Linus Torvalds complains about 'time-wasting links' when committing with Git
Linus Torvalds has expressed his dissatisfaction with the indiscriminate use of links in Linux kernel Git commits, with 99% of the links being pointless, saying, 'Stop using pointless links that waste people's time, and only add links when there is additional information.'
Linus Torvalds Grows Frustrated Seeing 'Garbage' With 'Link: ' Tags In Git Commits - Phoronix
Re: [GIT PULL] io_uring fix for 6.17-rc5 - Linus Torvalds
https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-=wjamixjqNwrr4+UEAwitMOd6Y8-_9p4oUZdcjrv7fsayQ@mail.gmail.com/
On September 5, 2025, Torvalds received a pull request for 'resource node rewrites' and pulled it once, but then canceled it, saying that he 'didn't understand the contents of the patch.'
The pull request was to change 'kvmalloc_array()' to 'kvcalloc()', but according to Torvalds, the only difference between the two is that '__GFP_ZERO' is added to the flag argument, and since '__GFP_ZERO' has been used since before, it doesn't actually fix anything.
Torvalds' frustration was that the request included a link that he thought might explain this pointless fix, but instead contained only known 'shit.'
'Stop this garbage, stop wasting people's time with useless links. Don't link unless you have 'additional' information,' Torvalds said. 'Damn, I really hate useless links. I appreciate useful links, but the reality is, 99% of links just point to stupid, useless garbage that's just a waste of time. Here we go again.'
Konstantin Ryavitsev, a vocal supporter of automatic link addition, asked Torvalds whether he wanted to simply disable it or whether it would be better to restrict its use to the patch.msgid.link domain to clarify the source of the link. Torvalds responded, 'I would like at least a mechanism to discourage pointless use. Ideally, it should be a more useful model than automatic link addition.'
Re: [GIT PULL] io_uring fix for 6.17-rc5 - Linus Torvalds
By the way, the version control software 'Git' was created by Torvalds in just 10 days after the Linux kernel development project was forced to stop using 'BitKeeper' due to licensing issues.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the birth of 'Git,' Linus Torvalds reveals the early development history and frequently used commands - GIGAZINE
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in Note, Posted by logc_nt