Bcachefs Changes Rejected Reportedly Due To CoC, Kernel Future "Uncertain"

While the Bcachefs feature changes for Linux 6.13 were already submitted even before the Linux 6.12 stable kernel was released, merging these changes are supposedly on hold due to the kernel's Code of Conduct (CoC) board.

Bcachefs lead developer Kent Overstreet published a Patreon post this evening entitled "Trouble in the kernel" where he explained:

"TLDR: the future of bcachefs in the kernel is uncertain, and lots of things aren't looking good.

Linus has said he isn't accepting my 6.13 pull request, per "an open issue with the CoC board", and at this point I have no idea what's going on with the CoC board. I, for my part, have felt for quite some time that there are issues about our culture and the way we do work that need to be raised, and that hasn't been going anywhere - hence this post."

This stems from Linux kernel mailing list drama and the friction caused with other upstream kernel developers... The lengthy Patreon post goes into all of the beliefs over the current Linux CoC situation with Bcachefs.

Overstreet concludes that latest update with:

"Almost universally, any time there's a power vacuum (whether in the first larger-than-tribes societies, or in societies where state power has become weak), the first authority figures that fill the power vacuum are dicks - overly violent, because that's how they come to power. Even from the start they do generally serve useful functions (one example anthropologists use is the Mafia, in New York in the 70s; besides their more well known occupations, they were also making sure the garbage was hauled away). It takes time to "domesticate" authority figures, to teach them to be accountable and responsible, but it generally happens.

I wonder if that explains some of what we've been seeing in free software communities as a whole, as CoC boards have been springing up, wielding real power, in ways that feel quite uncomfortable. I don't think there's any going back to the way things used to be, but perhaps with some awareness we can get this pointed in a better direction.

Another note that I was raising with the CoC is that a culture of dismissiveness, of finding ways to avoid the technical discussions we're supposed to be having, really is toxic, and moreso than mere flamewars.

Couples therapists say they can tell within a few minutes if a couple is worth working with or not: if it's anger they're displaying, then that's something that can be worked through. If it's dismissiveness, all hope is lost.

It's a good thought for engineers to have as well, we really do need to be engaging properly with each other in order to do our work well.

Vannevar Bush (one of the most accomplished engineers of the 20th century) said that all he did was get the army and the navy to talk to each other.

Food for thought."

Time will tell what is going to happen with the Bcachefs file-system code in the Linux kernel. Linus Torvalds hadn't replied publicly to the Bcachefs pull request as of writing but in the past there has been well known friction within LKML exchanges around Bcachefs.

This past week there was a patch as acknowledged by Linux kernel Code of Conduct committee members around their enforcement policy for those interested in the details.