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Second Linux Kernel to be Released This Year

The second new Linux kernel release of the year is out with a bundle of changes to mark its sweet 16. The Oracle OCFS2 clustered file system was officially open sourced last year by Oracle and is one of several clustered file systems battling for a piece of the Linux market. OCFS2 competitors include Red Hat`s Global File System (GFS), Veritas Storage Foundation Cluster File System and Sun`s SAM FS and QFS. The Cell Broadband processor also gets some attention in the coming release. Among the patches for the Cell processor is one that adds platform detection code. If a note published by the patch`s author is any indication, it`s not entirely clear how accurate the platform detection code will be at the outset.

Last year, embedded systems vendor Wind River open sourced its VxWorks TIPC implementation. Linux`s implementation of the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) protocol expands with this release. DCCP is a transport layer protocol that, according to its technical abstract, is intended to provide, "a congestion-controlled flow of unreliable datagrams." DCCP is expected to overcome the congestion control limitations of UDP provide better communication for delay-sensitive applications. Linux 2.6.16 adds DCCP support for IPv6 among its numerous DCCP patches.

The effect of the Coverity code analysis effort is also apparent in the 2.6.16 release. The release will feature fixes resulting from Coverity code analysis, such as an entry in Linux kernel commit. Other fixes include a NULL pointer deference, an entry removing "dead" code, and one titled "Fix array overrun." Coverity is currently engaged on a Department of Homeland Security grant that is looking to help improve open source code quality.