Oracle Corporation has updated the UEK-next (Next Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel) package to the Linux kernel 6.10 branch. In the Oracle Linux distribution, the default kernel is UEK 7, which is based on Linux kernel 5.15, while the UEK-next branch evolves as a continuously updated option for developers, providing access to the latest improvements from the main kernel branch while retaining access to UEK-specific advanced features such as DTrace integration and enhanced Btrfs support, as well as optimizations for working with Oracle software and hardware.
The UEK-next kernel is formed by overlaying patches and improvements prepared for the UEK kernel onto the mainline Linux kernel. The UEK-next branch is not intended for use in production deployments, but it undergoes basic testing and can be used to adapt applications and workloads to new versions of the main kernel. After some time, one of the UEK-next kernels will provide a Long-Term Support (LTS) cycle, and this kernel will be used as the foundation for the UEK 8 branch.
The release of UEK-next 6.10 was prepared two months after the main kernel 6.10 release, as much time is required to develop patches, adapt them for the new kernel, review, and test. Among the improvements specific to UEK-next 6.10 is the support for the "sched_ext" (SCX) mechanism, which allows the use of eBPF to create CPU schedulers. The main kernel plans to incorporate sched_ext in the 6.12 release.
Source: opennet.ru
