AI Makes Linux 7.4 Merge Window the Largest in Kernel History

November 1, 2026

“On a Git commit basis, the Linux 7.4 merge window has been the busiest on record,” writes Phoronix,” with 19,671 commits since Linux 7.3:

As of this morning in Linux Git ahead of v7.4-rc1, the kernel source tree is up to 41,605,120 lines. That’s from 5,193,578 blank lines, 4,993,604 lines of comments, and 31,417,938 lines of detected code. Or nearly half a million lines of code added during the Linux 7.4 merge window, ignoring comments and blank lines [as detected by cloc ].

A historical graph of commits shows a clear spike for Linux 7.4, which Phoronix argues shows the definite recent uptick due to AI/LLM activity.”

With Linux kernel maintainers being “completely overwhelmed” due to both AI generated bug reports and patches/fixes, the Git commit activity has been surging as a result… The upward trend has continued building the past several kernel releases. Typically the merge windows saw 13~14k commits or less and now we are pushing 20k….
Linux 6.14: 10,034
Linux 6.15: 13,568
Linux 6.16: 13,805
Linux 6.17: 12,289
Linux 6.18: 12,910
Linux 6.19: 13,229
Linux 7.0: 12,468
Linux 7.1: 13,963
Linux 7.2: 14,395
Linux 7.3: 16,267
Linux 7.4: 19,671

And “we could still see a few more trickle in today for Linux 7.4 ahead of the expected Linux 7.4-rc1 kernel release later in the day.”