linux-next.git/scripts/ver_linux, branch master

kbuild: compress the kernel with pigz if available

2026-09-25T23:16:36+00:00

The gzip step of a kernel build is very lengthy, especially for larger builds such as allmodconfig. gzip itself cannot be run in parallel, however an alternative tool exists that can, providing the same feature set as gzip itself - pigz - which works as a drop-in replacement. On a 128-core Threadripper, gzip -9 of a 36 MiB x86-64 vmlinux.bin takes 1.6s, and with pigz it takes 0.09s, so the performance increase is significant. Therefore introduce the KPGZIP build variable which specifies the compressor to use for the kernel image and default it to pigz if available, or KGZIP otherwise (which itself defaults to gzip). Modules, packaging and the embedded kernel configuration (CONFIG_IKCONFIG) continue to use KGZIP which defaults to a single-threaded gzip instance. Module compression is run in parallel by make, so pigz offers no benefit there, packaging sits outside the build and the embedded configuration is too small to matter. pigz is executed using scripts/jobserver-exec, which reserves the job slots make has free - necessary, as otherwise pigz would just grab unbounded CPUs. The kernel image compression step is always performed at the end of the build so should typically have all job slots available. pigz always provides byte-for-byte identical output across runs regardless of thread count, but pigz and gzip are not guaranteed to generate the same binary output, so reproducible builds must use the same tools consistently. Also update Documentation/kbuild/kbuild.rst to describe KPGZIP and Documentation/process/changes.rst to list the optional pigz dependency. While there, add entries for the other compressor programs. Finally, update scripts/ver_linux to include the pigz version there. Every x86 build ends with the compression of vmlinux.bin, 36MB for defconfig and over 200MB for allmodconfig, no-op builds are unchanged. Whole build, 128-thread Threadripper 9980X, best of N runs: before after delta ------------------------------- x86 defconfig, touch mm/vma.c, gcc 7.7s 6.0s -1.7s (-22%) x86 defconfig, touch mm/vma.c, clang 6.9s 5.4s -1.5s (-21%) x86 defconfig, clean, gcc 28.2s 26.3s -1.8s (-6%) x86 defconfig, clean, clang 28.7s 27.2s -1.5s (-5%) x86 allmodconfig, touch mm/vma.c, gcc 23.7s 15.4s -8.3s (-35%) x86 allmodconfig, touch mm/vma.c, clang 22.5s 15.6s -7.0s (-31%) x86 allmodconfig, clean, gcc 294.1s 278.6s -15.5s (-5%) x86 allmodconfig, clean, clang 283.9s 266.8s -17.1s (-6%) Suggested-by: Kees Cook Link: https://zlib.net/pigz/ Assisted-by: LLM Reviewed-by: Manuel Ebner Reviewed-by: Kees Cook Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260923-build-speedup-v4-22-73128809a4a4@kernel.org Signed-off-by: Nathan Chancellor

docs: changes.rst and ver_linux: sort the lists

2026-03-30T16:36:11+00:00

Sort the lists of tools in both scripts/ver_linux and Documentation/process/changes.rst into alphabetical order, facilitating comparison between the two. Signed-off-by: Manuel Ebner [jc: rewrote changelog] Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Message-ID: <20260325194811.78509-2-manuelebner@mailbox.org>

docs: changes/ver_linux: fix entries and add several tools

2026-03-30T16:31:18+00:00

Some of the entries in both Documentation/process/changes.rst and script/ver_linux were obsolete; update them to reflect the current way of getting version information. Many were missing altogether; add the relevant information for: bash, bc, bindgen, btrfs-progs, Clang, gdb, GNU awk, GNU tar, GRUB, GRUB2, gtags, iptables, kmod, mcelog, mkimage, openssl, pahole, Python, Rust, Sphinx, squashfs-tools Signed-off-by: Manuel Ebner [jc: rewrote changelog] Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Message-ID: <20260325194616.78093-2-manuelebner@mailbox.org>

Revert "scripts: ver_linux: expand and fix list"

2026-03-30T16:29:54+00:00

This reverts commit 98e7b5752898f74788098bef51f53205e365ab9d. I had not intended to apply this version of this patch; take it out and we'll try again later. Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet

scripts: ver_linux: expand and fix list

2026-03-17T14:57:58+00:00

It is a pain in the ass to compare the software versions on the running system (scripts/ver_linux) with the minimal required versions. Sorting both lists the same way makes side-by-side comparisons a simple task. fix path to changes.rst make toolnames uniform with the toolnames in Changes.rst make version commands uniform with Changes.rst Add missing tools in ver_linux bash, bc, bindgen, btrfs-progs, Clang, gdb, GNU awk, GNU tar, GRUB, GRUB2, gtags, iptables, kmod, mcelog, mkimage, openssl, pahole, Python, Rust, Sphinx, squashfs-tools Signed-off-by: Manuel Ebner Message-ID: <20260311165440.183672-2-manuelebner@airmail.cc> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet

ver_linux: Remove checks for reiserfsprogs.

2025-06-09T20:53:16+00:00

The reiserfsprogs package is no longer needed since ReiserFS was removed in Linux 6.13. Signed-off-by: Collin Funk Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/4d9808b5e3a87eab41d5d0417d453800faad98b1.1749352106.git.collin.funk1@gmail.com

Removed the oprofiled version option

2021-05-03T23:23:06+00:00

Removed the oprofiled version option Signed-off-by: Bhaskar Chowdhury Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/c98fa38b74bdd8ab16d35862895dac5f5a535f94.1619181632.git.unixbhaskar@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet

ver_linux: Eliminate duplicate code in ldconfig processing logic

2021-01-27T13:54:42+00:00

The code that acquires the version strings for libc and libcpp is identical, as is the printversion call. The only difference being the name of the library being printed. Refactor the code by unifying the bits that are common to both libraries. Signed-off-by: Alexander Kapshuk Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210108112626.8623-1-alexander.kapshuk@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

ver_linux: Query ld cache for versions of libc/libcpp run-time

2020-02-10T21:35:15+00:00

Query ld cache for versions of both libc and libcpp run-time, instead of querying /proc/self/maps for libc run-time, and ld cache for libcpp run-time, thus reducing code size and complexity. Signed-off-by: Alexander Kapshuk Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20200209140057.20181-1-alexander.kapshuk@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

scripts/ver_linux: add Bison and Flex to the checklist

2019-11-11T11:10:01+00:00

Signed-off-by: Bhaskar Chowdhury Acked-by: Alexander Kapshuk Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada