Linus Torvalds rages against ‘random turd files’ in Linux 6.15-rc1 directories

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‘This thing needs to *die*’ he says, advising testing code be removed from normal builds.

Torvalds doesn't like hdrtest
(Image credit: Future)

Linus Torvalds is back at his explosively scatological best in some recent comments about a Linux 6.15-rc1 pull request (h/t Phoronix). The target of the Linux creator and lead developer’s ire was “the disgusting ‘hdrtest’ crap,” which he accused of slowing down software builds and leaving “random ‘hdrtest’ turds around.” Torvald’s full post concerning the hdrtest issue registered a six on the turd-o-meter.

While Torvalds was disturbed by the code that was impacting the latest Linux kernel, beginning his post with a “Grr,” he remained precise in his objections to it. “I did the pull, resolved the (trivial) conflicts, but I notice that this ended up containing the disgusting ‘hdrtest’ crap that (a) slows down the build because it's done for a regular allmodconfig build rather than be some simple thing that you guys can run as needed (b) also leaves random ‘hdrtest’ turds around in the include directories,” he wrote.

“This thing needs to *die*”

Torvalds went on to state that he had previously complained about this issue, and inquired why the hdr testing is being done as a regular part of the build. Moreover, he highlighted that the resulting ‘turds’ were breaking filename completion. Torvalds underlined this point - and his disgust - by stating, “this thing needs to *die*.”

In a shot of advice to fellow Linux developers, Toralds said, “If you want to do that hdrtest thing, do it as part of your *own* checks. Don't make everybody else see that disgusting thing and have those turds in their trees.” He then noted that he had decided to mark hdrtest as broken for now, to prevent its inclusion in regular builds.

So, what is ‘hdrtest’ and why has it brought Torvalds' frustration levels to boiling point? According to Phoronix, the Linux developer team has recently merged a large collection of open-source graphics card driver updates. Alongside this is ‘hdrtest’ code for the Intel Xe kernel driver, which includes code to test DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) header files.

To avoid any confusion, DRM in this instance isn’t Digital Rights Management; instead, it refers to the Direct Rendering Manager. On a similar note, hdrtest isn’t anything to do with High Dynamic Range (HDR) graphics, but is used by devs for verifying the integrity and self-containment of DRM header files.

Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pierce2623
    He seemed a lot funnier before this became “his thing”.
    Reply
  • jg.millirem
    Torvalds, Jobs, Gates - all broken humans.
    Reply
  • wsanders11
    I find Linus' crankiness entertaining. My guess is that all the devs on the kernel team have experienced far worse from much less competent engineering managers. Reverse engineering modern hardware is getting more and more difficult: increased complexity. spotty documentation, sometime comepletely closed designs. It's a miracle this stuff works at all.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    jg.millirem said:
    Torvalds, Jobs, Gates - all broken humans.
    I think Torvalds is pretty typical of the senior engineer type of person that I've worked with. He knows a lot and doesn't always have much patience for nonsense, which sometimes comes out in a post written when he's in a cranky or surly mood. At other times, I've seen him go to great lengths to explain his position and educate the other person. There's actually a lot of that in this post, but people just pick up on his hard-line stance and the language he used to characterize it.

    In this post referenced by the article, all he's saying is that the build shouldn't leave random temp files. There are two problems with this. First is that he doesn't want any tests being run as part of the build, itself. The second is that tests should be well-behaved, which means not creating temp files that clutter up the source tree. Both are understandable points.

    If he didn't use such colorful language and emphasize his hard-line position, there would've been nothing exceptional about this. However, he points out that such practices rarely ever make it into the main kernel branch and that's why he's trying to get everyone's attention. Multiple people dropped the ball, in order for this to have happened.

    One thing I respect about Linus is that he's stayed in the trenches, in spite of Linux' stellar success. At least 10 years ago, he could've just stepped back and run the Linux Foundation, but the tech is his true passion. So, unlike Gates, who withdrew from the technical work as MS grew, Linus has been instrumental in every Linux kernel release that's ever happened. Not only that, but let's not forget that Linus also created Git, which is overwhelmingly the predominate source control system used today. So, that's two stellar successes he's had.

    BTW, Steve Jobs was never technical. Even back when he worked at Atari, he was already getting Wozniak to do his work for him. He was visionary and uncompromising, which (eventually) worked to his advantage, but a technical genius he was not.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    wsanders11 said:
    Reverse engineering modern hardware is getting more and more difficult: increased complexity. spotty documentation, sometime comepletely closed designs. It's a miracle this stuff works at all.
    Far and away, most hardware support in modern Linux is engineered by the hardware vendors, themselves. There are a few notable exceptions to this, such as the Asahi project, which adds support for running Linux on Apple's M-series SoCs.

    Every now and then, someone tends to look at the biggest contributors to Linux, and the top spots are overwhelmingly occupied by a mix of hardware and cloud computing companies. Probably the most prolific non-professional developers are then in academia. Linux has come a long ways since it's origins as a "hobbyist" OS project.
    Reply
  • acadia11
    Mother of all things good. Engineering tantrums are the best! Everyone hates a dirty build …
    Reply
  • acadia11
    bit_user said:
    I think Torvalds is pretty typical of the senior engineer type of person that I've worked with. He knows a lot and doesn't always have much patience for nonsense, which sometimes comes out in a post written when he's in a cranky or surly mood. At other times, I've seen him go to great lengths to explain his position and educate the other person. There's actually a lot of that in this post, but people just pick up on his hard-line stance and the language he used to characterize it.

    In this post referenced by the article, all he's saying is that the build shouldn't leave random temp files. There are two problems with this. First is that he doesn't want any tests being run as part of the build, itself. The second is that tests should be well-behaved, which means not creating temp files that clutter up the source tree. Both are understandable points.

    If he didn't use such colorful language and emphasize his hard-line position, there would've been nothing exceptional about this. However, he points out that such practices rarely ever make it into the main kernel branch and that's why he's trying to get everyone's attention. Multiple people dropped the ball, in order for this to have happened.

    One thing I respect about Linus is that he's stayed in the trenches, in spite of Linux' stellar success. At least 10 years ago, he could've just stepped back and run the Linux Foundation, but the tech is his true passion. So, unlike Gates, who withdrew from the technical work as MS grew, Linus has been instrumental in every Linux kernel release that's ever happened. Not only that, but let's not forget that Linus also created Git, which is overwhelmingly the predominate source control system used today. So, that's two stellar successes he's had.

    BTW, Steve Jobs was never technical. Even back when he worked at Atari, he was already getting Wozniak to do his work for him. He was visionary and uncompromising, which (eventually) worked to his advantage, but a technical genius he was not.
    Steve Jobs was technical he just happened to focus on the vision rather than on pure buildout. Remember he started Next and powered Pixar to creating revolution computer graphics none which happens until he bought the nascent company. To say Jobs isn’t technical is silly you need to understand the problem to solve the problem. Know what to build, how to build, when to build it takes extreme technical ability and Jobs goes down as one of the engineers that brought modern computing revolution about. It’s like arguing Larry Ellison isn’t technical because he didn’t sit around writing later versions of Oracle or create Java. These guys are engineers who start business not business guys who started businesses.

    If Linus stopped being heavily involved in the actual coding of Linux would say he’s not technical?
    Reply
  • jg.millirem
    bit_user said:
    I think Torvalds is pretty typical of the senior engineer type of person that I've worked with. He knows a lot and doesn't always have much patience for nonsense, which sometimes comes out in a post written when he's in a cranky or surly mood.
    I’ve seen this excuse so many times. The low social intelligence and/or impulse control of some people shouldn’t be normalized and used as cover for others. This one is mild for Torvalds.
    Reply
  • hushnecampus
    Damn, until the end there I thought we might finally be getting good HDR support in Linux :(
    Reply
  • Stomx
    When this misnomer of tech world and creature of finances Microsoft will finally go out of business?

    99.8% of top supercomputers are finally just on one single OS - Linux. Most of cell phones are on Linux. More and more Chrome OS (Linux based) laptops which are twice cheaper than Microsoft based ones are on the shelves of Best Buy and Walmart.

    Tech world would be better without MS.
    Reply