Linus Torvalds to 'start being more hardnosed' about 'pointless pull requests'

Linus Torvalds warned that he will start rejecting or pushing back on late, trivial pull requests after rc5 for Linux 7.1 turned out unusually large. He said much of the recent churn consists of minor driver fixes that would be better staged in the linux-next tree and merged during the main two-week merge window, rather than added deep into the seven-stage release-candidate cycle. Torvalds singled out contributions that were spawned by AI code-review tools as part of the problem, and noted that an influx of late changes makes an rc5 that is “too big” and harder to stabilize.

Torvalds’ reasoning is pragmatic: even trivial fixes carry non-zero risk of introducing regressions, and bloated release candidates undermine long-term stability. He signaled a tougher review stance, instructing contributors to assess whether a change is a true regression or serious enough to avoid deferral, otherwise it should wait for normal development flows. This follows a prior complaint that AI-generated bug reports and duplicated findings have overwhelmed security lists, complicating kernel oversight and prompting a stricter gatekeeping approach.