UNAME26 is a mechanism to report Linux's version as 2.6.x, for compatibility with old/broken software. Due to the way it is implemented, it would have to be updated after 5.0, to keep the resulting versions unique. Linus Torvalds argued: "Do we actually need this? I'd rather let it bitrot, and just let it return random versions. It will just start again at 2.4.60, won't it? Anybody who uses UNAME26 for a 5.x kernel might as well think it's still 4.x. The user space is so old that it can't possibly care about differences between 4.x and 5.x, can it? The only thing that matters is that it shows "2.4.<largeenough>", which it will do regardless"
Unified · Split
| @@ -1207,7 +1207,8 @@ DECLARE_RWSEM(uts_sem); · 1206 unmodified lines | ||
| 1207 | 1207 | /* |
| 1208 | 1208 | * Work around broken programs that cannot handle "Linux 3.0". |
| 1209 | 1209 | * Instead we map 3.x to 2.6.40+x, so e.g. 3.0 would be 2.6.40 |
| 1210 | − * And we map 4.x to 2.6.60+x, so 4.0 would be 2.6.60. | |
| 1210 | + * And we map 4.x and later versions to 2.6.60+x, so 4.0/5.0/6.0/... would be | |
| 1211 | + * 2.6.60. | |
| 1211 | 1212 | */ |
| 1212 | 1213 | static int override_release(char __user *release, size_t len) |
| 1213 | 1214 | { |