The Linux kernel community has started spelling out what happens when Linus Torvalds steps aside and the repo still needs steering.
A continuity document has been drafted by longtime kernel contributor Dan Williams and aired at the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit in Tokyo.
Williams pitched it with the sort of gallows humour kernel people seem to enjoy, calling it “an uplifting subject tied to our eventual march toward death.”
Torvalds said: “Part of the reason it came up this time around was that my previous contract with Linux Foundation ended Q3 last year, and people on the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board had been aware of that. Of course, they were aware that we’d renewed the contract, but it meant that it had been discussed.”
Instead of crowning a successor, the plan outlines a process for selecting one or more top-level maintainers during either an orderly handover or a worst-case emergency. It includes convening a closed-door meeting to weigh options and prioritise the project’s long-term health.
One maintainer in Tokyo joked that it should copy the papal ritual, with the group locked in a room and white smoke when they finally agree.
The document leans on the classic “bus factor” problem, which Linux has effectively been daring fate to test for years. Torvald’s role still makes it appear like a bus factor of one, even if the day-to-day reality is more distributed.
In practice, many people assume the top job would go to Linux kernel stable maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman. But Torvalds pushed back on the idea that any one name should be treated as destiny.
“But the thing is, Greg hasn’t always been Greg. Before Greg, there was Andrew Morton and Alan Cox. After Greg, there will be Shannon and Steve.”
He pointed out the uncomfortable truth behind any succession story.
“The real issue is you have to have a person or a group of people that the development community can trust, and part of trust is fundamentally about having been around for long enough that people know how you work, but long enough does not mean to be 30 years.”
