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Submitting Drivers For The Linux Kernel
---------------------------------------
This document is intended to explain how to submit device drivers to the
Linux 2.2 and 2.4test kernel trees. Note that if you are interested in video
card drivers you should probably talk to XFree86 (http://wwww.xfree86.org)
instead.
Allocating Device Numbers
-------------------------
Major and minor numbers for devices are allocated by the Linux assigned name
and number authority (currently better known as H Peter Anvin). The
site is http://www.lanana.org/. This also deals with allocating numbers for
devices that are not going to be submitted to the mainstream kernel.
If you don't use assigned numbers then when you device is submitted it will
get given an assigned number even if that is different from values you may
have shipped to customers before.
Who To Submit Drivers To
------------------------
Linux 2.0:
No new drivers are accepted for this kernel tree
Linux 2.2:
If the code area has a general maintainer then please submit it to
the maintainer listed in MAINTAINERS in the kernel file. If the
maintainer does not respond or you cannot find the appropriate
maintainer then please contact Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Linux 2.4test:
This kernel tree is under active development. The same rules apply
as 2.2 but you may wish to submit your driver via linux-kernel (see
resources) and follow that list to track changes in API's. These
should no longer be occuring as we are now in a code freeze.
The final contact point for Linux 2.4 submissions is
<torvalds@transmeta.com>.
What Criteria Determine Acceptance
----------------------------------
Licensing: The code must be released to us under the GNU public license.
We don't insist on any kind of exclusively GPL licensing,
and if you wish the driver to be useful to other communities
such as BSD you may well wish to release under multiple
licenses.
Interfaces: If your driver uses existing interfaces and behaves like
other drivers in the same class it will be much more likely
to be accepted than if it invents gratuitous new ones.
If you need to implement a common API over Linux and NT
drivers do it in userspace.
Code: Please use the Linux style of code formatting as documented
in Documentation/CodingStyle. If you have sections of code
that need to be in other formats, for example because they
are shared with a windows driver kit and you want to
maintain them just once seperate them out nicely and note
this fact.
Portability: Pointers are not always 32bits, people do not all have
floating point and you shouldn't use inline x86 assembler in
your driver without careful thought. Pure x86 drivers
generally are not popular. If you only have x86 hardware it
is hard to test portability but it is easy to make sure the
code can easily be made portable.
Clarity: It helps if anyone can see how to fix the driver. It helps
you because you get patches not bug reports. If you submit a
driver that intentionally obfuscates how the hardware works
it will go in the bitbucket.
Control: In general if there is active maintainance of a driver by
the author then patches will be redirected to them unless
they are totally obvious and without need of checking.
If you want to be the contact and update point for the
driver it is a good idea to state this in the comments.
What Criteria Do Not Determine Acceptance
-----------------------------------------
Vendor: Being the hardware vendor and maintaining the driver is
often a good thing. If there is a stable working driver from
other people already in the tree don't expect 'we are the
vendor' to get your driver chosen. Ideally work with the
existing driver author to build a single perfect driver.
Author: It doesn't matter if a large Linux company wrote the driver,
or you did. Nobody has any special access to the kernel
tree. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn't telling the
whole story.
Resources
---------
Linux kernel master tree:
ftp.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/...
Linux kernel mailing list:
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
[mail majordomo@vger.kernel.org to subscribe]
Kernel traffic:
Weekly summary of kernel list activity (much easier to read)
[http://kt.linuxcare.com/kernel-traffic]
Linux USB project:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-usb/
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