back to article Linus Torvalds passed a kidney stone and then squeezed out Linux 4.13

Linus Torvalds has released Linux 4.13 to a waiting world and in so doing detailed a tricky work week in which he endured “seven hours of pure agony due to a kidney stone”. “I'm all good, but it sure _felt_ a lot longer than seven hours,” he wrote on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, “and I don't even want to imagine what it is …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well aside from link not found error, as I've admitted on many an occasion, I am demonstrably not sane.

  2. Notas Badoff

    Relief and radiance

    Perhaps I can forestall the inevitable comments in saying that I'm *sure* that he spoke quite a number of curses at the roughness and unpolished edges in those pushes, the amount of time to convince those contributors to get their act together, and the number of inquiries over whether things were now better and a release could be expected.

    And yes, now that he has gone through that experience (described by many many as the worst pain they've ever experienced) I'm sure that nothing else will ever seem so painful and he will never again feel the need to curse even the most painful star-shaped devs. Or not.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Star-shaped devs...

      If they were star-shaped, they aren't after Linus gets thru with them.

    2. herman

      Re: Relief and radiance

      "he spoke quite a number of curses at the roughness and unpolished edges" - Now that is a good description of kidney stones, yes.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        “I love seeing those kinds of fixes. Better, smaller, code.”

        Painkillers must be kicking in.

        1. Aladdin Sane
          Trollface

          Re: “Better, smaller, code.”

          He's now fitter, happier, more productive.

  3. MacroRodent
    Boffin

    Not from Ubuntu

    > the mainlining of Ubuntu's AppArmor security code that ties apps to a pre-defined and limited set of resources

    Earlier I though it was from SUSE, but trying to confirm that from Wikipedia, I learned it was created by Immunix Linux, a security oriented distribution later acquired by Novell.

    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppArmor and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunix

  4. Nolveys
    Unhappy

    Goodbye, SMB1.0

    You will live on in our memories, our hearts and on every computer in the National Health Service.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Goodbye, SMB1.0

      And in NAS boxes, of course.

  5. Khaptain Silver badge

    Maladie cher maladie

    Here I lie in my hospital bed

    Tell me, sister Morphine, when are you coming round again?

    Oh, I don't think I can wait that long

    Oh, you see that I'm not that strong

    ( Rolling Stones, 1971)

    Kidney Stones are extremely painful, I don't wish that on anyone and morphine truly is your only friend at that moment... it's just a shame that that know how to dose it enough to make the pain go away without allowing you to profit a little :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maladie cher maladie

      Kidney Stones are extremely painful, I don't wish that on anyone and morphine truly is your only friend at that moment

      Yup. I had two of the bastards and only a close-to-erupting inflamed appendix came close in pain levels. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say this rates about 12, which is ridiculous compared to how small the damn things turn out to be when they finally choose to depart.

      1. herman

        Re: Maladie cher maladie

        Ayup - Women have child birth and men have kidney stones. It provides for balance in the universe.

        1. fandom

          Re: Maladie cher maladie

          Except that women also get kidney stones and they say it's more painful than childbirth

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            More painful than childbirth...

            As a man who's known women who've got kids, I'm sure I can speak for all women when I say that the pain of childbirth is woefully over-exaggerated by drama queens and entitled princesses everywhere. I've seen a hamster giving birth: pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, lick, lick, chew, and the job's done. Why should it be any different for women? If anything because women only generally give birth to a single child, it should be easier. And hamsters can give birth pretty much anywhere - none of this rush to hospital malarky. I truly can't see what all the fuss is about, especially as a man, I have to shave every day. Imagine the constant feminine moaning if women had to do this... but as a man, I'm just expected to be stoic and unemotional during each and every shave.

            So come on women! Buck your ideas up!

            1. Korev Silver badge
              Joke

              Re: More painful than childbirth...

              I know, every dad I know said that the birth of their kids didn't hurt at all

            2. Manolo

              Re: More painful than childbirth...

              You forgot the joke alert icon, because sure as hell this can't be meant to be serious.

              For starters look at the skull to pelvis ratio between hamsters and humans.

              That being said: the oft cited "fact" that women tolerate pain better then men (and the implied "fact" that men therefore must be whingers) is only true during childbirth, due to hormonal changes. Under normal circumstances, men have a higher pain threshold and a higher pain tolerance.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: More painful than childbirth...

                For starters look at the skull to pelvis ratio between hamsters and humans.

                Well, yes, that's why nature has ensured no hamster will ever have to give birth to a human baby. Any other arguments?

              2. kain preacher

                Re: More painful than childbirth...

                Women have said kidney stones hurt worse then birth.

            3. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: More painful than childbirth...

              As a man who's known women who've got kids, I'm sure I can speak for all women when I say that the pain of childbirth is woefully over-exaggerated by drama queens and entitled princesses everywhere.

              Oh boy, are you in for an attitude correction when you ever meet someone interesting enough to have a child with, grin. Or maybe you have, and she hasn't read that post yet :).

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: More painful than childbirth...

                Oh boy, are you in for an attitude correction...

                Certainly the good lady was a bit miffed when I took a month's 'golfing' holiday with the boys around the birth of our first twins, but as I explained:

                1. It's not like both of us are giving birth. This is just one of those rare times when she'll have to pull her own weight for a change. I gave her the present - she's got to do the unwrapping.

                2. The tickets were all booked and paid for; I didn't want to waste time and money on a refund.

                3. I couldn't let the lads down - we'd been looking forward to our 'golf' all year.

                Anyway, I'm told the twins are out after a 32 hour labour (the wife's late and slow with everything, so no surprise there - and if her kid manoeuvring is as bad as per parking, then I feel for the midwife!), and when I get back off holiday in three or so weeks, I'm sure I'll love them all to bits. Once the jet lag ends, anyway, and as long as they don't cry. I can't stand that.

    2. Andrew Moore

      Re: Maladie cher maladie

      Might explain why he has been a little grumpy recently...

    3. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Maladie cher maladie

      I'll see your Rolling Stones and raise you a Bill S Burroughs... "The Junky's Christmas"

      The boy looked at him, his eyes blank with pain. Finally he got one word: "Kidneys."

      " Kidney stones?" Danny smiled. " I don’t mean it’s funny, kid. It’s just … I’ve faked it so many times. Never saw the real thing before.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    7 hours of agony

    Payback for some of the rants he's directed towards Linux volunteers in the past. Karma.

  7. Chris Jasper

    7 hours of agony sounds about right

    Fair play, kidney stones are frickin' agonizing

  8. Roger Kynaston

    TLS embedded in the kernel!

    Treeza and The Ruddlet won't like that.

  9. Dick Emery

    I'm a stoner

    I get them frequently. I have had a few operations in the past. The worse part is having to have a ureteric stent inserted and left there for several weeks before they decide to do anything about the stones. Just a few months back I had a really bad case of stones in both kidneys and ureters. Had two stents inserted and several agonizing weeks (and much passing of blood) later had the stones zapped by lasers (Pew! Pew!).

    I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm a stoner

      If it's really that painful, I can think of hundreds of people I would wish it on!!!!!

    2. Bronek Kozicki
      Pint

      Re: I'm a stoner

      I was told by a doctor that beer helps to avoid this very painful issue. Perhaps you do not drink enough of it?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thanks for sharing Linus. TMI.

    I've passed two in my life, and I didn't run around bragging about what a hero I was for showing up at work the next day and doing my job.

    As for the wag who thought it might explain why he's been grumpy lately–– You don't know you're going to have a kidney stone until you're having it; there is no pain or discomfort leading up to it, In my experience anyway. He's just always grumpy AFAICT.

    Morphine is your friend? I had morphine for the first one. Coming down was bad. So bad that for number two I was prepared to skip it rather than experience _that_ again. I passed number two quickly, while waiting to be admitted to the ER (A&E to you lot) and didn't have to actually make the decision. Also an extra day in the hospital for observation. No thanks.

    More painful than childbirth and the dad(s) who said it (childbirth) didn't hurt them a bit didn't have my wife squeezing their hand, arm, whatever was in reach during the contractions. Women pass kidney stones too, so I have some degree of faith that the comparison is accurate.

  11. Michael Felt

    Is the sky falling? Or, ...

    Normally, I would not comment on a new Linux kernel release. Ho-hum. How long is it going to be before any commercial distro actually releases anything based on a Linux-4.X kernel?

    As to the changed default re: cifs. Sounds good (belated).

    TLS in the kernel - the KERNEL? Well, I guess we all expect him to know what he is doing. I am hoping whoever commented on that (which is what caught my attention) read it right. If TLS is, literally, in the kernel - that would make me a bit nervous. How is this going to interact with apps and libraries that do their own TLS management.

    But at the bottom of all of this is my struggle with the statement that "Linux is Linux" and UNIX was not UNIX (aka Sun, HP, IBM, SCO - when they put out their versions they were so different that you could not seriously consider them the same operating system). My wake-up call that "Linix is a distro" was the first time I tried a RH7 release and could not do anything even close to what I had been doing/using since 1979. That was the day I discovered that netstat, ifconfig, etc. were 'gone'. And when I discussed this concern of mine with a Linux evangilist he asked - why I had not said anything on the forums years ago? My comment: I am a UNIX expert and although I have watched Linux (even minix) I am not one to follow it. In any case - this closes the door for so many UNIX specialists. All their skills rated to 'worthless', i.e., minor difference in skill level (at best) compared to someone just leaving school.

    And, so - Linux kernel has a new number? Is the sky falling? Or do I need to reset my spam filter?

    1. Blake St. Claire

      Re: Is the sky falling? Or, ...

      >I am a UNIX expert ... and could not do anything even close to what I had been doing/using since 1979

      In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. –– Eric Hoffer

      or

      In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. –– Al Rogers

      And I'm not sure what you're on about, netstat, ifconfig, etc., etc., all still exist in all the Linux distributions I use. Often in add-on packages. Given what you've said about the difference between SunOS, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, *BSD, et al, I don't know why you'd have such a hard time with Linux.

    2. Bronek Kozicki

      Re: Is the sky falling? Or, ...

      In the spirit of previous reply - if you use "specialists" to describe persons who feel they no longer need to learn new things and are unwilling to contribute to their future development, then IMO they deserve everything they get.

    3. HereIAmJH

      Re: Is the sky falling? Or, ...

      "As to the changed default re: cifs. Sounds good (belated)."

      Silly me, I thought SMB and CIFS were part of Samba. And when Linus speaks of Linux, he's talking about the kernel. And while there were some security issues with Samba's SMBv1 that needed fixed recently, WannaCry affected Microsoft's implementation and not Samba's.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: Is the sky falling? Or, ...

        "Silly me, I thought SMB and CIFS were part of Samba."

        Mostly they are, but there's a cifs.ko that some folks insist on using and which doesn't get as much love as the user-space code.

    4. pwl

      Re: Is the sky falling? Or, ...

      "How long is it going to be before any commercial distro actually releases anything based on a Linux-4.X kernel?"

      SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 sp2 was released last year with the 4.4 kernel.

  12. Speltier

    Sane?

    I guess Torvalds doesn't insist on anything but pro forma Gerrit use.

  13. Updraft102

    "And so was the naivete of the hordes who left it in place and let the WannaCry and Petya malware exploit it."

    Except that this was a specific zero day within SMB1 which has since been fixed, and not by disabling SMB1. It could just as easily have been in SMB3 or anything else, which is the nature of zero days.

    If you're up to date on security fixes, that particular exploit is plugged, so while the lack of security features on SMB1 will still be there, the vulnerability to EternalBlue and the malware that used it won't be.

  14. Stevie

    Bah!

    Dislike the man's public persona, but sympathize with his ordeal.

    The code comments should be a thing of beauty though.

    / here we protect against buffAAARRRGGGHHHOHGODOHGODOHGOD /

    / we only get here if AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHWHYME? /

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