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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/SubmittingDrivers')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/SubmittingDrivers | 54 |
1 files changed, 37 insertions, 17 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers b/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers index 31d372609ac0..252b77a23fad 100644 --- a/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers @@ -1,5 +1,7 @@ +.. _submittingdrivers: + Submitting Drivers For The Linux Kernel ---------------------------------------- +======================================= This document is intended to explain how to submit device drivers to the various kernel trees. Note that if you are interested in video card drivers @@ -38,42 +40,48 @@ Linux 2.4: maintainer does not respond or you cannot find the appropriate maintainer then please contact Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>. -Linux 2.6: +Linux 2.6 and upper: The same rules apply as 2.4 except that you should follow linux-kernel - to track changes in API's. The final contact point for Linux 2.6 + to track changes in API's. The final contact point for Linux 2.6+ submissions is Andrew Morton. What Criteria Determine Acceptance ---------------------------------- -Licensing: The code must be released to us under the +Licensing: + The code must be released to us under the GNU General Public License. We don't insist on any kind of exclusive 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. See accepted licenses at include/linux/module.h -Copyright: The copyright owner must agree to use of GPL. +Copyright: + The copyright owner must agree to use of GPL. It's best if the submitter and copyright owner are the same person/entity. If not, the name of the person/entity authorizing use of GPL should be listed in case it's necessary to verify the will of the copyright owner. -Interfaces: If your driver uses existing interfaces and behaves like +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 +Code: + Please use the Linux style of code formatting as documented + in :ref:`Documentation/CodingStyle <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 separate them out nicely and note this fact. -Portability: Pointers are not always 32bits, not all computers are little +Portability: + Pointers are not always 32bits, not all computers are little endian, 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. @@ -81,12 +89,14 @@ Portability: Pointers are not always 32bits, not all computers are little 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 +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. -PM support: Since Linux is used on many portable and desktop systems, your +PM support: + Since Linux is used on many portable and desktop systems, your driver is likely to be used on such a system and therefore it should support basic power management by implementing, if necessary, the .suspend and .resume methods used during the @@ -101,7 +111,8 @@ PM support: Since Linux is used on many portable and desktop systems, your complete overview of the power management issues related to drivers see Documentation/power/devices.txt . -Control: In general if there is active maintenance of a driver by +Control: + In general if there is active maintenance 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 @@ -111,13 +122,15 @@ Control: In general if there is active maintenance of a driver by What Criteria Do Not Determine Acceptance ----------------------------------------- -Vendor: Being the hardware vendor and maintaining the driver is +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, +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. @@ -127,8 +140,10 @@ Resources --------- Linux kernel master tree: - ftp.??.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/... - ?? == your country code, such as "us", "uk", "fr", etc. + ftp.\ *country_code*\ .kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/... + + where *country_code* == your country code, such as + **us**, **uk**, **fr**, etc. http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git @@ -141,14 +156,19 @@ Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition (covers 2.6.10): LWN.net: Weekly summary of kernel development activity - http://lwn.net/ + 2.6 API changes: + http://lwn.net/Articles/2.6-kernel-api/ + Porting drivers from prior kernels to 2.6: + http://lwn.net/Articles/driver-porting/ KernelNewbies: Documentation and assistance for new kernel programmers - http://kernelnewbies.org/ + + http://kernelnewbies.org/ Linux USB project: http://www.linux-usb.org/ |