On October 21, 2026, Phoronix reported that Linus Torvalds had merged a change removing __get_user() and __put_user() for Linux 7.4. The report said the removal covered generic kernel code and completed the change for x86 and x86_64. It also said some architecture-specific remnants remain, while ARM64’s legacy functions already map to get_user() and put_user().
What the Linux 5.5 API reference says
The Linux 5.5 Memory Management API documentation says callers must check a user-space pointer with access_ok() before calling __get_user() or __put_user(). These functions copy one simple value across the user-space/kernel-space boundary: __get_user() copies from user space into the kernel, while __put_user() copies from the kernel to user space.
That same Linux 5.5 reference describes get_user() and put_user() as single-value alternatives that return zero on success and -EFAULT on error. Those details describe the 5.5 API reference. Phoronix attributed the removal rationale to Torvalds, who called the older interfaces historical and pointed to scoped user-access-region helpers as making the modern interfaces easier to use.
