On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 1:39 AM, Adam Carter <adamcart...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Seems to me like point versions of 4.9 and 4.14 are often released on the > same date, but fixes that have gone into 4.14 don't make it into 4.9 until > the subsequent release. Could be my imagination.
One of the issues with Meltdown/Spectre in particular is that the affected parts of the kernel have undergone some change over the years, and the changes themselves are not trivial. For some of the much older kernels the fixes are basically complete rewrites, with their own quality issues and timelines. For 4.9 that probably isn't as much of a factor, but it wouldn't surprise me if the changes still migrate their way backwards in time. There have been regressions with some of these changes, and that being the case the maintainers might want to both reduce the number of people impacted and also test them first on the kernels most similar to mainline where the patches were developed. -- Rich
