Linus Torvalds Used Claude Code For A Linux Kernel Branch
The kernel's own maintainer has put an AI-written patch series on the tree under his name, at the same time the community is weighing whether the mandatory Assisted-by tag for LLM use is still needed.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
A new kernel branch owned by Linus Torvalds, named noref-filemap-read-with-llm, reworks memory management so page cache reads do not reference the folio struct, targeting folio reference count contention when many threads make small reads on one file. Torvalds said the implementation, test programs, review and the first draft of the cover letter were done with Claude Code under his direction, and the measurements ran on his machine.
The branch is called noref-filemap-read-with-llm, and it targets folio reference count contention, the slowdown that appears when many threads make small reads from a single file. Torvalds ran his measurements on his own machine. He also described a separate case where AI was used to make code more readable and a long-hidden bug surfaced. The work is expected to matter most in many-thread, small-read workloads, and the question now is whether it lands in the next Linux 7.4 merge window.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.