB2 dialect 3.0, Microsoft introduced SMB Direct transport protocol for transferring upper layer (SMB2) payload over RDMA via Infiniband, RoCE or iWARP. This release adds support for Linux.

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

1.5. Add the x86 jailhouse hypervisor

This release adds initial platform support for the jailhouse hypervisor. The Jailhouse hypervisor is able to statically partition a multicore system into multiple so-called cells. Linux is used as boot loader and continues to run in the root cell after Jailhouse is enabled. Linux can also run in non-root cells. Jailhouse was started 4 years ago as an open-source (GPL) light-weight hypervisor that statically partitions SMP systems. It's unique in that it uses one Linux instance, the root cell, as boot loader and management console. Jailhouse targets use cases for hard real-time and safety-critical systems that KVM cannot cater due to its inherent complexity

Code: commit

1.6. PowerPC: memory protection keys

This release adds support of memory protection keys (a feature merged in Linux 4.6) for Power7/8/9

Code: commit, commit

1.7. Second part of AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization

This release adds the hypervisor part of AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization, a feature that allows to encrypt the memory of virtualized guests so that the host can't see it.

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, [https://git.kernel.org/linus/35c6f649bbb2e3f367116307273f998f0bf3e08e|commit]], commit

2. Core (various)

3. File systems

4. Memory management

5. Block layer

6. Tracing and perf

7. Virtualization

8. Cryptography

9. Security

10. Networking

11. Architectures

12. Drivers

12.1. Graphics

12.2. Storage

12.3. Drivers in the Staging area

12.4. Networking

12.5. Audio

12.6. Tablets, touch screens, keyboards, mouses

12.7. TV tuners, webcams, video capturers

12.8. Universal Serial Bus

12.9. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)

12.10. Watchdog

12.11. ACPI, EFI, cpufreq, thermal, Power Management

12.12. Real Time Clock (RTC)

12.13. Voltage, current regulators, power capping, power supply

12.14. Pin Controllers (pinctrl)

12.15. Multi Media Card (MMC)

12.16. Memory Technology Devices (MTD)

12.17. Industrial I/O (iio)

12.18. Multi Function Devices (MFD)

12.19. Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C)

12.20. Hardware monitoring (hwmon)

12.21. General Purpose I/O (gpio)

12.22. Leds

12.23. Cryptography hardware acceleration

12.24. PCI

12.25. Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB)

12.26. Clock

12.27. Various

13. List of merges

14. Other news sites

KernelNewbies: Linux_4.16 (last edited 2018-06-24 21:30:32 by diegocalleja)