Why Linus Torvalds Called Recent RISC‑V Patches ‘Garbage’ and What It Means for Linux 6.17

In the tech community, Linus Torvalds is notorious for his blunt temperament, especially when defending the Linux kernel he maintains.

Recently he erupted over a RISC‑V‑related code update submitted by a Google engineer, calling parts of the submission "garbage" and sparking controversy.

Patch Details Submitted to Linux 6.17

Support for RISC‑V IOMMU in ACPI‑based systems.

Support for ACPI BGRT table to display vendor logos during boot.

Errata for storage buffer merge issues on Sophgo SG2042 and T‑Head TH1520.

Device Tree detection of MMU type to avoid hangs on systems such as Nuclei UX900.

Extension Xmipsexectl for MIPS Zihintpause instruction.

Performance optimizations for byte‑swap routines on systems with Zbb and RAID6 on V‑extension.

Enable kprobetrace support.

Provide CFI (Control‑Flow Integrity) support for user‑space processes.

Add SBI extensions MPXY and RPMI.

Linus responded in the mailing list:

"No, this is garbage, and it was submitted too late. I’ve said before that I’m traveling, so please submit early and ensure high quality. This code pollutes generic headers and makes the world a worse place to live."

Palmer Dabbelt replied, apologizing for the backlog and promising to stop late submissions to improve quality.

The incident recalls Linus’s past apologies for harsh language and the introduction of a code‑of‑conduct, yet his stance remains firm: late, low‑quality patches will not be tolerated.

Consequently, the RISC‑V features will have to wait for Linux v6.18 and must be submitted early in the merge window without “garbage” code.