Linus Torvalds Slams Google Engineer’s Code as ‘Garbage’ and Rejects It for Linux 6.17
Ddos 
Recently, Palmer Dabbelt of Google’s Android team came under sharp criticism from Linus Torvalds for submitting code to the Linux kernel. The submission concerned RISC-V patches for Linux Kernel 6.17, which is currently in its merge window.
Due to what he deemed poor code quality, Linus Torvalds bluntly described the RISC-V patches from the Google engineer as “garbage” that would “make the world a worse place.” More critically, Torvalds took issue with the timing, noting that such submissions should not be made during the merge window.
In an email, Linus Torvalds stated:
“No. This is garbage and it came in too late. I asked for early pull requests because I’m traveling, and if you can’t follow that rule, at least make the pull requests *good*.
This adds various garbage that isn’t RISC-V specific to generic header files.
And by “garbage” I really mean it. This is stuff that nobody should ever send me, never mind late in a merge window.”
Torvalds’ fiery responses to questionable submissions are far from rare—particularly when code is sent late in the merge cycle. He stressed that contributions should be made as early as possible rather than waiting for the merge window, advising the Google engineer to target Linux Kernel 6.18 instead of pushing further changes into 6.17.
Of course, the merge window does not outright forbid submissions. However, the unspoken rule is that any code submitted during this period must be clean and ready—something that, in this case, clearly was not. As a result, Torvalds’ blunt rebuke, while perhaps stinging, was not entirely unexpected.
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- Linus Torvalds Opposes “Kernel Lockdown” Approach
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