1 Submitting Drivers For The Linux Kernel
2 ---------------------------------------
3
4 This document is intended to explain how to submit device drivers to the
5 Linux 2.2 and 2.4test kernel trees. Note that if you are interested in video
6 card drivers you should probably talk to XFree86 (http://wwww.xfree86.org)
7 instead.
8
9 Also read the Documentation/SubmittingPatches document.
10
11
12 Allocating Device Numbers
13 -------------------------
14
15 Major and minor numbers for block and character devices are allocated
16 by the Linux assigned name and number authority (currently better
17 known as H Peter Anvin). The site is http://www.lanana.org/. This
18 also deals with allocating numbers for devices that are not going to
19 be submitted to the mainstream kernel.
20
21 If you don't use assigned numbers then when you device is submitted it will
22 get given an assigned number even if that is different from values you may
23 have shipped to customers before.
24
25 Who To Submit Drivers To
26 ------------------------
27
28 Linux 2.0:
29 No new drivers are accepted for this kernel tree
30
31 Linux 2.2:
32 If the code area has a general maintainer then please submit it to
33 the maintainer listed in MAINTAINERS in the kernel file. If the
34 maintainer does not respond or you cannot find the appropriate
35 maintainer then please contact Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
36
37 Linux 2.4test:
38 This kernel tree is under active development. The same rules apply
39 as 2.2 but you may wish to submit your driver via linux-kernel (see
40 resources) and follow that list to track changes in API's. These
41 should no longer be occuring as we are now in a code freeze.
42 The final contact point for Linux 2.4 submissions is
43 <torvalds@transmeta.com>.
44
45 What Criteria Determine Acceptance
46 ----------------------------------
47
48 Licensing: The code must be released to us under the GNU public license.
49 We don't insist on any kind of exclusively GPL licensing,
50 and if you wish the driver to be useful to other communities
51 such as BSD you may well wish to release under multiple
52 licenses.
53
54 Interfaces: If your driver uses existing interfaces and behaves like
55 other drivers in the same class it will be much more likely
56 to be accepted than if it invents gratuitous new ones.
57 If you need to implement a common API over Linux and NT
58 drivers do it in userspace.
59
60 Code: Please use the Linux style of code formatting as documented
61 in Documentation/CodingStyle. If you have sections of code
62 that need to be in other formats, for example because they
63 are shared with a windows driver kit and you want to
64 maintain them just once seperate them out nicely and note
65 this fact.
66
67 Portability: Pointers are not always 32bits, people do not all have
68 floating point and you shouldn't use inline x86 assembler in
69 your driver without careful thought. Pure x86 drivers
70 generally are not popular. If you only have x86 hardware it
71 is hard to test portability but it is easy to make sure the
72 code can easily be made portable.
73
74 Clarity: It helps if anyone can see how to fix the driver. It helps
75 you because you get patches not bug reports. If you submit a
76 driver that intentionally obfuscates how the hardware works
77 it will go in the bitbucket.
78
79 Control: In general if there is active maintainance of a driver by
80 the author then patches will be redirected to them unless
81 they are totally obvious and without need of checking.
82 If you want to be the contact and update point for the
83 driver it is a good idea to state this in the comments,
84 and include an entry in MAINTAINERS for your driver.
85
86 What Criteria Do Not Determine Acceptance
87 -----------------------------------------
88
89 Vendor: Being the hardware vendor and maintaining the driver is
90 often a good thing. If there is a stable working driver from
91 other people already in the tree don't expect 'we are the
92 vendor' to get your driver chosen. Ideally work with the
93 existing driver author to build a single perfect driver.
94
95 Author: It doesn't matter if a large Linux company wrote the driver,
96 or you did. Nobody has any special access to the kernel
97 tree. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn't telling the
98 whole story.
99
100
101 Resources
102 ---------
103
104 Linux kernel master tree:
105 ftp.??.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/...
106 ?? == your country code, such as "us", "uk", "fr", etc.
107
108 Linux kernel mailing list:
109 linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
110 [mail majordomo@vger.kernel.org to subscribe]
111
112 Kernel traffic:
113 Weekly summary of kernel list activity (much easier to read)
114 [http://kt.linuxcare.com/kernel-traffic]
115
116 Linux USB project:
117 http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-usb/
118
This page was automatically generated by the
LXR engine.
Visit the LXR main site for more
information.