14 DAY TRIAL // Linus Torvalds has responded to a Linux kernel maintainer about a bug he introduced and the discussion has gone off the reservation.
From what we've seen so far, Linux Torvalds is a fair and easy going guy, but he is not afraid to say what he thinks. Nvidia has experienced the uncensored wrath of Linus.
One of the Linux kernel maintainers, Mauro Carvalho Chehab, has pushed a patch that broke the functionality of PulseAudio and then blamed the software. Linus Torvalds intervened and explained in furious manner why it's always the kernels fault.
“Mauro, SHUT [Expletive]!
It's a bug alright - in the kernel. How long have you been a maintainer? And you *still* haven't learnt the first rule of kernel maintenance?
If a change results in user programs breaking, it's a bug in the kernel. We never EVER blame the user programs. How hard can this be to understand?” stated Torvalds.
Moreover, Linus went over the maintainer's head and applied the patch himself because he considered that Mauro Carvalho Chehab was not competent enough to do the job himself.
“WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!
Seriously. How hard is this rule to understand? We particularly don't break user space with TOTAL CRAP. I'm angry, because your whole email was so _horribly_ wrong, and the patch that broke things was so obviously crap. The whole patch is incredibly broken [expletive].
The fact that you then try to make *excuses* for breaking user space, and blaming some external program that *used* to work, is just shameful. It's not how we work.
Fix your [expletive] "compliance tool", because it is obviously broken. And fix your approach to kernel programming” ended Torvalds.
Linus Torvalds is not usually this angry, especially not in mailing list. Most likely, he wanted to turn the kernel maintainer into an example and we can safely say that his mission was accomplished.