Download the new source

The Linux kernel developers realize that all users do not wish to download the entire source code to the kernel for every update. That would be a waste of bandwidth and time. Because of this, they offer a patch ^[] that can upgrade an older kernel release, to a newer one.

^[] It is called patch because the program patch takes the file and applies it to the original tree, creating the new tree. The patch file contains a representation of the changes that are necessary to reconstruct the new files, based on the old ones. Patch files are readable, and contain a list of the lines that are to be removed and the lines that are to be added, with some context within the file showing where the changes should be made.

On the main kernel.org website, you will remember that it contained a list of the current kernel versions that are available for download:

The main kernel.org web site