Why Did the NTFS3 Driver Miss the Linux 6.0 Merge Window?

NTFS3 is a file‑system driver contributed by Paragon Software to the Linux kernel.

Earlier reports indicated that the NTFS driver had gone nearly six months without major updates and was even suggested to be marked as an “orphan project.” Paragon’s founder and CEO Konstantin Komarov explained that changes in the team’s working environment prevented timely code submissions.

Paragon has now resumed normal code submissions, but it missed the Linux 6.0 merge window.

In the recently released Linux 6.0, CEO Konstantin Komarov submitted a refactoring patch and bug fixes for the new kernel, but the commit was made a few days after the merge window had closed.

The Linux 6.0 merge window closed last weekend with the release of 6.0‑rc1. According to the Linux development process, new feature code and non‑critical bug fixes are typically merged within the two‑week window, yet Paragon did not submit any NTFS3 changes during that period.

Regarding this “late” commit, Linus commented:

It really should have appeared during the merge window. This commit contains several bug fixes and introduces new content such as FALLOC_FL_INSERT_RANGE . In addition, a lot of code appears to have been refactored and cleaned up, which also should have happened during the merge window. Since all of this only affects ntfs3 and I consider it fairly reliable experimental code, I’m making an exception to merge it. However, please remember to submit new work—whether cleanup or new code—during the merge window in the future.

Related links:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/[email protected]/

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wg53xW_ppC5w_tDvWKn3Q7i-hWmd09KM-O1npQHWoBBGw@mail.gmail.com/