DAMON Release Newsletter for v7.3-rc1

This is also posted to the mailing list. This newsletter covers DAMON features that landed on or queued for the mainline, development statistics and misc events that were noteworthy in my opinion, that were happened from v7.2-rc1 (2026-06-28) to v7.3-rc1 (2026-08-30) time period. The newsletter covering the previous release cycle (v7.1-rc1..v7.2-rc1) is also available [1]. TL; DR Just after breaking the record of DAMON history in the last cycle, this cycle again broke the record....

August 30, 2026 · 9 min · 1809 words · Me

DAMON Development Stats

Landed Changes <version> <nr_authors> <nr_commits> <nr_lines> v7.3-rc1 21 162 2283 v7.2-rc1 14 109 3311 v7.1-rc1 9 77 1070 v7.0-rc1 12 75 1279 v6.19-rc1 10 85 1640 v6.18-rc1 13 59 864 v6.17-rc1 8 104 3785 v6.16-rc1 5 22 564 v6.15-rc1 7 68 1479 v6.14-rc1 8 61 4008 v6.13-rc1 10 23 132 v6.12-rc1 5 22 253 v6.11-rc1 5 39 1491 v6.10-rc1 2 23 495 v6.9-rc1 4 51 1480 v6.8-rc1 5 31 1259 v6....

August 29, 2026 · 2 min · 281 words · Me

DAMON Release Newsletter for v7.2-rc1

This is also posted to the mailing list. Hello community, This newsletter covers DAMON features that landed on the mainline, queued for the mainline, development statistics and misc events that were interesting to me that happened in v7.1-rc1..v7.2-rc1 time period (2026-04-26..2026-06-28). The newsletter covering the previous release cycle (v7.0-rc1..v7.1-rc1) is also available [1]. TLDR The last development cycle for DAMON was the busiest cycle of its mainline history (~5 years, since 2021 September)....

June 28, 2026 · 7 min · 1399 words · Me

DAMON TLB Flush Policy

Authors: Kunwu Chan <kunwu.chan@gmail.com>, Wang Lian <lianux.mm@gmail.com> Overview DAMON monitors data access by sampling PTE (Page Table Entry) Accessed bits. It clears the Accessed bit but does not flush the TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer). This is an intentional design choice. Questions about this behavior come up repeatedly, both on the mailing list and in private inquiries. This document describes the reasoning, the trade-offs, and recommendations for users and testers. Background DAMON’s access check works as follows:...

June 9, 2026 · 4 min · 829 words · Kunwu Chan, Wang Lian

DAMON Release News Letter (v7.0-rc1..v7.1-rc1)

This is also posted to the mailing list. Hello community, This news letter covers DAMON features that landed on the mainline, and misc events that were interesting to me that happened in v7.0-rc1..v7.1-rc1 time period (2026-02-22..2026-04.26). The news letter covering the previous release cycle (v6.19-rc1..v7.0-rc1) is also available [1]. Changes Landed On v7.0 All changes that were landed on v7.0-rc1 have successfully landed on v7.0. Read the news letter for v7....

April 28, 2026 · 6 min · 1184 words · Me

DAMON Release News (v6.19-rc1..v7.0-rc1)

This is also posted to the mailing list. Hello community, I shared DAMON quarterly news [1, 2, 3, 4] in 2024. I was further planning to write that for 2025 Q1. But I dropped the ball and never finished it. I’m starting a new series of DAMON news, that aims to cover each -rc1 release. This news letter covers DAMON features that landed on the mainline, and misc events that were interesting to me that happened in v6....

February 28, 2026 · 6 min · 1248 words · Me

DAMON Yearly Retrospect (2025)

This is also posted to DAMON mailing list. It is a bit late, but let me share my retrospect of DAMON development for 2025, before my memory goes away. The yearly retrospects for 2022 [1], 2023 [2] and 2024 [3] are also available. Summary 2025 was the busiest year for DAMON development of its history. 33 people made 390 commits for DAMON in 2025. Those numbers are 65 % and 157 % increase from those of 2024....

February 22, 2026 · 7 min · 1396 words · Me