[$] The end of the 6.18 merge window

The 6.18 merge window has come to an end, bringing with it a total of 11,974
non-merge commits, 3,499 of which came in after LWN's
first-half summary.
The total is a little higher than the 6.17 merge window, which saw 11,404
non-merge commits. There are once again
a good number of changes and new features included in this release.