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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →If Linus Torvalds can no longer maintain Linux’s top-level repository, the kernel project does not automatically hand it to a named successor. Its official continuity document instead sets out a process for convening maintainers, considering how to manage the repository, and communicating next steps to the wider community.
Why Linux has a continuity question
Linux kernel development is distributed across maintainers’ repositories, but the final integration into the canonical repository, torvalds/linux.git, is normally centralized. The project’s continuity documentation describes over 100 maintainers working through their own repositories. That is the project’s stated figure, not an independently audited live count.
This structure makes continuity of the top-level repository important. It does not mean that all kernel development would stop if Torvalds became unavailable: the official document cites Linux 4.19 in 2018 as an example of others performing the final integration work when needed. The cited passage does not identify who did that work or detail the arrangements.
What triggers the documented process?
The process applies if the maintainers of the top-level repository become unwilling or unable to continue, including facilitating a transition. It is a contingency procedure, not an automatic succession rule: the document names no individual successor, and it does not say that the process has been triggered.
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How the continuity process works
- An organizer starts the process. The last organizer of a Maintainers Summit convenes the discussion. If that person cannot do so, the chair of the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board (TAB) is the backup organizer.
- The organizer contacts the invitees. Within 72 hours, the organizer opens discussion with people invited to the most recent Maintainers Summit. If no Summit has taken place in the preceding 15 months, the TAB determines who is invited. Participants may bring in other maintainers as needed.
- The group considers repository management. Chaired by the organizer, the meeting considers options for ongoing management of the top-level repository, with the stated aim of supporting the project’s long-term health and community.
- Next steps are shared. A representative communicates next steps to the wider community within two weeks.
- The Linux Foundation supports implementation. Guided by the TAB, the Linux Foundation supports and implements the plan.
The operative procedure is published in the Linux kernel project continuity documentation. It describes how a decision process would begin; it does not predetermine the outcome or identify who would take over final integration.
What the plan does—and does not—settle
It provides a convening and decision process
The plan’s organizing principle is continuity of the canonical repository, not automatic elevation of a deputy. It brings recent Summit invitees and the TAB into a discussion, allows additional maintainers to participate, and sets deadlines for opening discussion and communicating next steps.
It leaves the management choice open
The procedure calls for considering options rather than prescribing one arrangement. It does not name a successor, specify a permanent leadership structure, or describe how a transition would work in every possible circumstance.
It does not resolve every failure scenario
During discussion of the draft, Mauro Carvalho Chehab criticized it as “too optimistic” and proposed backups for cases where the organizer or TAB could not be reached. Those were suggestions in a mailing-list reply, not provisions in the official procedure. The current document specifies the organizer and TAB-chair roles.
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The document followed Maintainers Summit discussions. In a patch dated January 23, 2026, Dan Williams described it as “a plan for a plan” for navigating events affecting the forward progress of the canonical repository, torvalds/linux.git. The current official documentation sets out the procedure described above.
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