Real-Time Patches Updated For Linux 5.9/5.10 With The Code Not Yet Mainlined

There was talk earlier this year of mainlining the real-time Linux kernel patches after similar discussions last year didn't result in it happening. Merging the RT code didn't happen for the recent Linux 5.10 merge window but at least the out-of-tree patches were quickly re-based for Linux 5.9 stable and 5.10-rc1.

Sebastian Andrzej Siewior announced today 5.9.1-rt20 and 5.10-rc1-rt1 as the latest real-time patches for the current stable and development kernels.

There are just over 200 patches currently comprising the "RT" series for providing the real-time capabilities utilized by a wide range of vendors and other organizations. This real-time work is about providing real-time support in the form of a fully preemptible kernel and addressing (eliminating) the possibility of unbounded latencies mandated by various embedded use-cases and more.

Upstreaming RT wasn't proposed for Linux 5.10 as the final full kernel cycle of 2020, but hopefully it won't take too much longer before finally seeing it mainline and it didn't sound like it would take much more time at least back at the Linux Plumbers Conference. Some RT work was previously held up by the printk rework, which the initial printk rework landed in Linux 5.10, so perhaps we do stand chances of seeing the PREEMPT_RT code upstreamed in early 2021.