Linus Torvalds releases Linux 5.16 rc1 with new performance-enhancing memory tech

Linus Torvalds has loosed the first release candidate for version 5.16 of the Linux kernel. In his Sunday afternoon State of the Kernel announcement, Torvalds indicated the merge window for the new release did not include any "uhhuh, things aren't working and now I need to bisect where they broke" moments. Work therefore …

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this mean hugepages are obsolete? Please for the love of god let this mean hugepages are obsolete. And the kludge-upon-kludge that is transparent huge pages. If there's a place linux fucked up architectural design, it was with hugepages.

Seriously, tell anyone "You want 2MB pages as well as 4K? Well, all you have to do is specify the number you want during kernel boot (which is static and must be guessed ahead of time and cannot be changed while the kernel is running), which removes them from the standard memory pool, and allows access by mounting a special file system in /dev/hugepages. Oh, and obviously just using malloc() in 2MB chunks won't work."

You should be spat on.

[mtrantalainen]

You could try reserving zero huge pages but allowing huge pages overcommit. It has worked nicely for us and the only thing you need to know is that memory reserved as huge pages cannot ever be swapped. I set huge pages overcommit to 50% of total RAM to be safe.

[Doctor Syntax]

An Oracle employee running Postgres?

[Michael]

Needed a database they could afford

They couldn't afford an Oracle licence and associated audit.

They needed a relational database that just works and that they could use without fear of breaking the bank.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Re: Needed a database they could afford

The Joke Alert icon seems misplaced.

[Kev99]

It never ceases to amaze how often updates fix things that should have been fixed in release 1.

[BenDwire]

I'm sure that they would welcome your bugfixes if you submit them.

I don't have the skills unfortunately, but I am thankful that other people do and give their work willingly to the rest of us.

Here's to Linus and the team