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Merge remote-tracking branch 'airlied/drm-next' into drm-intel-next-queued

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Backmerge because Chris Wilson needs the very latest&greates of
Gustavo Padovan's sync_file work, specifically the refcounting changes
from:

commit 30cd85dd6e
Author: Gustavo Padovan <gustavo.padovan@collabora.co.uk>
Date:   Wed Oct 19 15:48:32 2016 -0200

    dma-buf/sync_file: hold reference to fence when creating sync_file

Also good to sync in general since git tends to get confused with the
cherry-picking going on.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@intel.com>
This commit is contained in:
Daniel Vetter 2016-10-25 08:57:53 +02:00
commit f9bf1d97e8
10196 changed files with 570329 additions and 331367 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

2
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@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
*.c diff=cpp
*.h diff=cpp

5
.mailmap
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@ -69,11 +69,14 @@ James Bottomley <jejb@mulgrave.(none)>
James Bottomley <jejb@titanic.il.steeleye.com>
James E Wilson <wilson@specifix.com>
James Ketrenos <jketreno@io.(none)>
Javi Merino <javi.merino@kernel.org> <javi.merino@arm.com>
<javier@osg.samsung.com> <javier.martinez@collabora.co.uk>
Jean Tourrilhes <jt@hpl.hp.com>
Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pretzel.yyz.us>
Jens Axboe <axboe@suse.de>
Jens Osterkamp <Jens.Osterkamp@de.ibm.com>
Johan Hovold <johan@kernel.org> <jhovold@gmail.com>
Johan Hovold <johan@kernel.org> <johan@hovoldconsulting.com>
John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de>
John Stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
<josh@joshtriplett.org> <josh@freedesktop.org>
@ -124,6 +127,7 @@ Peter Oruba <peter@oruba.de>
Peter Oruba <peter.oruba@amd.com>
Pratyush Anand <pratyush.anand@gmail.com> <pratyush.anand@st.com>
Praveen BP <praveenbp@ti.com>
Qais Yousef <qsyousef@gmail.com> <qais.yousef@imgtec.com>
Rajesh Shah <rajesh.shah@intel.com>
Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
Ralf Wildenhues <Ralf.Wildenhues@gmx.de>
@ -159,6 +163,7 @@ Valdis Kletnieks <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu>
Viresh Kumar <vireshk@kernel.org> <viresh.kumar@st.com>
Viresh Kumar <vireshk@kernel.org> <viresh.linux@gmail.com>
Viresh Kumar <vireshk@kernel.org> <viresh.kumar2@arm.com>
Vlad Dogaru <ddvlad@gmail.com> <vlad.dogaru@intel.com>
Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov.dev@gmail.com> <vdavydov@virtuozzo.com>
Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov.dev@gmail.com> <vdavydov@parallels.com>
Takashi YOSHII <takashi.yoshii.zj@renesas.com>

27
CREDITS
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@ -1090,6 +1090,10 @@ S: 6350 Stoneridge Mall Road
S: Pleasanton, CA 94588
S: USA
N: Dmitry Eremin-Solenikov
E: dbaryshkov@gmail.com
D: Power Supply Maintainer from v3.14 - v3.15
N: Doug Evans
E: dje@cygnus.com
D: Wrote Xenix FS (part of standard kernel since 0.99.15)
@ -1944,6 +1948,11 @@ E: kraxel@bytesex.org
E: kraxel@suse.de
D: video4linux, bttv, vesafb, some scsi, misc fixes
N: Hans J. Koch
D: USERSPACE I/O, MAX6650
D: Hans passed away in June 2016, and will be greatly missed.
W: https://lwn.net/Articles/691000/
N: Harald Koenig
E: koenig@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
D: XFree86 (S3), DCF77, some kernel hacks and fixes
@ -2287,11 +2296,11 @@ D: Initial implementation of VC's, pty's and select()
N: Pavel Machek
E: pavel@ucw.cz
D: Softcursor for vga, hypertech cdrom support, vcsa bugfix, nbd
P: 4096R/92DFCE96 4FA7 9EEF FCD4 C44F C585 B8C7 C060 2241 92DF CE96
D: Softcursor for vga, hypertech cdrom support, vcsa bugfix, nbd,
D: sun4/330 port, capabilities for elf, speedup for rm on ext2, USB,
D: work on suspend-to-ram/disk, killing duplicates from ioctl32
S: Volkova 1131
S: 198 00 Praha 9
D: work on suspend-to-ram/disk, killing duplicates from ioctl32,
D: Altera SoCFPGA and Nokia N900 support.
S: Czech Republic
N: Paul Mackerras
@ -3518,6 +3527,10 @@ S: 145 Howard St.
S: Northborough, MA 01532
S: USA
N: Doug Thompson
E: dougthompson@xmission.com
D: EDAC
N: Tommy Thorn
E: Tommy.Thorn@irisa.fr
W: http://www.irisa.fr/prive/thorn/index.html
@ -3654,6 +3667,10 @@ S: Obere Heerbergstrasse 17
S: 97078 Wuerzburg
S: Germany
N: Jason Uhlenkott
E: juhlenko@akamai.com
D: I3000 EDAC driver
N: Greg Ungerer
E: gerg@snapgear.com
D: uClinux kernel hacker
@ -3691,7 +3708,7 @@ S: Germany
N: Geert Uytterhoeven
E: geert@linux-m68k.org
W: http://users.telenet.be/geertu/
P: 1024/862678A6 C51D 361C 0BD1 4C90 B275 C553 6EEA 11BA 8626 78A6
P: 4096R/4804B4BC3F55EEFB 750D 82B0 A781 5431 5E25 925B 4804 B4BC 3F55 EEFB
D: m68k/Amiga and PPC/CHRP Longtrail coordinator
D: Frame buffer device and XF68_FBDev maintainer
D: m68k IDE maintainer

3
Documentation/00-INDEX
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@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ IRQ.txt
Intel-IOMMU.txt
- basic info on the Intel IOMMU virtualization support.
Makefile
- some files in Documentation dir are actually sample code to build
- This file does nothing. Removing it breaks make htmldocs and
make distclean.
ManagementStyle
- how to (attempt to) manage kernel hackers.
RCU/

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==================
cfg80211 subsystem
==================
Device registration
===================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Device registration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_channel_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_channel
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rate_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rate
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_ht_cap
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_supported_band
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_signal_type
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_params_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wireless_dev
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_new
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_register
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_unregister
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_free
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_name
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_dev
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_priv
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: priv_to_wiphy
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: set_wiphy_dev
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wdev_priv
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_iface_limit
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_iface_combination
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_check_combinations
Actions and configuration
=========================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Actions and configuration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_ops
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: vif_params
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: key_params
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: survey_info_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: survey_info
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_beacon_data
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_ap_settings
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: station_parameters
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: rate_info_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: rate_info
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: station_info
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: monitor_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: mpath_info_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: mpath_info
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: bss_parameters
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_txq_params
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_crypto_settings
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_auth_request
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_assoc_request
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_deauth_request
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_disassoc_request
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_ibss_params
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_connect_params
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_pmksa
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_rx_mlme_mgmt
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_auth_timeout
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_rx_assoc_resp
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_assoc_timeout
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_tx_mlme_mgmt
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_ibss_joined
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_connect_result
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_connect_bss
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_connect_timeout
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_roamed
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_disconnected
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_ready_on_channel
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_remain_on_channel_expired
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_new_sta
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_rx_mgmt
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_mgmt_tx_status
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_cqm_rssi_notify
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_cqm_pktloss_notify
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_michael_mic_failure
Scanning and BSS list handling
==============================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Scanning and BSS list handling
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_ssid
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_scan_request
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_scan_done
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_bss
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_inform_bss
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_inform_bss_frame_data
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_inform_bss_data
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_unlink_bss
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_find_ie
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_bss_get_ie
Utility functions
=================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Utility functions
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_channel_to_frequency
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_frequency_to_channel
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_channel
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_response_rate
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_hdrlen
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_hdrlen_from_skb
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_radiotap_iterator
Data path helpers
=================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Data path helpers
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_data_to_8023
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_data_from_8023
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_amsdu_to_8023s
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_classify8021d
Regulatory enforcement infrastructure
=====================================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Regulatory enforcement infrastructure
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: regulatory_hint
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_apply_custom_regulatory
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: freq_reg_info
RFkill integration
==================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: RFkill integration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_rfkill_set_hw_state
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_rfkill_start_polling
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: wiphy_rfkill_stop_polling
Test mode
=========
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:doc: Test mode
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_testmode_alloc_reply_skb
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_testmode_reply
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_testmode_alloc_event_skb
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/cfg80211.h
:functions: cfg80211_testmode_event

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@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
# -*- coding: utf-8; mode: python -*-
project = "Linux 802.11 Driver Developer's Guide"
tags.add("subproject")

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@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
=====================================
Linux 802.11 Driver Developer's Guide
=====================================
.. toctree::
introduction
cfg80211
mac80211
mac80211-advanced
.. only:: subproject
Indices
=======
* :ref:`genindex`

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============
Introduction
============
Explaining wireless 802.11 networking in the Linux kernel
Copyright 2007-2009 Johannes Berg
These books attempt to give a description of the various subsystems
that play a role in 802.11 wireless networking in Linux. Since these
books are for kernel developers they attempts to document the
structures and functions used in the kernel as well as giving a
higher-level overview.
The reader is expected to be familiar with the 802.11 standard as
published by the IEEE in 802.11-2007 (or possibly later versions).
References to this standard will be given as "802.11-2007 8.1.5".

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=============================
mac80211 subsystem (advanced)
=============================
Information contained within this part of the book is of interest only
for advanced interaction of mac80211 with drivers to exploit more
hardware capabilities and improve performance.
LED support
===========
Mac80211 supports various ways of blinking LEDs. Wherever possible,
device LEDs should be exposed as LED class devices and hooked up to the
appropriate trigger, which will then be triggered appropriately by
mac80211.
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_tx_led_name
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_rx_led_name
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_radio_led_name
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tpt_blink
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tpt_led_trigger_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_create_tpt_led_trigger
Hardware crypto acceleration
============================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Hardware crypto acceleration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: set_key_cmd
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_key_conf
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_key_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_tkip_p1k
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_tkip_p1k_iv
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_tkip_p2k
Powersave support
=================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Powersave support
Beacon filter support
=====================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Beacon filter support
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_beacon_loss
Multiple queues and QoS support
===============================
TBD
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_queue_params
Access point mode support
=========================
TBD
Some parts of the if_conf should be discussed here instead
Insert notes about VLAN interfaces with hw crypto here or in the hw
crypto chapter.
support for powersaving clients
-------------------------------
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: AP support for powersaving clients
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_get_buffered_bc
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_beacon_get
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_eosp
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_frame_release_type
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_ps_transition
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_ps_transition_ni
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_set_buffered
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_block_awake
Supporting multiple virtual interfaces
======================================
TBD
Note: WDS with identical MAC address should almost always be OK
Insert notes about having multiple virtual interfaces with different MAC
addresses here, note which configurations are supported by mac80211, add
notes about supporting hw crypto with it.
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces_atomic
Station handling
================
TODO
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: sta_notify_cmd
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_find_sta
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_find_sta_by_ifaddr
Hardware scan offload
=====================
TBD
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_scan_completed
Aggregation
===========
TX A-MPDU aggregation
---------------------
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/agg-tx.c
:doc: TX A-MPDU aggregation
.. WARNING: DOCPROC directive not supported: !Cnet/mac80211/agg-tx.c
RX A-MPDU aggregation
---------------------
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/agg-rx.c
:doc: RX A-MPDU aggregation
.. WARNING: DOCPROC directive not supported: !Cnet/mac80211/agg-rx.c
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_ampdu_mlme_action
Spatial Multiplexing Powersave (SMPS)
=====================================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Spatial multiplexing power save
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_request_smps
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_smps_mode
TBD
This part of the book describes the rate control algorithm interface and
how it relates to mac80211 and drivers.
Rate Control API
================
TBD
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_start_tx_ba_session
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_start_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_session
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rate_control_changed
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_rate_control
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: rate_control_send_low
TBD
This part of the book describes mac80211 internals.
Key handling
============
Key handling basics
-------------------
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/key.c
:doc: Key handling basics
MORE TBD
--------
TBD
Receive processing
==================
TBD
Transmit processing
===================
TBD
Station info handling
=====================
Programming information
-----------------------
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/sta_info.h
:functions: sta_info
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/sta_info.h
:functions: ieee80211_sta_info_flags
STA information lifetime rules
------------------------------
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/sta_info.c
:doc: STA information lifetime rules
Aggregation
===========
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/sta_info.h
:functions: sta_ampdu_mlme
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/sta_info.h
:functions: tid_ampdu_tx
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/sta_info.h
:functions: tid_ampdu_rx
Synchronisation
===============
TBD
Locking, lots of RCU

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===========================
mac80211 subsystem (basics)
===========================
You should read and understand the information contained within this
part of the book while implementing a mac80211 driver. In some chapters,
advanced usage is noted, those may be skipped if this isn't needed.
This part of the book only covers station and monitor mode
functionality, additional information required to implement the other
modes is covered in the second part of the book.
Basic hardware handling
=======================
TBD
This chapter shall contain information on getting a hw struct allocated
and registered with mac80211.
Since it is required to allocate rates/modes before registering a hw
struct, this chapter shall also contain information on setting up the
rate/mode structs.
Additionally, some discussion about the callbacks and the general
programming model should be in here, including the definition of
ieee80211_ops which will be referred to a lot.
Finally, a discussion of hardware capabilities should be done with
references to other parts of the book.
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_hw
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_hw_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: SET_IEEE80211_DEV
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: SET_IEEE80211_PERM_ADDR
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_ops
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_alloc_hw
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_register_hw
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_unregister_hw
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_free_hw
PHY configuration
=================
TBD
This chapter should describe PHY handling including start/stop callbacks
and the various structures used.
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_conf
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_conf_flags
Virtual interfaces
==================
TBD
This chapter should describe virtual interface basics that are relevant
to the driver (VLANs, MGMT etc are not.) It should explain the use of
the add_iface/remove_iface callbacks as well as the interface
configuration callbacks.
Things related to AP mode should be discussed there.
Things related to supporting multiple interfaces should be in the
appropriate chapter, a BIG FAT note should be here about this though and
the recommendation to allow only a single interface in STA mode at
first!
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_vif
Receive and transmit processing
===============================
what should be here
-------------------
TBD
This should describe the receive and transmit paths in mac80211/the
drivers as well as transmit status handling.
Frame format
------------
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Frame format
Packet alignment
----------------
.. kernel-doc:: net/mac80211/rx.c
:doc: Packet alignment
Calling into mac80211 from interrupts
-------------------------------------
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Calling mac80211 from interrupts
functions/definitions
---------------------
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rx_status
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: mac80211_rx_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: mac80211_tx_info_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: mac80211_tx_control_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: mac80211_rate_control_flags
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_rate
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_info
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_info_clear_status
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rx
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rx_ni
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rx_irqsafe
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_status
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_status_ni
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rts_get
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_rts_duration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_ctstoself_get
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_ctstoself_duration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_generic_frame_duration
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_wake_queue
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_stop_queue
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_wake_queues
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_stop_queues
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_queue_stopped
Frame filtering
===============
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: Frame filtering
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_filter_flags
The mac80211 workqueue
======================
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:doc: mac80211 workqueue
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_queue_work
.. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
:functions: ieee80211_queue_delayed_work

29
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-rbd
View File

@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Description:
Being used for adding and removing rbd block devices.
Usage: <mon ip addr> <options> <pool name> <rbd image name> [snap name]
Usage: <mon ip addr> <options> <pool name> <rbd image name> [<snap name>]
$ echo "192.168.0.1 name=admin rbd foo" > /sys/bus/rbd/add
@ -14,9 +14,13 @@ The snapshot name can be "-" or omitted to map the image read/write. A <dev-id>
will be assigned for any registered block device. If snapshot is used, it will
be mapped read-only.
Removal of a device:
Usage: <dev-id> [force]
$ echo <dev-id> > /sys/bus/rbd/remove
$ echo 2 > /sys/bus/rbd/remove
Optional "force" argument which when passed will wait for running requests and
then unmap the image. Requests sent to the driver after initiating the removal
will be failed. (August 2016, since 4.9.)
What: /sys/bus/rbd/add_single_major
Date: December 2013
@ -43,10 +47,25 @@ Description: Available only if rbd module is inserted with single_major
Entries under /sys/bus/rbd/devices/<dev-id>/
--------------------------------------------
client_addr
The ceph unique client entity_addr_t (address + nonce).
The format is <address>:<port>/<nonce>: '1.2.3.4:1234/5678' or
'[1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]:1234/5678'. (August 2016, since 4.9.)
client_id
The ceph unique client id that was assigned for this specific session.
cluster_fsid
The ceph cluster UUID. (August 2016, since 4.9.)
config_info
The string written into /sys/bus/rbd/add{,_single_major}. (August
2016, since 4.9.)
features
A hexadecimal encoding of the feature bits for this image.
@ -92,6 +111,10 @@ current_snap
The current snapshot for which the device is mapped.
snap_id
The current snapshot's id. (August 2016, since 4.9.)
parent
Information identifying the chain of parent images in a layered rbd

7
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-cxl
View File

@ -220,8 +220,11 @@ What: /sys/class/cxl/<card>/reset
Date: October 2014
Contact: linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org
Description: write only
Writing 1 will issue a PERST to card which may cause the card
to reload the FPGA depending on load_image_on_perst.
Writing 1 will issue a PERST to card provided there are no
contexts active on any one of the card AFUs. This may cause
the card to reload the FPGA depending on load_image_on_perst.
Writing -1 will do a force PERST irrespective of any active
contexts on the card AFUs.
Users: https://github.com/ibm-capi/libcxl
What: /sys/class/cxl/<card>/perst_reloads_same_image (not in a guest)

3
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-led
View File

@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ Description:
of led events.
You can change triggers in a similar manner to the way an IO
scheduler is chosen. Trigger specific parameters can appear in
/sys/class/leds/<led> once a given trigger is selected.
/sys/class/leds/<led> once a given trigger is selected. For
their documentation see sysfs-class-led-trigger-*.
What: /sys/class/leds/<led>/inverted
Date: January 2011

36
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-led-trigger-oneshot Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
What: /sys/class/leds/<led>/delay_on
Date: Jun 2012
KernelVersion: 3.6
Contact: linux-leds@vger.kernel.org
Description:
Specifies for how many milliseconds the LED has to stay at
LED_FULL brightness after it has been armed.
Defaults to 100 ms.
What: /sys/class/leds/<led>/delay_off
Date: Jun 2012
KernelVersion: 3.6
Contact: linux-leds@vger.kernel.org
Description:
Specifies for how many milliseconds the LED has to stay at
LED_OFF brightness after it has been armed.
Defaults to 100 ms.
What: /sys/class/leds/<led>/invert
Date: Jun 2012
KernelVersion: 3.6
Contact: linux-leds@vger.kernel.org
Description:
Reverse the blink logic. If set to 0 (default) blink on for
delay_on ms, then blink off for delay_off ms, leaving the LED
normally off. If set to 1, blink off for delay_off ms, then
blink on for delay_on ms, leaving the LED normally on.
Setting this value also immediately changes the LED state.
What: /sys/class/leds/<led>/shot
Date: Jun 2012
KernelVersion: 3.6
Contact: linux-leds@vger.kernel.org
Description:
Write any non-empty string to signal an events, this starts a
blink sequence if not already running.

12
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-led-trigger-usbport Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
What: /sys/class/leds/<led>/ports/<port>
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: linux-leds@vger.kernel.org
linux-usb@vger.kernel.org
Description:
Every dir entry represents a single USB port that can be
selected for the USB port trigger. Selecting ports makes trigger
observing them for any connected devices and lighting on LED if
there are any.
Echoing "1" value selects USB port. Echoing "0" unselects it.
Current state can be also read.

2
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-mic.txt
View File

@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ Description:
What: /sys/class/mic/mic(x)/heartbeat_enable
Date: March 2015
KernelVersion: 3.20
KernelVersion: 4.4
Contact: Ashutosh Dixit <ashutosh.dixit@intel.com>
Description:
The MIC drivers detect and inform user space about card crashes

8
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power
View File

@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Description:
What: /sys/class/power_supply/max14577-charger/device/fast_charge_timer
Date: October 2014
KernelVersion: 3.18.0
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <k.kozlowski@samsung.com>
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org>
Description:
This entry shows and sets the maximum time the max14577
charger operates in fast-charge mode. When the timer expires
@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Description:
What: /sys/class/power_supply/max77693-charger/device/fast_charge_timer
Date: January 2015
KernelVersion: 3.19.0
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <k.kozlowski@samsung.com>
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org>
Description:
This entry shows and sets the maximum time the max77693
charger operates in fast-charge mode. When the timer expires
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Description:
What: /sys/class/power_supply/max77693-charger/device/top_off_threshold_current
Date: January 2015
KernelVersion: 3.19.0
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <k.kozlowski@samsung.com>
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org>
Description:
This entry shows and sets the charging current threshold for
entering top-off charging mode. When charging current in fast
@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ Description:
What: /sys/class/power_supply/max77693-charger/device/top_off_timer
Date: January 2015
KernelVersion: 3.19.0
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <k.kozlowski@samsung.com>
Contact: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@kernel.org>
Description:
This entry shows and sets the maximum time the max77693
charger operates in top-off charge mode. When the timer expires

15
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-driver-hid-logitech-lg4ff
View File

@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ Description: Displays a set of alternate modes supported by a wheel. Each
DF-EX <*--------> G25 <-> G27
DF-EX <*----------------> G27
G29:
DF-EX <*> DFP <-> G25 <-> G27 <-> G29
DF-EX <*--------> G25 <-> G27 <-> G29
DF-EX <*----------------> G27 <-> G29
DF-EX <*------------------------> G29
DFGT:
DF-EX <*> DFP <-> DFGT
DF-EX <*--------> DFGT
@ -50,3 +56,12 @@ Description: Displays the real model of the wheel regardless of any
alternate mode the wheel might be switched to.
It is a read-only value.
This entry is not created for devices that have only one mode.
What: /sys/bus/hid/drivers/logitech/<dev>/combine_pedals
Date: Sep 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Simon Wood <simon@mungewell.org>
Description: Controls whether a combined value of accelerator and brake is
reported on the Y axis of the controller. Useful for older games
which can do not work with separate accelerator/brake axis.
Off ('0') by default, enabled by setting '1'.

5
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-driver-wacom
View File

@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ What: /sys/bus/hid/devices/<bus>:<vid>:<pid>.<n>/wacom_led/status0_luminance
Date: August 2014
Contact: linux-input@vger.kernel.org
Description:
<obsoleted by the LED class API now exported by the driver>
Writing to this file sets the status LED luminance (1..127)
when the stylus does not touch the tablet surface, and no
button is pressed on the stylus. This luminance level is
@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ What: /sys/bus/hid/devices/<bus>:<vid>:<pid>.<n>/wacom_led/status1_luminance
Date: August 2014
Contact: linux-input@vger.kernel.org
Description:
<obsoleted by the LED class API now exported by the driver>
Writing to this file sets the status LED luminance (1..127)
when the stylus touches the tablet surface, or any button is
pressed on the stylus.
@ -41,6 +43,7 @@ What: /sys/bus/hid/devices/<bus>:<vid>:<pid>.<n>/wacom_led/status_led0_select
Date: August 2014
Contact: linux-input@vger.kernel.org
Description:
<obsoleted by the LED class API now exported by the driver>
Writing to this file sets which one of the four (for Intuos 4
and Intuos 5) or of the right four (for Cintiq 21UX2 and Cintiq
24HD) status LEDs is active (0..3). The other three LEDs on the
@ -50,6 +53,7 @@ What: /sys/bus/hid/devices/<bus>:<vid>:<pid>.<n>/wacom_led/status_led1_select
Date: August 2014
Contact: linux-input@vger.kernel.org
Description:
<obsoleted by the LED class API now exported by the driver>
Writing to this file sets which one of the left four (for Cintiq 21UX2
and Cintiq 24HD) status LEDs is active (0..3). The other three LEDs on
the left are always inactive.
@ -91,6 +95,7 @@ What: /sys/bus/hid/devices/<bus>:<vid>:<pid>.<n>/wacom_remote/<serial_number>/r
Date: July 2015
Contact: linux-input@vger.kernel.org
Description:
<obsoleted by the LED class API now exported by the driver>
Reading from this file reports the mode status of the
remote as indicated by the LED lights on the device. If no
reports have been received from the paired device, reading

31
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-i2c-bmp085
View File

@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
What: /sys/bus/i2c/devices/<busnum>-<devaddr>/pressure0_input
Date: June 2010
Contact: Christoph Mair <christoph.mair@gmail.com>
Description: Start a pressure measurement and read the result. Values
represent the ambient air pressure in pascal (0.01 millibar).
Reading: returns the current air pressure.
What: /sys/bus/i2c/devices/<busnum>-<devaddr>/temp0_input
Date: June 2010
Contact: Christoph Mair <christoph.mair@gmail.com>
Description: Measure the ambient temperature. The returned value represents
the ambient temperature in units of 0.1 degree celsius.
Reading: returns the current temperature.
What: /sys/bus/i2c/devices/<busnum>-<devaddr>/oversampling
Date: June 2010
Contact: Christoph Mair <christoph.mair@gmail.com>
Description: Tell the bmp085 to use more samples to calculate a pressure
value. When writing to this file the chip will use 2^x samples
to calculate the next pressure value with x being the value
written. Using this feature will decrease RMS noise and
increase the measurement time.
Reading: returns the current oversampling setting.
Writing: sets a new oversampling setting.
Accepted values: 0..3.

53
Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-kernel-irq Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
What: /sys/kernel/irq
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: Directory containing information about the system's IRQs.
Specifically, data from the associated struct irq_desc.
The information here is similar to that in /proc/interrupts
but in a more machine-friendly format. This directory contains
one subdirectory for each Linux IRQ number.
What: /sys/kernel/irq/<irq>/actions
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: The IRQ action chain. A comma-separated list of zero or more
device names associated with this interrupt.
What: /sys/kernel/irq/<irq>/chip_name
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: Human-readable chip name supplied by the associated device
driver.
What: /sys/kernel/irq/<irq>/hwirq
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: When interrupt translation domains are used, this file contains
the underlying hardware IRQ number used for this Linux IRQ.
What: /sys/kernel/irq/<irq>/name
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: Human-readable flow handler name as defined by the irq chip
driver.
What: /sys/kernel/irq/<irq>/per_cpu_count
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: The number of times the interrupt has fired since boot. This
is a comma-separated list of counters; one per CPU in CPU id
order. NOTE: This file consistently shows counters for all
CPU ids. This differs from the behavior of /proc/interrupts
which only shows counters for online CPUs.
What: /sys/kernel/irq/<irq>/type
Date: September 2016
KernelVersion: 4.9
Contact: Craig Gallek <kraig@google.com>
Description: The type of the interrupt. Either the string 'level' or 'edge'.

262
Documentation/Changes
View File

@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
.. _changes:
Minimal requerements to compile the Kernel
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Intro
=====
This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
software necessary to run the 3.0 kernels.
software necessary to run the 4.x kernels.
This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
@ -10,9 +15,9 @@ Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
'net).
Current Minimal Requirements
============================
****************************
Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
Upgrade to at **least** these software revisions before thinking you've
encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
running, the suggested command should tell you.
@ -21,34 +26,40 @@ running a Linux kernel. Also, not all tools are necessary on all
systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example,
you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils.
o GNU C 3.2 # gcc --version
o GNU make 3.80 # make --version
o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
o e2fsprogs 1.41.4 # e2fsck -V
o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V
o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V
o squashfs-tools 4.0 # mksquashfs -version
o btrfs-progs 0.18 # btrfsck
o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version
o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
o udev 081 # udevd --version
o grub 0.93 # grub --version || grub-install --version
o mcelog 0.6 # mcelog --version
o iptables 1.4.2 # iptables -V
o openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 # openssl version
o bc 1.06.95 # bc --version
====================== =============== ========================================
Program Minimal version Command to check the version
====================== =============== ========================================
GNU C 3.2 gcc --version
GNU make 3.80 make --version
binutils 2.12 ld -v
util-linux 2.10o fdformat --version
module-init-tools 0.9.10 depmod -V
e2fsprogs 1.41.4 e2fsck -V
jfsutils 1.1.3 fsck.jfs -V
reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 reiserfsck -V
xfsprogs 2.6.0 xfs_db -V
squashfs-tools 4.0 mksquashfs -version
btrfs-progs 0.18 btrfsck
pcmciautils 004 pccardctl -V
quota-tools 3.09 quota -V
PPP 2.4.0 pppd --version
isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
nfs-utils 1.0.5 showmount --version
procps 3.2.0 ps --version
oprofile 0.9 oprofiled --version
udev 081 udevd --version
grub 0.93 grub --version || grub-install --version
mcelog 0.6 mcelog --version
iptables 1.4.2 iptables -V
openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 openssl version
bc 1.06.95 bc --version
Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 1.2 sphinx-build --version
====================== =============== ========================================
.. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation
Kernel compilation
==================
******************
GCC
---
@ -64,16 +75,16 @@ You will need GNU make 3.80 or later to build the kernel.
Binutils
--------
Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using ``as86`` to using ``gas`` for
assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for ``as86`` to compile
your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
release of binutils.
Perl
----
You will need perl 5 and the following modules: Getopt::Long, Getopt::Std,
File::Basename, and File::Find to build the kernel.
You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
BC
--
@ -93,7 +104,7 @@ and higher.
System utilities
================
****************
Architectural changes
---------------------
@ -115,7 +126,7 @@ well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
Util-linux
----------
New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks,
support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
You'll probably want to upgrade.
@ -125,54 +136,57 @@ Ksymoops
If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
It is generally preferred to build the kernel with CONFIG_KALLSYMS so
It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so
that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and you have no way to rebuild and
is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and
reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
with ksymoops.
Module-Init-Tools
-----------------
A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires ``module-init-tools``
to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
Mkinitrd
--------
These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that
mkinitrd be upgraded.
E2fsprogs
---------
The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and
debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
JFSutils
--------
The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system.
The following utilities are available:
o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
- ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
and repair a JFS formatted partition.
o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
- ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition.
- other file system utilities are also available in this package.
Reiserfsprogs
-------------
The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and
``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
Xfsprogs
--------
The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the
``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
@ -180,7 +194,7 @@ later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
PCMCIAutils
-----------
PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs. It properly sets up
PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up
PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
subsystem is used.
@ -198,19 +212,20 @@ Intel IA32 microcode
A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
udev you may need to:
udev you may need to::
mkdir /dev/cpu
mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
mkdir /dev/cpu
mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
udev
----
udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic
``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with
only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic
functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
devices.
@ -218,10 +233,10 @@ FUSE
----
Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work.
Networking
==========
**********
General changes
---------------
@ -243,9 +258,9 @@ enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
which can be made by:
which can be made by::
mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
as root.
@ -260,22 +275,22 @@ NFS-utils
In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs
would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client
mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup. exportfs
would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``.
This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
fail-over. Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from
getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
dependency on rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about
dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about
currently active clients.
To enable this new functionality, you need to:
To enable this new functionality, you need to::
mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
@ -287,8 +302,32 @@ mcelog
------
On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
events when CONFIG_X86_MCE is enabled. Machine check events are errors reported
by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors
reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
Kernel documentation
********************
Sphinx
------
The ReST markups currently used by the Documentation/ files are meant to be
built with ``Sphinx`` version 1.2 or upper. If you're desiring to build
PDF outputs, it is recommended to use version 1.4.6.
.. note::
Please notice that, for PDF and LaTeX output, you'll also need ``XeLaTeX``
version 3.14159265. Depending on the distribution, you may also need
to install a series of ``texlive`` packages that provide the minimal
set of functionalities required for ``XeLaTex`` to work.
Other tools
-----------
In order to produce documentation from DocBook, you'll also need ``xmlto``.
Please notice, however, that we're currently migrating all documents to use
``Sphinx``.
Getting updated software
========================
@ -298,114 +337,149 @@ Kernel compilation
gcc
---
o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
Make
----
o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
Binutils
--------
o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
- <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
OpenSSL
-------
o <https://www.openssl.org/>
- <https://www.openssl.org/>
System utilities
****************
Util-linux
----------
o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
- <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
Ksymoops
--------
o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
- <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
Module-Init-Tools
-----------------
o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
- <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
Mkinitrd
--------
o <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
- <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
E2fsprogs
---------
o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
- <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
JFSutils
--------
o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
- <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
Reiserfsprogs
-------------
o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
- <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
Xfsprogs
--------
o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
- <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
Pcmciautils
-----------
o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
- <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
Quota-tools
----------
o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
-----------
- <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
DocBook Stylesheets
-------------------
o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/files/docbook-dsssl/>
- <http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/files/docbook-dsssl/>
XMLTO XSLT Frontend
-------------------
o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
- <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
Intel P6 microcode
------------------
o <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
- <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
udev
----
o <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
- <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
FUSE
----
o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
- <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
mcelog
------
o <http://www.mcelog.org/>
- <http://www.mcelog.org/>
Networking
**********
PPP
---
o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
- <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
Isdn4k-utils
------------
o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
- <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
NFS-utils
---------
o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
- <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
Iptables
--------
o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
- <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
Ip-route2
---------
o <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
OProfile
--------
o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
- <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
NFS-Utils
---------
o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
- <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
Kernel documentation
********************
Sphinx
------
- <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>

2
Documentation/CodeOfConflict
View File

@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ please contact the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board at
will work to resolve the issue to the best of their ability. For more
information on who is on the Technical Advisory Board and what their
role is, please see:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/programs/advisory-councils/tab
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/projects/linux/tab
As a reviewer of code, please strive to keep things civil and focused on
the technical issues involved. We are all humans, and frustrations can

400
Documentation/CodingStyle
View File

@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
.. _codingstyle:
Linux kernel coding style
Linux kernel coding style
=========================
This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for the
linux kernel. Coding style is very personal, and I won't _force_ my
linux kernel. Coding style is very personal, and I won't **force** my
views on anybody, but this is what goes for anything that I have to be
able to maintain, and I'd prefer it for most other things too. Please
at least consider the points made here.
@ -13,7 +15,8 @@ and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture.
Anyway, here goes:
Chapter 1: Indentation
1) Indentation
--------------
Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 characters.
There are heretic movements that try to make indentations 4 (or even 2!)
@ -36,8 +39,10 @@ benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep.
Heed that warning.
The preferred way to ease multiple indentation levels in a switch statement is
to align the "switch" and its subordinate "case" labels in the same column
instead of "double-indenting" the "case" labels. E.g.:
to align the ``switch`` and its subordinate ``case`` labels in the same column
instead of ``double-indenting`` the ``case`` labels. E.g.:
.. code-block:: c
switch (suffix) {
case 'G':
@ -59,6 +64,8 @@ instead of "double-indenting" the "case" labels. E.g.:
Don't put multiple statements on a single line unless you have
something to hide:
.. code-block:: c
if (condition) do_this;
do_something_everytime;
@ -71,7 +78,8 @@ used for indentation, and the above example is deliberately broken.
Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines.
Chapter 2: Breaking long lines and strings
2) Breaking long lines and strings
----------------------------------
Coding style is all about readability and maintainability using commonly
available tools.
@ -87,7 +95,8 @@ with a long argument list. However, never break user-visible strings such as
printk messages, because that breaks the ability to grep for them.
Chapter 3: Placing Braces and Spaces
3) Placing Braces and Spaces
----------------------------
The other issue that always comes up in C styling is the placement of
braces. Unlike the indent size, there are few technical reasons to
@ -95,6 +104,8 @@ choose one placement strategy over the other, but the preferred way, as
shown to us by the prophets Kernighan and Ritchie, is to put the opening
brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly:
.. code-block:: c
if (x is true) {
we do y
}
@ -102,6 +113,8 @@ brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly:
This applies to all non-function statement blocks (if, switch, for,
while, do). E.g.:
.. code-block:: c
switch (action) {
case KOBJ_ADD:
return "add";
@ -116,6 +129,8 @@ while, do). E.g.:
However, there is one special case, namely functions: they have the
opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus:
.. code-block:: c
int function(int x)
{
body of function
@ -123,20 +138,24 @@ opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus:
Heretic people all over the world have claimed that this inconsistency
is ... well ... inconsistent, but all right-thinking people know that
(a) K&R are _right_ and (b) K&R are right. Besides, functions are
(a) K&R are **right** and (b) K&R are right. Besides, functions are
special anyway (you can't nest them in C).
Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, _except_ in
Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, **except** in
the cases where it is followed by a continuation of the same statement,
ie a "while" in a do-statement or an "else" in an if-statement, like
ie a ``while`` in a do-statement or an ``else`` in an if-statement, like
this:
.. code-block:: c
do {
body of do-loop
} while (condition);
and
.. code-block:: c
if (x == y) {
..
} else if (x > y) {
@ -155,11 +174,15 @@ comments on.
Do not unnecessarily use braces where a single statement will do.
.. code-block:: c
if (condition)
action();
and
.. code-block:: none
if (condition)
do_this();
else
@ -168,6 +191,8 @@ and
This does not apply if only one branch of a conditional statement is a single
statement; in the latter case use braces in both branches:
.. code-block:: c
if (condition) {
do_this();
do_that();
@ -175,57 +200,67 @@ statement; in the latter case use braces in both branches:
otherwise();
}
3.1: Spaces
3.1) Spaces
***********
Linux kernel style for use of spaces depends (mostly) on
function-versus-keyword usage. Use a space after (most) keywords. The
notable exceptions are sizeof, typeof, alignof, and __attribute__, which look
somewhat like functions (and are usually used with parentheses in Linux,
although they are not required in the language, as in: "sizeof info" after
"struct fileinfo info;" is declared).
although they are not required in the language, as in: ``sizeof info`` after
``struct fileinfo info;`` is declared).
So use a space after these keywords:
So use a space after these keywords::
if, switch, case, for, do, while
but not with sizeof, typeof, alignof, or __attribute__. E.g.,
.. code-block:: c
s = sizeof(struct file);
Do not add spaces around (inside) parenthesized expressions. This example is
*bad*:
**bad**:
.. code-block:: c
s = sizeof( struct file );
When declaring pointer data or a function that returns a pointer type, the
preferred use of '*' is adjacent to the data name or function name and not
preferred use of ``*`` is adjacent to the data name or function name and not
adjacent to the type name. Examples:
.. code-block:: c
char *linux_banner;
unsigned long long memparse(char *ptr, char **retptr);
char *match_strdup(substring_t *s);
Use one space around (on each side of) most binary and ternary operators,
such as any of these:
such as any of these::
= + - < > * / % | & ^ <= >= == != ? :
but no space after unary operators:
but no space after unary operators::
& * + - ~ ! sizeof typeof alignof __attribute__ defined
no space before the postfix increment & decrement unary operators:
no space before the postfix increment & decrement unary operators::
++ --
no space after the prefix increment & decrement unary operators:
no space after the prefix increment & decrement unary operators::
++ --
and no space around the '.' and "->" structure member operators.
and no space around the ``.`` and ``->`` structure member operators.
Do not leave trailing whitespace at the ends of lines. Some editors with
"smart" indentation will insert whitespace at the beginning of new lines as
``smart`` indentation will insert whitespace at the beginning of new lines as
appropriate, so you can start typing the next line of code right away.
However, some such editors do not remove the whitespace if you end up not
putting a line of code there, such as if you leave a blank line. As a result,
@ -237,22 +272,23 @@ of patches, this may make later patches in the series fail by changing their
context lines.
Chapter 4: Naming
4) Naming
---------
C is a Spartan language, and so should your naming be. Unlike Modula-2
and Pascal programmers, C programmers do not use cute names like
ThisVariableIsATemporaryCounter. A C programmer would call that
variable "tmp", which is much easier to write, and not the least more
variable ``tmp``, which is much easier to write, and not the least more
difficult to understand.
HOWEVER, while mixed-case names are frowned upon, descriptive names for
global variables are a must. To call a global function "foo" is a
global variables are a must. To call a global function ``foo`` is a
shooting offense.
GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you _really_ need them) need to
GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you **really** need them) need to
have descriptive names, as do global functions. If you have a function
that counts the number of active users, you should call that
"count_active_users()" or similar, you should _not_ call it "cntusr()".
``count_active_users()`` or similar, you should **not** call it ``cntusr()``.
Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian
notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can
@ -260,9 +296,9 @@ check those, and it only confuses the programmer. No wonder MicroSoft
makes buggy programs.
LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point. If you have
some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i".
Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it
being mis-understood. Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of
some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called ``i``.
Calling it ``loop_counter`` is non-productive, if there is no chance of it
being mis-understood. Similarly, ``tmp`` can be just about any type of
variable that is used to hold a temporary value.
If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another
@ -270,59 +306,69 @@ problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome.
See chapter 6 (Functions).
Chapter 5: Typedefs
5) Typedefs
-----------
Please don't use things like ``vps_t``.
It's a **mistake** to use typedef for structures and pointers. When you see a
.. code-block:: c
Please don't use things like "vps_t".
It's a _mistake_ to use typedef for structures and pointers. When you see a
vps_t a;
in the source, what does it mean?
In contrast, if it says
.. code-block:: c
struct virtual_container *a;
you can actually tell what "a" is.
you can actually tell what ``a`` is.
Lots of people think that typedefs "help readability". Not so. They are
Lots of people think that typedefs ``help readability``. Not so. They are
useful only for:
(a) totally opaque objects (where the typedef is actively used to _hide_
(a) totally opaque objects (where the typedef is actively used to **hide**
what the object is).
Example: "pte_t" etc. opaque objects that you can only access using
Example: ``pte_t`` etc. opaque objects that you can only access using
the proper accessor functions.
NOTE! Opaqueness and "accessor functions" are not good in themselves.
The reason we have them for things like pte_t etc. is that there
really is absolutely _zero_ portably accessible information there.
.. note::
(b) Clear integer types, where the abstraction _helps_ avoid confusion
whether it is "int" or "long".
Opaqueness and ``accessor functions`` are not good in themselves.
The reason we have them for things like pte_t etc. is that there
really is absolutely **zero** portably accessible information there.
(b) Clear integer types, where the abstraction **helps** avoid confusion
whether it is ``int`` or ``long``.
u8/u16/u32 are perfectly fine typedefs, although they fit into
category (d) better than here.
NOTE! Again - there needs to be a _reason_ for this. If something is
"unsigned long", then there's no reason to do
.. note::
Again - there needs to be a **reason** for this. If something is
``unsigned long``, then there's no reason to do
typedef unsigned long myflags_t;
but if there is a clear reason for why it under certain circumstances
might be an "unsigned int" and under other configurations might be
"unsigned long", then by all means go ahead and use a typedef.
might be an ``unsigned int`` and under other configurations might be
``unsigned long``, then by all means go ahead and use a typedef.
(c) when you use sparse to literally create a _new_ type for
(c) when you use sparse to literally create a **new** type for
type-checking.
(d) New types which are identical to standard C99 types, in certain
exceptional circumstances.
Although it would only take a short amount of time for the eyes and
brain to become accustomed to the standard types like 'uint32_t',
brain to become accustomed to the standard types like ``uint32_t``,
some people object to their use anyway.
Therefore, the Linux-specific 'u8/u16/u32/u64' types and their
Therefore, the Linux-specific ``u8/u16/u32/u64`` types and their
signed equivalents which are identical to standard types are
permitted -- although they are not mandatory in new code of your
own.
@ -333,7 +379,7 @@ useful only for:
(e) Types safe for use in userspace.
In certain structures which are visible to userspace, we cannot
require C99 types and cannot use the 'u32' form above. Thus, we
require C99 types and cannot use the ``u32`` form above. Thus, we
use __u32 and similar types in all structures which are shared
with userspace.
@ -341,10 +387,11 @@ Maybe there are other cases too, but the rule should basically be to NEVER
EVER use a typedef unless you can clearly match one of those rules.
In general, a pointer, or a struct that has elements that can reasonably
be directly accessed should _never_ be a typedef.
be directly accessed should **never** be a typedef.
Chapter 6: Functions
6) Functions
------------
Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing. They should
fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24,
@ -372,8 +419,10 @@ and it gets confused. You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like
to understand what you did 2 weeks from now.
In source files, separate functions with one blank line. If the function is
exported, the EXPORT* macro for it should follow immediately after the closing
function brace line. E.g.:
exported, the **EXPORT** macro for it should follow immediately after the
closing function brace line. E.g.:
.. code-block:: c
int system_is_up(void)
{
@ -386,7 +435,8 @@ Although this is not required by the C language, it is preferred in Linux
because it is a simple way to add valuable information for the reader.
Chapter 7: Centralized exiting of functions
7) Centralized exiting of functions
-----------------------------------
Albeit deprecated by some people, the equivalent of the goto statement is
used frequently by compilers in form of the unconditional jump instruction.
@ -396,18 +446,21 @@ locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done. If there is no
cleanup needed then just return directly.
Choose label names which say what the goto does or why the goto exists. An
example of a good name could be "out_buffer:" if the goto frees "buffer". Avoid
using GW-BASIC names like "err1:" and "err2:". Also don't name them after the
goto location like "err_kmalloc_failed:"
example of a good name could be ``out_free_buffer:`` if the goto frees ``buffer``.
Avoid using GW-BASIC names like ``err1:`` and ``err2:``, as you would have to
renumber them if you ever add or remove exit paths, and they make correctness
difficult to verify anyway.
The rationale for using gotos is:
- unconditional statements are easier to understand and follow
- nesting is reduced
- errors by not updating individual exit points when making
modifications are prevented
modifications are prevented
- saves the compiler work to optimize redundant code away ;)
.. code-block:: c
int fun(int a)
{
int result = 0;
@ -425,27 +478,41 @@ The rationale for using gotos is:
goto out_buffer;
}
...
out_buffer:
out_free_buffer:
kfree(buffer);
return result;
}
A common type of bug to be aware of is "one err bugs" which look like this:
A common type of bug to be aware of is ``one err bugs`` which look like this:
.. code-block:: c
err:
kfree(foo->bar);
kfree(foo);
return ret;
The bug in this code is that on some exit paths "foo" is NULL. Normally the
fix for this is to split it up into two error labels "err_bar:" and "err_foo:".
The bug in this code is that on some exit paths ``foo`` is NULL. Normally the
fix for this is to split it up into two error labels ``err_free_bar:`` and
``err_free_foo:``:
.. code-block:: c
err_free_bar:
kfree(foo->bar);
err_free_foo:
kfree(foo);
return ret;
Ideally you should simulate errors to test all exit paths.
Chapter 8: Commenting
8) Commenting
-------------
Comments are good, but there is also a danger of over-commenting. NEVER
try to explain HOW your code works in a comment: it's much better to
write the code so that the _working_ is obvious, and it's a waste of
write the code so that the **working** is obvious, and it's a waste of
time to explain badly written code.
Generally, you want your comments to tell WHAT your code does, not HOW.
@ -461,11 +528,10 @@ When commenting the kernel API functions, please use the kernel-doc format.
See the files Documentation/kernel-documentation.rst and scripts/kernel-doc
for details.
Linux style for comments is the C89 "/* ... */" style.
Don't use C99-style "// ..." comments.
The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is:
.. code-block:: c
/*
* This is the preferred style for multi-line
* comments in the Linux kernel source code.
@ -478,6 +544,8 @@ The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is:
For files in net/ and drivers/net/ the preferred style for long (multi-line)
comments is a little different.
.. code-block:: c
/* The preferred comment style for files in net/ and drivers/net
* looks like this.
*
@ -491,10 +559,11 @@ multiple data declarations). This leaves you room for a small comment on each
item, explaining its use.
Chapter 9: You've made a mess of it
9) You've made a mess of it
---------------------------
That's OK, we all do. You've probably been told by your long-time Unix
user helper that "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for
user helper that ``GNU emacs`` automatically formats the C sources for
you, and you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it
uses are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random
typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never
@ -503,63 +572,66 @@ make a good program).
So, you can either get rid of GNU emacs, or change it to use saner
values. To do the latter, you can stick the following in your .emacs file:
(defun c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only (ignored)
"Line up argument lists by tabs, not spaces"
(let* ((anchor (c-langelem-pos c-syntactic-element))
(column (c-langelem-2nd-pos c-syntactic-element))
(offset (- (1+ column) anchor))
(steps (floor offset c-basic-offset)))
(* (max steps 1)
c-basic-offset)))
.. code-block:: none
(add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook
(lambda ()
;; Add kernel style
(c-add-style
"linux-tabs-only"
'("linux" (c-offsets-alist
(arglist-cont-nonempty
c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only))))))
(defun c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only (ignored)
"Line up argument lists by tabs, not spaces"
(let* ((anchor (c-langelem-pos c-syntactic-element))
(column (c-langelem-2nd-pos c-syntactic-element))
(offset (- (1+ column) anchor))
(steps (floor offset c-basic-offset)))
(* (max steps 1)
c-basic-offset)))
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(let ((filename (buffer-file-name)))
;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files
(when (and filename
(string-match (expand-file-name "~/src/linux-trees")
filename))
(setq indent-tabs-mode t)
(setq show-trailing-whitespace t)
(c-set-style "linux-tabs-only")))))
(add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook
(lambda ()
;; Add kernel style
(c-add-style
"linux-tabs-only"
'("linux" (c-offsets-alist
(arglist-cont-nonempty
c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
c-lineup-arglist-tabs-only))))))
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(let ((filename (buffer-file-name)))
;; Enable kernel mode for the appropriate files
(when (and filename
(string-match (expand-file-name "~/src/linux-trees")
filename))
(setq indent-tabs-mode t)
(setq show-trailing-whitespace t)
(c-set-style "linux-tabs-only")))))
This will make emacs go better with the kernel coding style for C
files below ~/src/linux-trees.
files below ``~/src/linux-trees``.
But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not
everything is lost: use "indent".
everything is lost: use ``indent``.
Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain-dead settings that GNU emacs
has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options.
However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent
recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are
just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the
options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"), or use
"scripts/Lindent", which indents in the latest style.
options ``-kr -i8`` (stands for ``K&R, 8 character indents``), or use
``scripts/Lindent``, which indents in the latest style.
"indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment
``indent`` has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment
re-formatting you may want to take a look at the man page. But
remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming.
remember: ``indent`` is not a fix for bad programming.
Chapter 10: Kconfig configuration files
10) Kconfig configuration files
-------------------------------
For all of the Kconfig* configuration files throughout the source tree,
the indentation is somewhat different. Lines under a "config" definition
the indentation is somewhat different. Lines under a ``config`` definition
are indented with one tab, while help text is indented an additional two
spaces. Example:
spaces. Example::
config AUDIT
config AUDIT
bool "Auditing support"
depends on NET
help
@ -569,9 +641,9 @@ config AUDIT
auditing without CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL.
Seriously dangerous features (such as write support for certain
filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string:
filesystems) should advertise this prominently in their prompt string::
config ADFS_FS_RW
config ADFS_FS_RW
bool "ADFS write support (DANGEROUS)"
depends on ADFS_FS
...
@ -580,41 +652,45 @@ For full documentation on the configuration files, see the file
Documentation/kbuild/kconfig-language.txt.
Chapter 11: Data structures
11) Data structures
-------------------
Data structures that have visibility outside the single-threaded
environment they are created and destroyed in should always have
reference counts. In the kernel, garbage collection doesn't exist (and
outside the kernel garbage collection is slow and inefficient), which
means that you absolutely _have_ to reference count all your uses.
means that you absolutely **have** to reference count all your uses.
Reference counting means that you can avoid locking, and allows multiple
users to have access to the data structure in parallel - and not having
to worry about the structure suddenly going away from under them just
because they slept or did something else for a while.
Note that locking is _not_ a replacement for reference counting.
Note that locking is **not** a replacement for reference counting.
Locking is used to keep data structures coherent, while reference
counting is a memory management technique. Usually both are needed, and
they are not to be confused with each other.
Many data structures can indeed have two levels of reference counting,
when there are users of different "classes". The subclass count counts
when there are users of different ``classes``. The subclass count counts
the number of subclass users, and decrements the global count just once
when the subclass count goes to zero.
Examples of this kind of "multi-level-reference-counting" can be found in
memory management ("struct mm_struct": mm_users and mm_count), and in
filesystem code ("struct super_block": s_count and s_active).
Examples of this kind of ``multi-level-reference-counting`` can be found in
memory management (``struct mm_struct``: mm_users and mm_count), and in
filesystem code (``struct super_block``: s_count and s_active).
Remember: if another thread can find your data structure, and you don't
have a reference count on it, you almost certainly have a bug.
Chapter 12: Macros, Enums and RTL
12) Macros, Enums and RTL
-------------------------
Names of macros defining constants and labels in enums are capitalized.
.. code-block:: c
#define CONSTANT 0x12345
Enums are preferred when defining several related constants.
@ -626,7 +702,9 @@ Generally, inline functions are preferable to macros resembling functions.
Macros with multiple statements should be enclosed in a do - while block:
#define macrofun(a, b, c) \
.. code-block:: c
#define macrofun(a, b, c) \
do { \
if (a == 5) \
do_this(b, c); \
@ -636,17 +714,21 @@ Things to avoid when using macros:
1) macros that affect control flow:
.. code-block:: c
#define FOO(x) \
do { \
if (blah(x) < 0) \
return -EBUGGERED; \
} while (0)
is a _very_ bad idea. It looks like a function call but exits the "calling"
is a **very** bad idea. It looks like a function call but exits the ``calling``
function; don't break the internal parsers of those who will read the code.
2) macros that depend on having a local variable with a magic name:
.. code-block:: c
#define FOO(val) bar(index, val)
might look like a good thing, but it's confusing as hell when one reads the
@ -659,18 +741,22 @@ bite you if somebody e.g. turns FOO into an inline function.
must enclose the expression in parentheses. Beware of similar issues with
macros using parameters.
.. code-block:: c
#define CONSTANT 0x4000
#define CONSTEXP (CONSTANT | 3)
5) namespace collisions when defining local variables in macros resembling
functions:
#define FOO(x) \
({ \
typeof(x) ret; \
ret = calc_ret(x); \
(ret); \
})
.. code-block:: c
#define FOO(x) \
({ \
typeof(x) ret; \
ret = calc_ret(x); \
(ret); \
})
ret is a common name for a local variable - __foo_ret is less likely
to collide with an existing variable.
@ -679,11 +765,12 @@ The cpp manual deals with macros exhaustively. The gcc internals manual also
covers RTL which is used frequently with assembly language in the kernel.
Chapter 13: Printing kernel messages
13) Printing kernel messages
----------------------------
Kernel developers like to be seen as literate. Do mind the spelling
of kernel messages to make a good impression. Do not use crippled
words like "dont"; use "do not" or "don't" instead. Make the messages
words like ``dont``; use ``do not`` or ``don't`` instead. Make the messages
concise, clear, and unambiguous.
Kernel messages do not have to be terminated with a period.
@ -713,7 +800,8 @@ already inside a debug-related #ifdef section, printk(KERN_DEBUG ...) can be
used.
Chapter 14: Allocating memory
14) Allocating memory
---------------------
The kernel provides the following general purpose memory allocators:
kmalloc(), kzalloc(), kmalloc_array(), kcalloc(), vmalloc(), and
@ -722,6 +810,8 @@ about them.
The preferred form for passing a size of a struct is the following:
.. code-block:: c
p = kmalloc(sizeof(*p), ...);
The alternative form where struct name is spelled out hurts readability and
@ -734,20 +824,25 @@ language.
The preferred form for allocating an array is the following:
.. code-block:: c
p = kmalloc_array(n, sizeof(...), ...);
The preferred form for allocating a zeroed array is the following:
.. code-block:: c
p = kcalloc(n, sizeof(...), ...);
Both forms check for overflow on the allocation size n * sizeof(...),
and return NULL if that occurred.
Chapter 15: The inline disease
15) The inline disease
----------------------
There appears to be a common misperception that gcc has a magic "make me
faster" speedup option called "inline". While the use of inlines can be
faster" speedup option called ``inline``. While the use of inlines can be
appropriate (for example as a means of replacing macros, see Chapter 12), it
very often is not. Abundant use of the inline keyword leads to a much bigger
kernel, which in turn slows the system as a whole down, due to a bigger
@ -771,26 +866,27 @@ appears outweighs the potential value of the hint that tells gcc to do
something it would have done anyway.
Chapter 16: Function return values and names
16) Function return values and names
------------------------------------
Functions can return values of many different kinds, and one of the
most common is a value indicating whether the function succeeded or
failed. Such a value can be represented as an error-code integer
(-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a "succeeded" boolean (0 = failure,
(-Exxx = failure, 0 = success) or a ``succeeded`` boolean (0 = failure,
non-zero = success).
Mixing up these two sorts of representations is a fertile source of
difficult-to-find bugs. If the C language included a strong distinction
between integers and booleans then the compiler would find these mistakes
for us... but it doesn't. To help prevent such bugs, always follow this
convention:
convention::
If the name of a function is an action or an imperative command,
the function should return an error-code integer. If the name
is a predicate, the function should return a "succeeded" boolean.
For example, "add work" is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0
for success or -EBUSY for failure. In the same way, "PCI device present" is
For example, ``add work`` is a command, and the add_work() function returns 0
for success or -EBUSY for failure. In the same way, ``PCI device present`` is
a predicate, and the pci_dev_present() function returns 1 if it succeeds in
finding a matching device or 0 if it doesn't.
@ -805,17 +901,22 @@ result. Typical examples would be functions that return pointers; they use
NULL or the ERR_PTR mechanism to report failure.
Chapter 17: Don't re-invent the kernel macros
17) Don't re-invent the kernel macros
-------------------------------------
The header file include/linux/kernel.h contains a number of macros that
you should use, rather than explicitly coding some variant of them yourself.
For example, if you need to calculate the length of an array, take advantage
of the macro
.. code-block:: c
#define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof((x)[0]))
Similarly, if you need to calculate the size of some structure member, use
.. code-block:: c
#define FIELD_SIZEOF(t, f) (sizeof(((t*)0)->f))
There are also min() and max() macros that do strict type checking if you
@ -823,16 +924,21 @@ need them. Feel free to peruse that header file to see what else is already
defined that you shouldn't reproduce in your code.
Chapter 18: Editor modelines and other cruft
18) Editor modelines and other cruft
------------------------------------
Some editors can interpret configuration information embedded in source files,
indicated with special markers. For example, emacs interprets lines marked
like this:
.. code-block:: c
-*- mode: c -*-
Or like this:
.. code-block:: c
/*
Local Variables:
compile-command: "gcc -DMAGIC_DEBUG_FLAG foo.c"
@ -841,6 +947,8 @@ Or like this:
Vim interprets markers that look like this:
.. code-block:: c
/* vim:set sw=8 noet */
Do not include any of these in source files. People have their own personal
@ -850,7 +958,8 @@ own custom mode, or may have some other magic method for making indentation
work correctly.
Chapter 19: Inline assembly
19) Inline assembly
-------------------
In architecture-specific code, you may need to use inline assembly to interface
with CPU or platform functionality. Don't hesitate to do so when necessary.
@ -863,7 +972,7 @@ that inline assembly can use C parameters.
Large, non-trivial assembly functions should go in .S files, with corresponding
C prototypes defined in C header files. The C prototypes for assembly
functions should use "asmlinkage".
functions should use ``asmlinkage``.
You may need to mark your asm statement as volatile, to prevent GCC from
removing it if GCC doesn't notice any side effects. You don't always need to
@ -874,12 +983,15 @@ instructions, put each instruction on a separate line in a separate quoted
string, and end each string except the last with \n\t to properly indent the
next instruction in the assembly output:
.. code-block:: c
asm ("magic %reg1, #42\n\t"
"more_magic %reg2, %reg3"
: /* outputs */ : /* inputs */ : /* clobbers */);
Chapter 20: Conditional Compilation
20) Conditional Compilation
---------------------------
Wherever possible, don't use preprocessor conditionals (#if, #ifdef) in .c
files; doing so makes code harder to read and logic harder to follow. Instead,
@ -903,6 +1015,8 @@ unused, delete it.)
Within code, where possible, use the IS_ENABLED macro to convert a Kconfig
symbol into a C boolean expression, and use it in a normal C conditional:
.. code-block:: c
if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SOMETHING)) {
...
}
@ -918,12 +1032,15 @@ At the end of any non-trivial #if or #ifdef block (more than a few lines),
place a comment after the #endif on the same line, noting the conditional
expression used. For instance:
.. code-block:: c
#ifdef CONFIG_SOMETHING
...
#endif /* CONFIG_SOMETHING */
Appendix I: References
Appendix I) References
----------------------
The C Programming Language, Second Edition
by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
@ -943,4 +1060,3 @@ language C, URL: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG14/
Kernel CodingStyle, by greg@kroah.com at OLS 2002:
http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2002_kernel_codingstyle_talk/html/

8
Documentation/DMA-API-HOWTO.txt
View File

@ -699,7 +699,7 @@ to use the dma_sync_*() interfaces.
dma_addr_t mapping;
mapping = dma_map_single(cp->dev, buffer, len, DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
if (dma_mapping_error(cp->dev, dma_handle)) {
if (dma_mapping_error(cp->dev, mapping)) {
/*
* reduce current DMA mapping usage,
* delay and try again later or
@ -931,10 +931,8 @@ to "Closing".
1) Struct scatterlist requirements.
Don't invent the architecture specific struct scatterlist; just use
<asm-generic/scatterlist.h>. You need to enable
CONFIG_NEED_SG_DMA_LENGTH if the architecture supports IOMMUs
(including software IOMMU).
You need to enable CONFIG_NEED_SG_DMA_LENGTH if the architecture
supports IOMMUs (including software IOMMU).
2) ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN

22
Documentation/DMA-API.txt
View File

@ -277,14 +277,26 @@ and <size> parameters are provided to do partial page mapping, it is
recommended that you never use these unless you really know what the
cache width is.
dma_addr_t
dma_map_resource(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t phys_addr, size_t size,
enum dma_data_direction dir, unsigned long attrs)
void
dma_unmap_resource(struct device *dev, dma_addr_t addr, size_t size,
enum dma_data_direction dir, unsigned long attrs)
API for mapping and unmapping for MMIO resources. All the notes and
warnings for the other mapping APIs apply here. The API should only be
used to map device MMIO resources, mapping of RAM is not permitted.
int
dma_mapping_error(struct device *dev, dma_addr_t dma_addr)
In some circumstances dma_map_single() and dma_map_page() will fail to create
a mapping. A driver can check for these errors by testing the returned
DMA address with dma_mapping_error(). A non-zero return value means the mapping
could not be created and the driver should take appropriate action (e.g.
reduce current DMA mapping usage or delay and try again later).
In some circumstances dma_map_single(), dma_map_page() and dma_map_resource()
will fail to create a mapping. A driver can check for these errors by testing
the returned DMA address with dma_mapping_error(). A non-zero return value
means the mapping could not be created and the driver should take appropriate
action (e.g. reduce current DMA mapping usage or delay and try again later).
int
dma_map_sg(struct device *dev, struct scatterlist *sg,

17
Documentation/DMA-attributes.txt
View File

@ -126,3 +126,20 @@ means that we won't try quite as hard to get them.
NOTE: At the moment DMA_ATTR_ALLOC_SINGLE_PAGES is only implemented on ARM,
though ARM64 patches will likely be posted soon.
DMA_ATTR_NO_WARN
----------------
This tells the DMA-mapping subsystem to suppress allocation failure reports
(similarly to __GFP_NOWARN).
On some architectures allocation failures are reported with error messages
to the system logs. Although this can help to identify and debug problems,
drivers which handle failures (eg, retry later) have no problems with them,
and can actually flood the system logs with error messages that aren't any
problem at all, depending on the implementation of the retry mechanism.
So, this provides a way for drivers to avoid those error messages on calls
where allocation failures are not a problem, and shouldn't bother the logs.
NOTE: At the moment DMA_ATTR_NO_WARN is only implemented on PowerPC.

584
Documentation/DocBook/80211.tmpl
View File

@ -1,584 +0,0 @@
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE set PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
<set>
<setinfo>
<title>The 802.11 subsystems &ndash; for kernel developers</title>
<subtitle>
Explaining wireless 802.11 networking in the Linux kernel
</subtitle>
<copyright>
<year>2007-2009</year>
<holder>Johannes Berg</holder>
</copyright>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Johannes</firstname>
<surname>Berg</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>johannes@sipsolutions.net</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<legalnotice>
<para>
This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
</para>
<para>
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
</para>
<para>
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307 USA
</para>
<para>
For more details see the file COPYING in the source
distribution of Linux.
</para>
</legalnotice>
<abstract>
<para>
These books attempt to give a description of the
various subsystems that play a role in 802.11 wireless
networking in Linux. Since these books are for kernel
developers they attempts to document the structures
and functions used in the kernel as well as giving a
higher-level overview.
</para>
<para>
The reader is expected to be familiar with the 802.11
standard as published by the IEEE in 802.11-2007 (or
possibly later versions). References to this standard
will be given as "802.11-2007 8.1.5".
</para>
</abstract>
</setinfo>
<book id="cfg80211-developers-guide">
<bookinfo>
<title>The cfg80211 subsystem</title>
<abstract>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Introduction
</abstract>
</bookinfo>
<chapter>
<title>Device registration</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Device registration
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_channel_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_channel
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_rate_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_rate
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_sta_ht_cap
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_supported_band
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_signal_type
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_params_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wireless_dev
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_new
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_register
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_unregister
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_free
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_name
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_dev
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_priv
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h priv_to_wiphy
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h set_wiphy_dev
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wdev_priv
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_iface_limit
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_iface_combination
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_check_combinations
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Actions and configuration</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Actions and configuration
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_ops
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h vif_params
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h key_params
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h survey_info_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h survey_info
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_beacon_data
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_ap_settings
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h station_parameters
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h rate_info_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h rate_info
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h station_info
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h monitor_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h mpath_info_flags
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h mpath_info
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h bss_parameters
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_txq_params
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_crypto_settings
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_auth_request
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_assoc_request
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_deauth_request
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_disassoc_request
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_ibss_params
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_connect_params
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_pmksa
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_rx_mlme_mgmt
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_auth_timeout
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_rx_assoc_resp
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_assoc_timeout
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_tx_mlme_mgmt
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_ibss_joined
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_connect_result
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_connect_bss
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_connect_timeout
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_roamed
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_disconnected
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_ready_on_channel
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_remain_on_channel_expired
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_new_sta
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_rx_mgmt
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_mgmt_tx_status
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_cqm_rssi_notify
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_cqm_pktloss_notify
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_michael_mic_failure
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Scanning and BSS list handling</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Scanning and BSS list handling
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_ssid
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_scan_request
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_scan_done
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_bss
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_inform_bss
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_inform_bss_frame_data
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_inform_bss_data
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_unlink_bss
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_find_ie
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_bss_get_ie
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Utility functions</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Utility functions
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_channel_to_frequency
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_frequency_to_channel
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_get_channel
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_get_response_rate
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_hdrlen
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_get_hdrlen_from_skb
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_radiotap_iterator
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Data path helpers</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Data path helpers
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_data_to_8023
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_data_from_8023
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h ieee80211_amsdu_to_8023s
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_classify8021d
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Regulatory enforcement infrastructure</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Regulatory enforcement infrastructure
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h regulatory_hint
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_apply_custom_regulatory
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h freq_reg_info
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>RFkill integration</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h RFkill integration
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_rfkill_set_hw_state
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_rfkill_start_polling
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h wiphy_rfkill_stop_polling
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Test mode</title>
!Pinclude/net/cfg80211.h Test mode
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_testmode_alloc_reply_skb
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_testmode_reply
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_testmode_alloc_event_skb
!Finclude/net/cfg80211.h cfg80211_testmode_event
</chapter>
</book>
<book id="mac80211-developers-guide">
<bookinfo>
<title>The mac80211 subsystem</title>
<abstract>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Introduction
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Warning
</abstract>
</bookinfo>
<toc></toc>
<!--
Generally, this document shall be ordered by increasing complexity.
It is important to note that readers should be able to read only
the first few sections to get a working driver and only advanced
usage should require reading the full document.
-->
<part>
<title>The basic mac80211 driver interface</title>
<partintro>
<para>
You should read and understand the information contained
within this part of the book while implementing a driver.
In some chapters, advanced usage is noted, that may be
skipped at first.
</para>
<para>
This part of the book only covers station and monitor mode
functionality, additional information required to implement
the other modes is covered in the second part of the book.
</para>
</partintro>
<chapter id="basics">
<title>Basic hardware handling</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
This chapter shall contain information on getting a hw
struct allocated and registered with mac80211.
</para>
<para>
Since it is required to allocate rates/modes before registering
a hw struct, this chapter shall also contain information on setting
up the rate/mode structs.
</para>
<para>
Additionally, some discussion about the callbacks and
the general programming model should be in here, including
the definition of ieee80211_ops which will be referred to
a lot.
</para>
<para>
Finally, a discussion of hardware capabilities should be done
with references to other parts of the book.
</para>
<!-- intentionally multiple !F lines to get proper order -->
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_hw_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h SET_IEEE80211_DEV
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h SET_IEEE80211_PERM_ADDR
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ops
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_alloc_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_register_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_unregister_hw
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_free_hw
</chapter>
<chapter id="phy-handling">
<title>PHY configuration</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
This chapter should describe PHY handling including
start/stop callbacks and the various structures used.
</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_conf
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_conf_flags
</chapter>
<chapter id="iface-handling">
<title>Virtual interfaces</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
This chapter should describe virtual interface basics
that are relevant to the driver (VLANs, MGMT etc are not.)
It should explain the use of the add_iface/remove_iface
callbacks as well as the interface configuration callbacks.
</para>
<para>Things related to AP mode should be discussed there.</para>
<para>
Things related to supporting multiple interfaces should be
in the appropriate chapter, a BIG FAT note should be here about
this though and the recommendation to allow only a single
interface in STA mode at first!
</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_vif
</chapter>
<chapter id="rx-tx">
<title>Receive and transmit processing</title>
<sect1>
<title>what should be here</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
This should describe the receive and transmit
paths in mac80211/the drivers as well as
transmit status handling.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Frame format</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Frame format
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Packet alignment</title>
!Pnet/mac80211/rx.c Packet alignment
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Calling into mac80211 from interrupts</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Calling mac80211 from interrupts
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>functions/definitions</title>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx_status
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h mac80211_rx_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h mac80211_tx_info_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h mac80211_tx_control_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h mac80211_rate_control_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_rate
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_info
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_info_clear_status
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx_ni
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rx_irqsafe
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_status
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_status_ni
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rts_get
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rts_duration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ctstoself_get
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ctstoself_duration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_generic_frame_duration
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_wake_queue
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_stop_queue
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_wake_queues
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_stop_queues
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_queue_stopped
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="filters">
<title>Frame filtering</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Frame filtering
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_filter_flags
</chapter>
<chapter id="workqueue">
<title>The mac80211 workqueue</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h mac80211 workqueue
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_queue_work
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_queue_delayed_work
</chapter>
</part>
<part id="advanced">
<title>Advanced driver interface</title>
<partintro>
<para>
Information contained within this part of the book is
of interest only for advanced interaction of mac80211
with drivers to exploit more hardware capabilities and
improve performance.
</para>
</partintro>
<chapter id="led-support">
<title>LED support</title>
<para>
Mac80211 supports various ways of blinking LEDs. Wherever possible,
device LEDs should be exposed as LED class devices and hooked up to
the appropriate trigger, which will then be triggered appropriately
by mac80211.
</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_tx_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_rx_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_radio_led_name
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tpt_blink
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tpt_led_trigger_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_create_tpt_led_trigger
</chapter>
<chapter id="hardware-crypto-offload">
<title>Hardware crypto acceleration</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Hardware crypto acceleration
<!-- intentionally multiple !F lines to get proper order -->
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h set_key_cmd
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_key_conf
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_key_flags
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_tkip_p1k
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_tkip_p1k_iv
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_tkip_p2k
</chapter>
<chapter id="powersave">
<title>Powersave support</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Powersave support
</chapter>
<chapter id="beacon-filter">
<title>Beacon filter support</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Beacon filter support
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_beacon_loss
</chapter>
<chapter id="qos">
<title>Multiple queues and QoS support</title>
<para>TBD</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_queue_params
</chapter>
<chapter id="AP">
<title>Access point mode support</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>Some parts of the if_conf should be discussed here instead</para>
<para>
Insert notes about VLAN interfaces with hw crypto here or
in the hw crypto chapter.
</para>
<section id="ps-client">
<title>support for powersaving clients</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h AP support for powersaving clients
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_get_buffered_bc
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_beacon_get
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_sta_eosp
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_frame_release_type
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_sta_ps_transition
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_sta_ps_transition_ni
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_sta_set_buffered
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_sta_block_awake
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter id="multi-iface">
<title>Supporting multiple virtual interfaces</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
Note: WDS with identical MAC address should almost always be OK
</para>
<para>
Insert notes about having multiple virtual interfaces with
different MAC addresses here, note which configurations are
supported by mac80211, add notes about supporting hw crypto
with it.
</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces_atomic
</chapter>
<chapter id="station-handling">
<title>Station handling</title>
<para>TODO</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_sta
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h sta_notify_cmd
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_find_sta
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_find_sta_by_ifaddr
</chapter>
<chapter id="hardware-scan-offload">
<title>Hardware scan offload</title>
<para>TBD</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_scan_completed
</chapter>
<chapter id="aggregation">
<title>Aggregation</title>
<sect1>
<title>TX A-MPDU aggregation</title>
!Pnet/mac80211/agg-tx.c TX A-MPDU aggregation
!Cnet/mac80211/agg-tx.c
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>RX A-MPDU aggregation</title>
!Pnet/mac80211/agg-rx.c RX A-MPDU aggregation
!Cnet/mac80211/agg-rx.c
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ampdu_mlme_action
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="smps">
<title>Spatial Multiplexing Powersave (SMPS)</title>
!Pinclude/net/mac80211.h Spatial multiplexing power save
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_request_smps
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_smps_mode
</chapter>
</part>
<part id="rate-control">
<title>Rate control interface</title>
<partintro>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
This part of the book describes the rate control algorithm
interface and how it relates to mac80211 and drivers.
</para>
</partintro>
<chapter id="ratecontrol-api">
<title>Rate Control API</title>
<para>TBD</para>
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_start_tx_ba_session
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_start_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_session
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_rate_control_changed
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_tx_rate_control
!Finclude/net/mac80211.h rate_control_send_low
</chapter>
</part>
<part id="internal">
<title>Internals</title>
<partintro>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>
This part of the book describes mac80211 internals.
</para>
</partintro>
<chapter id="key-handling">
<title>Key handling</title>
<sect1>
<title>Key handling basics</title>
!Pnet/mac80211/key.c Key handling basics
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>MORE TBD</title>
<para>TBD</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="rx-processing">
<title>Receive processing</title>
<para>TBD</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="tx-processing">
<title>Transmit processing</title>
<para>TBD</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="sta-info">
<title>Station info handling</title>
<sect1>
<title>Programming information</title>
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h sta_info
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h ieee80211_sta_info_flags
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>STA information lifetime rules</title>
!Pnet/mac80211/sta_info.c STA information lifetime rules
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="aggregation-internals">
<title>Aggregation</title>
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h sta_ampdu_mlme
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h tid_ampdu_tx
!Fnet/mac80211/sta_info.h tid_ampdu_rx
</chapter>
<chapter id="synchronisation">
<title>Synchronisation</title>
<para>TBD</para>
<para>Locking, lots of RCU</para>
</chapter>
</part>
</book>
</set>

14
Documentation/DocBook/Makefile
View File

@ -6,13 +6,13 @@
# To add a new book the only step required is to add the book to the
# list of DOCBOOKS.
DOCBOOKS := z8530book.xml device-drivers.xml \
DOCBOOKS := z8530book.xml \
kernel-hacking.xml kernel-locking.xml deviceiobook.xml \
writing_usb_driver.xml networking.xml \
kernel-api.xml filesystems.xml lsm.xml usb.xml kgdb.xml \
gadget.xml libata.xml mtdnand.xml librs.xml rapidio.xml \
genericirq.xml s390-drivers.xml uio-howto.xml scsi.xml \
80211.xml debugobjects.xml sh.xml regulator.xml \
debugobjects.xml sh.xml regulator.xml \
alsa-driver-api.xml writing-an-alsa-driver.xml \
tracepoint.xml w1.xml \
writing_musb_glue_layer.xml crypto-API.xml iio.xml
@ -22,8 +22,14 @@ ifeq ($(DOCBOOKS),)
# Skip DocBook build if the user explicitly requested no DOCBOOKS.
.DEFAULT:
@echo " SKIP DocBook $@ target (DOCBOOKS=\"\" specified)."
else
ifneq ($(SPHINXDIRS),)
# Skip DocBook build if the user explicitly requested a sphinx dir
.DEFAULT:
@echo " SKIP DocBook $@ target (SPHINXDIRS specified)."
else
###
# The build process is as follows (targets):
@ -66,6 +72,7 @@ installmandocs: mandocs
# no-op for the DocBook toolchain
epubdocs:
latexdocs:
###
#External programs used
@ -221,6 +228,7 @@ silent_gen_xml = :
echo "</programlisting>") > $@
endif # DOCBOOKS=""
endif # SPHINDIR=...
###
# Help targets as used by the top-level makefile

38
Documentation/DocBook/crypto-API.tmpl
View File

@ -797,7 +797,8 @@ kernel crypto API | Caller
include/linux/crypto.h and their definition can be seen below.
The former function registers a single transformation, while
the latter works on an array of transformation descriptions.
The latter is useful when registering transformations in bulk.
The latter is useful when registering transformations in bulk,
for example when a driver implements multiple transformations.
</para>
<programlisting>
@ -822,18 +823,31 @@ kernel crypto API | Caller
</para>
<para>
The bulk registration / unregistration functions require
that struct crypto_alg is an array of count size. These
functions simply loop over that array and register /
unregister each individual algorithm. If an error occurs,
the loop is terminated at the offending algorithm definition.
That means, the algorithms prior to the offending algorithm
are successfully registered. Note, the caller has no way of
knowing which cipher implementations have successfully
registered. If this is important to know, the caller should
loop through the different implementations using the single
instance *_alg functions for each individual implementation.
The bulk registration/unregistration functions
register/unregister each transformation in the given array of
length count. They handle errors as follows:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
crypto_register_algs() succeeds if and only if it
successfully registers all the given transformations. If an
error occurs partway through, then it rolls back successful
registrations before returning the error code. Note that if
a driver needs to handle registration errors for individual
transformations, then it will need to use the non-bulk
function crypto_register_alg() instead.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
crypto_unregister_algs() tries to unregister all the given
transformations, continuing on error. It logs errors and
always returns zero.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Single-Block Symmetric Ciphers [CIPHER]</title>

521
Documentation/DocBook/device-drivers.tmpl
View File

@ -1,521 +0,0 @@
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
<book id="LinuxDriversAPI">
<bookinfo>
<title>Linux Device Drivers</title>
<legalnotice>
<para>
This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
</para>
<para>
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
</para>
<para>
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307 USA
</para>
<para>
For more details see the file COPYING in the source
distribution of Linux.
</para>
</legalnotice>
</bookinfo>
<toc></toc>
<chapter id="Basics">
<title>Driver Basics</title>
<sect1><title>Driver Entry and Exit points</title>
!Iinclude/linux/init.h
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Atomic and pointer manipulation</title>
!Iarch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title>
!Iinclude/linux/sched.h
!Ekernel/sched/core.c
!Ikernel/sched/cpupri.c
!Ikernel/sched/fair.c
!Iinclude/linux/completion.h
!Ekernel/time/timer.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Wait queues and Wake events</title>
!Iinclude/linux/wait.h
!Ekernel/sched/wait.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>High-resolution timers</title>
!Iinclude/linux/ktime.h
!Iinclude/linux/hrtimer.h
!Ekernel/time/hrtimer.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Workqueues and Kevents</title>
!Iinclude/linux/workqueue.h
!Ekernel/workqueue.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Internal Functions</title>
!Ikernel/exit.c
!Ikernel/signal.c
!Iinclude/linux/kthread.h
!Ekernel/kthread.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Kernel objects manipulation</title>
<!--
X!Iinclude/linux/kobject.h
-->
!Elib/kobject.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Kernel utility functions</title>
!Iinclude/linux/kernel.h
!Ekernel/printk/printk.c
!Ekernel/panic.c
!Ekernel/sys.c
!Ekernel/rcu/srcu.c
!Ekernel/rcu/tree.c
!Ekernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
!Ekernel/rcu/update.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Device Resource Management</title>
!Edrivers/base/devres.c
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="devdrivers">
<title>Device drivers infrastructure</title>
<sect1><title>The Basic Device Driver-Model Structures </title>
!Iinclude/linux/device.h
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Device Drivers Base</title>
!Idrivers/base/init.c
!Edrivers/base/driver.c
!Edrivers/base/core.c
!Edrivers/base/syscore.c
!Edrivers/base/class.c
!Idrivers/base/node.c
!Edrivers/base/firmware_class.c
!Edrivers/base/transport_class.c
<!-- Cannot be included, because
attribute_container_add_class_device_adapter
and attribute_container_classdev_to_container
exceed allowed 44 characters maximum
X!Edrivers/base/attribute_container.c
-->
!Edrivers/base/dd.c
<!--
X!Edrivers/base/interface.c
-->
!Iinclude/linux/platform_device.h
!Edrivers/base/platform.c
!Edrivers/base/bus.c
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Buffer Sharing and Synchronization</title>
<para>
The dma-buf subsystem provides the framework for sharing buffers
for hardware (DMA) access across multiple device drivers and
subsystems, and for synchronizing asynchronous hardware access.
</para>
<para>
This is used, for example, by drm "prime" multi-GPU support, but
is of course not limited to GPU use cases.
</para>
<para>
The three main components of this are: (1) dma-buf, representing
a sg_table and exposed to userspace as a file descriptor to allow
passing between devices, (2) fence, which provides a mechanism
to signal when one device as finished access, and (3) reservation,
which manages the shared or exclusive fence(s) associated with
the buffer.
</para>
<sect2><title>dma-buf</title>
!Edrivers/dma-buf/dma-buf.c
!Iinclude/linux/dma-buf.h
</sect2>
<sect2><title>reservation</title>
!Pdrivers/dma-buf/reservation.c Reservation Object Overview
!Edrivers/dma-buf/reservation.c
!Iinclude/linux/reservation.h
</sect2>
<sect2><title>fence</title>
!Edrivers/dma-buf/fence.c
!Iinclude/linux/fence.h
!Edrivers/dma-buf/seqno-fence.c
!Iinclude/linux/seqno-fence.h
!Edrivers/dma-buf/fence-array.c
!Iinclude/linux/fence-array.h
!Edrivers/dma-buf/reservation.c
!Iinclude/linux/reservation.h
!Edrivers/dma-buf/sync_file.c
!Iinclude/linux/sync_file.h
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Device Drivers DMA Management</title>
!Edrivers/base/dma-coherent.c
!Edrivers/base/dma-mapping.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Device Drivers Power Management</title>
!Edrivers/base/power/main.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Device Drivers ACPI Support</title>
<!-- Internal functions only
X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/main.c
X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/wakeup.c
X!Edrivers/acpi/motherboard.c
X!Edrivers/acpi/bus.c
-->
!Edrivers/acpi/scan.c
!Idrivers/acpi/scan.c
<!-- No correct structured comments
X!Edrivers/acpi/pci_bind.c
-->
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Device drivers PnP support</title>
!Idrivers/pnp/core.c
<!-- No correct structured comments
X!Edrivers/pnp/system.c
-->
!Edrivers/pnp/card.c
!Idrivers/pnp/driver.c
!Edrivers/pnp/manager.c
!Edrivers/pnp/support.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Userspace IO devices</title>
!Edrivers/uio/uio.c
!Iinclude/linux/uio_driver.h
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="parportdev">
<title>Parallel Port Devices</title>
!Iinclude/linux/parport.h
!Edrivers/parport/ieee1284.c
!Edrivers/parport/share.c
!Idrivers/parport/daisy.c
</chapter>
<chapter id="message_devices">
<title>Message-based devices</title>
<sect1><title>Fusion message devices</title>
!Edrivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c
!Idrivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c
!Edrivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c
!Idrivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c
!Idrivers/message/fusion/mptctl.c
!Idrivers/message/fusion/mptspi.c
!Idrivers/message/fusion/mptfc.c
!Idrivers/message/fusion/mptlan.c
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="snddev">
<title>Sound Devices</title>
!Iinclude/sound/core.h
!Esound/sound_core.c
!Iinclude/sound/pcm.h
!Esound/core/pcm.c
!Esound/core/device.c
!Esound/core/info.c
!Esound/core/rawmidi.c
!Esound/core/sound.c
!Esound/core/memory.c
!Esound/core/pcm_memory.c
!Esound/core/init.c
!Esound/core/isadma.c
!Esound/core/control.c
!Esound/core/pcm_lib.c
!Esound/core/hwdep.c
!Esound/core/pcm_native.c
!Esound/core/memalloc.c
<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
X!Isound/sound_firmware.c
-->
</chapter>
<chapter id="uart16x50">
<title>16x50 UART Driver</title>
!Edrivers/tty/serial/serial_core.c
!Edrivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_core.c
</chapter>
<chapter id="fbdev">
<title>Frame Buffer Library</title>
<para>
The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures.
These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are
fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs.
The last three can be made available to and from userland.
</para>
<para>
fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card.
Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a
collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work.
fb_info is only visible to the kernel.
</para>
<para>
fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card
that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as
depth and the resolution may be defined.
</para>
<para>
The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the
properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't
be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the
frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer
memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved.
</para>
<para>
The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was
little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things
such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With
the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used
correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs
will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x.
</para>
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Memory</title>
!Edrivers/video/fbdev/core/fbmem.c
</sect1>
<!--
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Console</title>
X!Edrivers/video/console/fbcon.c
</sect1>
-->
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Colormap</title>
!Edrivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcmap.c
</sect1>
<!-- FIXME:
drivers/video/fbgen.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment
out until somebody adds docs. KAO
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Generic Functions</title>
X!Idrivers/video/fbgen.c
</sect1>
KAO -->
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Video Mode Database</title>
!Idrivers/video/fbdev/core/modedb.c
!Edrivers/video/fbdev/core/modedb.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Macintosh Video Mode Database</title>
!Edrivers/video/fbdev/macmodes.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Frame Buffer Fonts</title>
<para>
Refer to the file lib/fonts/fonts.c for more information.
</para>
<!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source
X!Ilib/fonts/fonts.c
-->
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="input_subsystem">
<title>Input Subsystem</title>
<sect1><title>Input core</title>
!Iinclude/linux/input.h
!Edrivers/input/input.c
!Edrivers/input/ff-core.c
!Edrivers/input/ff-memless.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Multitouch Library</title>
!Iinclude/linux/input/mt.h
!Edrivers/input/input-mt.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Polled input devices</title>
!Iinclude/linux/input-polldev.h
!Edrivers/input/input-polldev.c
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Matrix keyboards/keypads</title>
!Iinclude/linux/input/matrix_keypad.h
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Sparse keymap support</title>
!Iinclude/linux/input/sparse-keymap.h
!Edrivers/input/sparse-keymap.c
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="spi">
<title>Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)</title>
<para>
SPI is the "Serial Peripheral Interface", widely used with
embedded systems because it is a simple and efficient
interface: basically a multiplexed shift register.
Its three signal wires hold a clock (SCK, often in the range
of 1-20 MHz), a "Master Out, Slave In" (MOSI) data line, and
a "Master In, Slave Out" (MISO) data line.
SPI is a full duplex protocol; for each bit shifted out the
MOSI line (one per clock) another is shifted in on the MISO line.
Those bits are assembled into words of various sizes on the
way to and from system memory.
An additional chipselect line is usually active-low (nCS);
four signals are normally used for each peripheral, plus
sometimes an interrupt.
</para>
<para>
The SPI bus facilities listed here provide a generalized
interface to declare SPI busses and devices, manage them
according to the standard Linux driver model, and perform
input/output operations.
At this time, only "master" side interfaces are supported,
where Linux talks to SPI peripherals and does not implement
such a peripheral itself.
(Interfaces to support implementing SPI slaves would
necessarily look different.)
</para>
<para>
The programming interface is structured around two kinds of driver,
and two kinds of device.
A "Controller Driver" abstracts the controller hardware, which may
be as simple as a set of GPIO pins or as complex as a pair of FIFOs
connected to dual DMA engines on the other side of the SPI shift
register (maximizing throughput). Such drivers bridge between
whatever bus they sit on (often the platform bus) and SPI, and
expose the SPI side of their device as a
<structname>struct spi_master</structname>.
SPI devices are children of that master, represented as a
<structname>struct spi_device</structname> and manufactured from
<structname>struct spi_board_info</structname> descriptors which
are usually provided by board-specific initialization code.
A <structname>struct spi_driver</structname> is called a
"Protocol Driver", and is bound to a spi_device using normal
driver model calls.
</para>
<para>
The I/O model is a set of queued messages. Protocol drivers
submit one or more <structname>struct spi_message</structname>
objects, which are processed and completed asynchronously.
(There are synchronous wrappers, however.) Messages are
built from one or more <structname>struct spi_transfer</structname>
objects, each of which wraps a full duplex SPI transfer.
A variety of protocol tweaking options are needed, because
different chips adopt very different policies for how they
use the bits transferred with SPI.
</para>
!Iinclude/linux/spi/spi.h
!Fdrivers/spi/spi.c spi_register_board_info
!Edrivers/spi/spi.c
</chapter>
<chapter id="i2c">
<title>I<superscript>2</superscript>C and SMBus Subsystem</title>
<para>
I<superscript>2</superscript>C (or without fancy typography, "I2C")
is an acronym for the "Inter-IC" bus, a simple bus protocol which is
widely used where low data rate communications suffice.
Since it's also a licensed trademark, some vendors use another
name (such as "Two-Wire Interface", TWI) for the same bus.
I2C only needs two signals (SCL for clock, SDA for data), conserving
board real estate and minimizing signal quality issues.
Most I2C devices use seven bit addresses, and bus speeds of up
to 400 kHz; there's a high speed extension (3.4 MHz) that's not yet
found wide use.
I2C is a multi-master bus; open drain signaling is used to
arbitrate between masters, as well as to handshake and to
synchronize clocks from slower clients.
</para>
<para>
The Linux I2C programming interfaces support only the master
side of bus interactions, not the slave side.
The programming interface is structured around two kinds of driver,
and two kinds of device.
An I2C "Adapter Driver" abstracts the controller hardware; it binds
to a physical device (perhaps a PCI device or platform_device) and
exposes a <structname>struct i2c_adapter</structname> representing
each I2C bus segment it manages.
On each I2C bus segment will be I2C devices represented by a
<structname>struct i2c_client</structname>. Those devices will
be bound to a <structname>struct i2c_driver</structname>,
which should follow the standard Linux driver model.
(At this writing, a legacy model is more widely used.)
There are functions to perform various I2C protocol operations; at
this writing all such functions are usable only from task context.
</para>
<para>
The System Management Bus (SMBus) is a sibling protocol. Most SMBus
systems are also I2C conformant. The electrical constraints are
tighter for SMBus, and it standardizes particular protocol messages
and idioms. Controllers that support I2C can also support most
SMBus operations, but SMBus controllers don't support all the protocol
options that an I2C controller will.
There are functions to perform various SMBus protocol operations,
either using I2C primitives or by issuing SMBus commands to
i2c_adapter devices which don't support those I2C operations.
</para>
!Iinclude/linux/i2c.h
!Fdrivers/i2c/i2c-boardinfo.c i2c_register_board_info
!Edrivers/i2c/i2c-core.c
</chapter>
<chapter id="hsi">
<title>High Speed Synchronous Serial Interface (HSI)</title>
<para>
High Speed Synchronous Serial Interface (HSI) is a
serial interface mainly used for connecting application
engines (APE) with cellular modem engines (CMT) in cellular
handsets.
HSI provides multiplexing for up to 16 logical channels,
low-latency and full duplex communication.
</para>
!Iinclude/linux/hsi/hsi.h
!Edrivers/hsi/hsi_core.c
</chapter>
<chapter id="pwm">
<title>Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM)</title>
<para>
Pulse-width modulation is a modulation technique primarily used to
control power supplied to electrical devices.
</para>
<para>
The PWM framework provides an abstraction for providers and consumers
of PWM signals. A controller that provides one or more PWM signals is
registered as <structname>struct pwm_chip</structname>. Providers are
expected to embed this structure in a driver-specific structure. This
structure contains fields that describe a particular chip.
</para>
<para>
A chip exposes one or more PWM signal sources, each of which exposed
as a <structname>struct pwm_device</structname>. Operations can be
performed on PWM devices to control the period, duty cycle, polarity
and active state of the signal.
</para>
<para>
Note that PWM devices are exclusive resources: they can always only be
used by one consumer at a time.
</para>
!Iinclude/linux/pwm.h
!Edrivers/pwm/core.c
</chapter>
</book>

2
Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking.tmpl
View File

@ -483,7 +483,7 @@ printk(KERN_INFO "my ip: %pI4\n", &amp;ipaddress);
<function>get_user()</function>
/
<function>put_user()</function>
<filename class="headerfile">include/asm/uaccess.h</filename>
<filename class="headerfile">include/linux/uaccess.h</filename>
</title>
<para>

148
Documentation/HOWTO
View File

@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
HOWTO do Linux kernel development
---------------------------------
=================================
This is the be-all, end-all document on this topic. It contains
instructions on how to become a Linux kernel developer and how to learn
@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ kernel development. Assembly (any architecture) is not required unless
you plan to do low-level development for that architecture. Though they
are not a good substitute for a solid C education and/or years of
experience, the following books are good for, if anything, reference:
- "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie [Prentice Hall]
- "Practical C Programming" by Steve Oualline [O'Reilly]
- "C: A Reference Manual" by Harbison and Steele [Prentice Hall]
@ -64,7 +65,8 @@ people on the mailing lists are not lawyers, and you should not rely on
their statements on legal matters.
For common questions and answers about the GPL, please see:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
Documentation
@ -82,96 +84,118 @@ linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
Here is a list of files that are in the kernel source tree that are
required reading:
README
This file gives a short background on the Linux kernel and describes
what is necessary to do to configure and build the kernel. People
who are new to the kernel should start here.
Documentation/Changes
:ref:`Documentation/Changes <changes>`
This file gives a list of the minimum levels of various software
packages that are necessary to build and run the kernel
successfully.
Documentation/CodingStyle
:ref:`Documentation/CodingStyle <codingstyle>`
This describes the Linux kernel coding style, and some of the
rationale behind it. All new code is expected to follow the
guidelines in this document. Most maintainers will only accept
patches if these rules are followed, and many people will only
review code if it is in the proper style.
Documentation/SubmittingPatches
Documentation/SubmittingDrivers
:ref:`Documentation/SubmittingPatches <submittingpatches>` and :ref:`Documentation/SubmittingDrivers <submittingdrivers>`
These files describe in explicit detail how to successfully create
and send a patch, including (but not limited to):
- Email contents
- Email format
- Who to send it to
Following these rules will not guarantee success (as all patches are
subject to scrutiny for content and style), but not following them
will almost always prevent it.
Other excellent descriptions of how to create patches properly are:
"The Perfect Patch"
http://www.ozlabs.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt
https://www.ozlabs.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt
"Linux kernel patch submission format"
http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html
Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt
:ref:`Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt <stable_api_nonsense>`
This file describes the rationale behind the conscious decision to
not have a stable API within the kernel, including things like:
- Subsystem shim-layers (for compatibility?)
- Driver portability between Operating Systems.
- Mitigating rapid change within the kernel source tree (or
preventing rapid change)
This document is crucial for understanding the Linux development
philosophy and is very important for people moving to Linux from
development on other Operating Systems.
Documentation/SecurityBugs
:ref:`Documentation/SecurityBugs <securitybugs>`
If you feel you have found a security problem in the Linux kernel,
please follow the steps in this document to help notify the kernel
developers, and help solve the issue.
Documentation/ManagementStyle
:ref:`Documentation/ManagementStyle <managementstyle>`
This document describes how Linux kernel maintainers operate and the
shared ethos behind their methodologies. This is important reading
for anyone new to kernel development (or anyone simply curious about
it), as it resolves a lot of common misconceptions and confusion
about the unique behavior of kernel maintainers.
Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt
:ref:`Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt <stable_kernel_rules>`
This file describes the rules on how the stable kernel releases
happen, and what to do if you want to get a change into one of these
releases.
Documentation/kernel-docs.txt
:ref:`Documentation/kernel-docs.txt <kernel_docs>`
A list of external documentation that pertains to kernel
development. Please consult this list if you do not find what you
are looking for within the in-kernel documentation.
Documentation/applying-patches.txt
:ref:`Documentation/applying-patches.txt <applying_patches>`
A good introduction describing exactly what a patch is and how to
apply it to the different development branches of the kernel.
The kernel also has a large number of documents that can be
automatically generated from the source code itself. This includes a
automatically generated from the source code itself or from
ReStructuredText markups (ReST), like this one. This includes a
full description of the in-kernel API, and rules on how to handle
locking properly. The documents will be created in the
Documentation/DocBook/ directory and can be generated as PDF,
Postscript, HTML, and man pages by running:
locking properly.
All such documents can be generated as PDF or HTML by running::
make pdfdocs
make psdocs
make htmldocs
make mandocs
respectively from the main kernel source directory.
The documents that uses ReST markup will be generated at Documentation/output.
They can also be generated on LaTeX and ePub formats with::
make latexdocs
make epubdocs
Currently, there are some documents written on DocBook that are in
the process of conversion to ReST. Such documents will be created in the
Documentation/DocBook/ directory and can be generated also as
Postscript or man pages by running::
make psdocs
make mandocs
Becoming A Kernel Developer
---------------------------
If you do not know anything about Linux kernel development, you should
look at the Linux KernelNewbies project:
http://kernelnewbies.org
https://kernelnewbies.org
It consists of a helpful mailing list where you can ask almost any type
of basic kernel development question (make sure to search the archives
first, before asking something that has already been answered in the
@ -187,7 +211,9 @@ apply a patch.
If you do not know where you want to start, but you want to look for
some task to start doing to join into the kernel development community,
go to the Linux Kernel Janitor's project:
http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelJanitors
https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelJanitors
It is a great place to start. It describes a list of relatively simple
problems that need to be cleaned up and fixed within the Linux kernel
source tree. Working with the developers in charge of this project, you
@ -199,7 +225,8 @@ If you already have a chunk of code that you want to put into the kernel
tree, but need some help getting it in the proper form, the
kernel-mentors project was created to help you out with this. It is a
mailing list, and can be found at:
http://selenic.com/mailman/listinfo/kernel-mentors
https://selenic.com/mailman/listinfo/kernel-mentors
Before making any actual modifications to the Linux kernel code, it is
imperative to understand how the code in question works. For this
@ -209,6 +236,7 @@ tools. One such tool that is particularly recommended is the Linux
Cross-Reference project, which is able to present source code in a
self-referential, indexed webpage format. An excellent up-to-date
repository of the kernel code may be found at:
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/
@ -218,6 +246,7 @@ The development process
Linux kernel development process currently consists of a few different
main kernel "branches" and lots of different subsystem-specific kernel
branches. These different branches are:
- main 4.x kernel tree
- 4.x.y -stable kernel tree
- 4.x -git kernel patches
@ -227,14 +256,15 @@ branches. These different branches are:
4.x kernel tree
-----------------
4.x kernels are maintained by Linus Torvalds, and can be found on
kernel.org in the pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ directory. Its development
https://kernel.org in the pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ directory. Its development
process is as follows:
- As soon as a new kernel is released a two weeks window is open,
during this period of time maintainers can submit big diffs to
Linus, usually the patches that have already been included in the
-next kernel for a few weeks. The preferred way to submit big changes
is using git (the kernel's source management tool, more information
can be found at http://git-scm.com/) but plain patches are also just
can be found at https://git-scm.com/) but plain patches are also just
fine.
- After two weeks a -rc1 kernel is released it is now possible to push
only patches that do not include new features that could affect the
@ -253,9 +283,10 @@ process is as follows:
It is worth mentioning what Andrew Morton wrote on the linux-kernel
mailing list about kernel releases:
"Nobody knows when a kernel will be released, because it's
*"Nobody knows when a kernel will be released, because it's
released according to perceived bug status, not according to a
preconceived timeline."
preconceived timeline."*
4.x.y -stable kernel tree
-------------------------
@ -301,7 +332,7 @@ submission and other already ongoing work are avoided.
Most of these repositories are git trees, but there are also other SCMs
in use, or patch queues being published as quilt series. Addresses of
these subsystem repositories are listed in the MAINTAINERS file. Many
of them can be browsed at http://git.kernel.org/.
of them can be browsed at https://git.kernel.org/.
Before a proposed patch is committed to such a subsystem tree, it is
subject to review which primarily happens on mailing lists (see the
@ -310,7 +341,7 @@ process is tracked with the tool patchwork. Patchwork offers a web
interface which shows patch postings, any comments on a patch or
revisions to it, and maintainers can mark patches as under review,
accepted, or rejected. Most of these patchwork sites are listed at
http://patchwork.kernel.org/.
https://patchwork.kernel.org/.
4.x -next kernel tree for integration tests
-------------------------------------------
@ -318,7 +349,8 @@ Before updates from subsystem trees are merged into the mainline 4.x
tree, they need to be integration-tested. For this purpose, a special
testing repository exists into which virtually all subsystem trees are
pulled on an almost daily basis:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git
https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git
This way, the -next kernel gives a summary outlook onto what will be
expected to go into the mainline kernel at the next merge period.
@ -328,10 +360,11 @@ Adventurous testers are very welcome to runtime-test the -next kernel.
Bug Reporting
-------------
bugzilla.kernel.org is where the Linux kernel developers track kernel
https://bugzilla.kernel.org is where the Linux kernel developers track kernel
bugs. Users are encouraged to report all bugs that they find in this
tool. For details on how to use the kernel bugzilla, please see:
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/page.cgi?id=faq.html
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/page.cgi?id=faq.html
The file REPORTING-BUGS in the main kernel source directory has a good
template for how to report a possible kernel bug, and details what kind
@ -349,13 +382,14 @@ your skills, and other developers will be aware of your presence. Fixing
bugs is one of the best ways to get merits among other developers, because
not many people like wasting time fixing other people's bugs.
To work in the already reported bug reports, go to http://bugzilla.kernel.org.
To work in the already reported bug reports, go to https://bugzilla.kernel.org.
If you want to be advised of the future bug reports, you can subscribe to the
bugme-new mailing list (only new bug reports are mailed here) or to the
bugme-janitor mailing list (every change in the bugzilla is mailed here)
http://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bugme-new
http://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bugme-janitors
https://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bugme-new
https://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bugme-janitors
@ -365,10 +399,14 @@ Mailing lists
As some of the above documents describe, the majority of the core kernel
developers participate on the Linux Kernel Mailing list. Details on how
to subscribe and unsubscribe from the list can be found at:
http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#linux-kernel
There are archives of the mailing list on the web in many different
places. Use a search engine to find these archives. For example:
http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel
It is highly recommended that you search the archives about the topic
you want to bring up, before you post it to the list. A lot of things
already discussed in detail are only recorded at the mailing list
@ -381,11 +419,13 @@ groups.
Many of the lists are hosted on kernel.org. Information on them can be
found at:
http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
Please remember to follow good behavioral habits when using the lists.
Though a bit cheesy, the following URL has some simple guidelines for
interacting with the list (or any list):
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/
If multiple people respond to your mail, the CC: list of recipients may
@ -400,13 +440,14 @@ add your statements between the individual quoted sections instead of
writing at the top of the mail.
If you add patches to your mail, make sure they are plain readable text
as stated in Documentation/SubmittingPatches. Kernel developers don't
want to deal with attachments or compressed patches; they may want
to comment on individual lines of your patch, which works only that way.
Make sure you use a mail program that does not mangle spaces and tab
characters. A good first test is to send the mail to yourself and try
to apply your own patch by yourself. If that doesn't work, get your
mail program fixed or change it until it works.
as stated in Documentation/SubmittingPatches.
Kernel developers don't want to deal with
attachments or compressed patches; they may want to comment on
individual lines of your patch, which works only that way. Make sure you
use a mail program that does not mangle spaces and tab characters. A
good first test is to send the mail to yourself and try to apply your
own patch by yourself. If that doesn't work, get your mail program fixed
or change it until it works.
Above all, please remember to show respect to other subscribers.
@ -418,6 +459,7 @@ The goal of the kernel community is to provide the best possible kernel
there is. When you submit a patch for acceptance, it will be reviewed
on its technical merits and those alone. So, what should you be
expecting?
- criticism
- comments
- requests for change
@ -432,6 +474,7 @@ If there are no responses to your posting, wait a few days and try
again, sometimes things get lost in the huge volume.
What should you not do?
- expect your patch to be accepted without question
- become defensive
- ignore comments
@ -445,8 +488,8 @@ Remember, being wrong is acceptable as long as you are willing to work
toward a solution that is right.
It is normal that the answers to your first patch might simply be a list
of a dozen things you should correct. This does _not_ imply that your
patch will not be accepted, and it is _not_ meant against you
of a dozen things you should correct. This does **not** imply that your
patch will not be accepted, and it is **not** meant against you
personally. Simply correct all issues raised against your patch and
resend it.
@ -457,7 +500,9 @@ Differences between the kernel community and corporate structures
The kernel community works differently than most traditional corporate
development environments. Here are a list of things that you can try to
do to avoid problems:
Good things to say regarding your proposed changes:
- "This solves multiple problems."
- "This deletes 2000 lines of code."
- "Here is a patch that explains what I am trying to describe."
@ -466,6 +511,7 @@ do to avoid problems:
- "This increases performance on typical machines..."
Bad things you should avoid saying:
- "We did it this way in AIX/ptx/Solaris, so therefore it must be
good..."
- "I've being doing this for 20 years, so..."
@ -527,17 +573,18 @@ The reasons for breaking things up are the following:
and simplify (or simply re-order) patches before submitting them.
Here is an analogy from kernel developer Al Viro:
"Think of a teacher grading homework from a math student. The
*"Think of a teacher grading homework from a math student. The
teacher does not want to see the student's trials and errors
before they came up with the solution. They want to see the
cleanest, most elegant answer. A good student knows this, and
would never submit her intermediate work before the final
solution."
solution.*
The same is true of kernel development. The maintainers and
*The same is true of kernel development. The maintainers and
reviewers do not want to see the thought process behind the
solution to the problem one is solving. They want to see a
simple and elegant solution."
simple and elegant solution."*
It may be challenging to keep the balance between presenting an elegant
solution and working together with the community and discussing your
@ -565,6 +612,7 @@ When sending in your patches, pay special attention to what you say in
the text in your email. This information will become the ChangeLog
information for the patch, and will be preserved for everyone to see for
all time. It should describe the patch completely, containing:
- why the change is necessary
- the overall design approach in the patch
- implementation details
@ -572,12 +620,11 @@ all time. It should describe the patch completely, containing:
For more details on what this should all look like, please see the
ChangeLog section of the document:
"The Perfect Patch"
http://www.ozlabs.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt
All of these things are sometimes very hard to do. It can take years to
perfect these practices (if at all). It's a continuous process of
improvement that requires a lot of patience and determination. But
@ -588,8 +635,9 @@ start exactly where you are now.
----------
Thanks to Paolo Ciarrocchi who allowed the "Development Process"
(http://lwn.net/Articles/94386/) section
(https://lwn.net/Articles/94386/) section
to be based on text he had written, and to Randy Dunlap and Gerrit
Huizenga for some of the list of things you should and should not say.
Also thanks to Pat Mochel, Hanna Linder, Randy Dunlap, Kay Sievers,

4
Documentation/Makefile
View File

@ -1,3 +1 @@
subdir-y := accounting auxdisplay blackfin \
filesystems filesystems ia64 laptops mic misc-devices \
networking pcmcia prctl ptp timers vDSO watchdog
subdir-y :=

64
Documentation/Makefile.sphinx
View File

@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
# You can set these variables from the command line.
SPHINXBUILD = sphinx-build
SPHINXOPTS =
SPHINXDIRS = .
_SPHINXDIRS = $(patsubst $(srctree)/Documentation/%/conf.py,%,$(wildcard $(srctree)/Documentation/*/conf.py))
SPHINX_CONF = conf.py
PAPER =
BUILDDIR = $(obj)/output
@ -25,38 +28,62 @@ else ifneq ($(DOCBOOKS),)
else # HAVE_SPHINX
# User-friendly check for rst2pdf
HAVE_RST2PDF := $(shell if python -c "import rst2pdf" >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 1; else echo 0; fi)
# User-friendly check for pdflatex
HAVE_PDFLATEX := $(shell if which xelatex >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 1; else echo 0; fi)
# Internal variables.
PAPEROPT_a4 = -D latex_paper_size=a4
PAPEROPT_letter = -D latex_paper_size=letter
KERNELDOC = $(srctree)/scripts/kernel-doc
KERNELDOC_CONF = -D kerneldoc_srctree=$(srctree) -D kerneldoc_bin=$(KERNELDOC)
ALLSPHINXOPTS = -D version=$(KERNELVERSION) -D release=$(KERNELRELEASE) -d $(BUILDDIR)/.doctrees $(KERNELDOC_CONF) $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) -c $(srctree)/$(src) $(SPHINXOPTS) $(srctree)/$(src)
ALLSPHINXOPTS = $(KERNELDOC_CONF) $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS)
# the i18n builder cannot share the environment and doctrees with the others
I18NSPHINXOPTS = $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) .
quiet_cmd_sphinx = SPHINX $@
cmd_sphinx = BUILDDIR=$(BUILDDIR) $(SPHINXBUILD) -b $2 $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/$2
# commands; the 'cmd' from scripts/Kbuild.include is not *loopable*
loop_cmd = $(echo-cmd) $(cmd_$(1))
# $2 sphinx builder e.g. "html"
# $3 name of the build subfolder / e.g. "media", used as:
# * dest folder relative to $(BUILDDIR) and
# * cache folder relative to $(BUILDDIR)/.doctrees
# $4 dest subfolder e.g. "man" for man pages at media/man
# $5 reST source folder relative to $(srctree)/$(src),
# e.g. "media" for the linux-tv book-set at ./Documentation/media
quiet_cmd_sphinx = SPHINX $@ --> file://$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)/$3/$4);
cmd_sphinx = $(MAKE) BUILDDIR=$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)) $(build)=Documentation/media all;\
BUILDDIR=$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)) SPHINX_CONF=$(abspath $(srctree)/$(src)/$5/$(SPHINX_CONF)) \
$(SPHINXBUILD) \
-b $2 \
-c $(abspath $(srctree)/$(src)) \
-d $(abspath $(BUILDDIR)/.doctrees/$3) \
-D version=$(KERNELVERSION) -D release=$(KERNELRELEASE) \
$(ALLSPHINXOPTS) \
$(abspath $(srctree)/$(src)/$5) \
$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)/$3/$4);
htmldocs:
$(MAKE) BUILDDIR=$(BUILDDIR) -f $(srctree)/Documentation/media/Makefile $@
$(call cmd,sphinx,html)
@$(foreach var,$(SPHINXDIRS),$(call loop_cmd,sphinx,html,$(var),,$(var)))
pdfdocs:
ifeq ($(HAVE_RST2PDF),0)
$(warning The Python 'rst2pdf' module was not found. Make sure you have the module installed to produce PDF output.)
latexdocs:
ifeq ($(HAVE_PDFLATEX),0)
$(warning The 'xelatex' command was not found. Make sure you have it installed and in PATH to produce PDF output.)
@echo " SKIP Sphinx $@ target."
else # HAVE_RST2PDF
$(call cmd,sphinx,pdf)
endif # HAVE_RST2PDF
else # HAVE_PDFLATEX
@$(foreach var,$(SPHINXDIRS),$(call loop_cmd,sphinx,latex,$(var),latex,$(var)))
endif # HAVE_PDFLATEX
pdfdocs: latexdocs
ifneq ($(HAVE_PDFLATEX),0)
$(foreach var,$(SPHINXDIRS), $(MAKE) PDFLATEX=xelatex LATEXOPTS="-interaction=nonstopmode" -C $(BUILDDIR)/$(var)/latex)
endif # HAVE_PDFLATEX
epubdocs:
$(call cmd,sphinx,epub)
@$(foreach var,$(SPHINXDIRS),$(call loop_cmd,sphinx,epub,$(var),epub,$(var)))
xmldocs:
$(call cmd,sphinx,xml)
@$(foreach var,$(SPHINXDIRS),$(call loop_cmd,sphinx,xml,$(var),xml,$(var)))
# no-ops for the Sphinx toolchain
sgmldocs:
@ -72,7 +99,14 @@ endif # HAVE_SPHINX
dochelp:
@echo ' Linux kernel internal documentation in different formats (Sphinx):'
@echo ' htmldocs - HTML'
@echo ' latexdocs - LaTeX'
@echo ' pdfdocs - PDF'
@echo ' epubdocs - EPUB'
@echo ' xmldocs - XML'
@echo ' cleandocs - clean all generated files'
@echo
@echo ' make SPHINXDIRS="s1 s2" [target] Generate only docs of folder s1, s2'
@echo ' valid values for SPHINXDIRS are: $(_SPHINXDIRS)'
@echo
@echo ' make SPHINX_CONF={conf-file} [target] use *additional* sphinx-build'
@echo ' configuration. This is e.g. useful to build with nit-picking config.'

154
Documentation/ManagementStyle
View File

@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
.. _managementstyle:
Linux kernel management style
Linux kernel management style
=============================
This is a short document describing the preferred (or made up, depending
on who you ask) management style for the linux kernel. It's meant to
mirror the CodingStyle document to some degree, and mainly written to
avoid answering (*) the same (or similar) questions over and over again.
avoid answering [#f1]_ the same (or similar) questions over and over again.
Management style is very personal and much harder to quantify than
simple coding style rules, so this document may or may not have anything
@ -14,50 +16,52 @@ might not actually be true. You'll have to decide for yourself.
Btw, when talking about "kernel manager", it's all about the technical
lead persons, not the people who do traditional management inside
companies. If you sign purchase orders or you have any clue about the
budget of your group, you're almost certainly not a kernel manager.
These suggestions may or may not apply to you.
budget of your group, you're almost certainly not a kernel manager.
These suggestions may or may not apply to you.
First off, I'd suggest buying "Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People", and NOT read it. Burn it, it's a great symbolic gesture.
People", and NOT read it. Burn it, it's a great symbolic gesture.
(*) This document does so not so much by answering the question, but by
making it painfully obvious to the questioner that we don't have a clue
to what the answer is.
.. [#f1] This document does so not so much by answering the question, but by
making it painfully obvious to the questioner that we don't have a clue
to what the answer is.
Anyway, here goes:
.. _decisions:
Chapter 1: Decisions
1) Decisions
------------
Everybody thinks managers make decisions, and that decision-making is
important. The bigger and more painful the decision, the bigger the
manager must be to make it. That's very deep and obvious, but it's not
actually true.
actually true.
The name of the game is to _avoid_ having to make a decision. In
The name of the game is to **avoid** having to make a decision. In
particular, if somebody tells you "choose (a) or (b), we really need you
to decide on this", you're in trouble as a manager. The people you
manage had better know the details better than you, so if they come to
you for a technical decision, you're screwed. You're clearly not
competent to make that decision for them.
competent to make that decision for them.
(Corollary:if the people you manage don't know the details better than
you, you're also screwed, although for a totally different reason.
Namely that you are in the wrong job, and that _they_ should be managing
your brilliance instead).
you, you're also screwed, although for a totally different reason.
Namely that you are in the wrong job, and that **they** should be managing
your brilliance instead).
So the name of the game is to _avoid_ decisions, at least the big and
So the name of the game is to **avoid** decisions, at least the big and
painful ones. Making small and non-consequential decisions is fine, and
makes you look like you know what you're doing, so what a kernel manager
needs to do is to turn the big and painful ones into small things where
nobody really cares.
nobody really cares.
It helps to realize that the key difference between a big decision and a
small one is whether you can fix your decision afterwards. Any decision
can be made small by just always making sure that if you were wrong (and
you _will_ be wrong), you can always undo the damage later by
you **will** be wrong), you can always undo the damage later by
backtracking. Suddenly, you get to be doubly managerial for making
_two_ inconsequential decisions - the wrong one _and_ the right one.
**two** inconsequential decisions - the wrong one **and** the right one.
And people will even see that as true leadership (*cough* bullshit
*cough*).
@ -65,10 +69,10 @@ And people will even see that as true leadership (*cough* bullshit
Thus the key to avoiding big decisions becomes to just avoiding to do
things that can't be undone. Don't get ushered into a corner from which
you cannot escape. A cornered rat may be dangerous - a cornered manager
is just pitiful.
is just pitiful.
It turns out that since nobody would be stupid enough to ever really let
a kernel manager have huge fiscal responsibility _anyway_, it's usually
a kernel manager have huge fiscal responsibility **anyway**, it's usually
fairly easy to backtrack. Since you're not going to be able to waste
huge amounts of money that you might not be able to repay, the only
thing you can backtrack on is a technical decision, and there
@ -76,113 +80,118 @@ back-tracking is very easy: just tell everybody that you were an
incompetent nincompoop, say you're sorry, and undo all the worthless
work you had people work on for the last year. Suddenly the decision
you made a year ago wasn't a big decision after all, since it could be
easily undone.
easily undone.
It turns out that some people have trouble with this approach, for two
reasons:
- admitting you were an idiot is harder than it looks. We all like to
maintain appearances, and coming out in public to say that you were
wrong is sometimes very hard indeed.
wrong is sometimes very hard indeed.
- having somebody tell you that what you worked on for the last year
wasn't worthwhile after all can be hard on the poor lowly engineers
too, and while the actual _work_ was easy enough to undo by just
too, and while the actual **work** was easy enough to undo by just
deleting it, you may have irrevocably lost the trust of that
engineer. And remember: "irrevocable" was what we tried to avoid in
the first place, and your decision ended up being a big one after
all.
all.
Happily, both of these reasons can be mitigated effectively by just
admitting up-front that you don't have a friggin' clue, and telling
people ahead of the fact that your decision is purely preliminary, and
might be the wrong thing. You should always reserve the right to change
your mind, and make people very _aware_ of that. And it's much easier
to admit that you are stupid when you haven't _yet_ done the really
your mind, and make people very **aware** of that. And it's much easier
to admit that you are stupid when you haven't **yet** done the really
stupid thing.
Then, when it really does turn out to be stupid, people just roll their
eyes and say "Oops, he did it again".
eyes and say "Oops, he did it again".
This preemptive admission of incompetence might also make the people who
actually do the work also think twice about whether it's worth doing or
not. After all, if _they_ aren't certain whether it's a good idea, you
not. After all, if **they** aren't certain whether it's a good idea, you
sure as hell shouldn't encourage them by promising them that what they
work on will be included. Make them at least think twice before they
embark on a big endeavor.
embark on a big endeavor.
Remember: they'd better know more about the details than you do, and
they usually already think they have the answer to everything. The best
thing you can do as a manager is not to instill confidence, but rather a
healthy dose of critical thinking on what they do.
healthy dose of critical thinking on what they do.
Btw, another way to avoid a decision is to plaintively just whine "can't
we just do both?" and look pitiful. Trust me, it works. If it's not
clear which approach is better, they'll eventually figure it out. The
answer may end up being that both teams get so frustrated by the
situation that they just give up.
situation that they just give up.
That may sound like a failure, but it's usually a sign that there was
something wrong with both projects, and the reason the people involved
couldn't decide was that they were both wrong. You end up coming up
smelling like roses, and you avoided yet another decision that you could
have screwed up on.
have screwed up on.
Chapter 2: People
2) People
---------
Most people are idiots, and being a manager means you'll have to deal
with it, and perhaps more importantly, that _they_ have to deal with
_you_.
with it, and perhaps more importantly, that **they** have to deal with
**you**.
It turns out that while it's easy to undo technical mistakes, it's not
as easy to undo personality disorders. You just have to live with
theirs - and yours.
theirs - and yours.
However, in order to prepare yourself as a kernel manager, it's best to
remember not to burn any bridges, bomb any innocent villagers, or
alienate too many kernel developers. It turns out that alienating people
is fairly easy, and un-alienating them is hard. Thus "alienating"
immediately falls under the heading of "not reversible", and becomes a
no-no according to Chapter 1.
no-no according to :ref:`decisions`.
There's just a few simple rules here:
(1) don't call people d*ckheads (at least not in public)
(2) learn how to apologize when you forgot rule (1)
The problem with #1 is that it's very easy to do, since you can say
"you're a d*ckhead" in millions of different ways (*), sometimes without
"you're a d*ckhead" in millions of different ways [#f2]_, sometimes without
even realizing it, and almost always with a white-hot conviction that
you are right.
you are right.
And the more convinced you are that you are right (and let's face it,
you can call just about _anybody_ a d*ckhead, and you often _will_ be
right), the harder it ends up being to apologize afterwards.
you can call just about **anybody** a d*ckhead, and you often **will** be
right), the harder it ends up being to apologize afterwards.
To solve this problem, you really only have two options:
- get really good at apologies
- spread the "love" out so evenly that nobody really ends up feeling
like they get unfairly targeted. Make it inventive enough, and they
might even be amused.
might even be amused.
The option of being unfailingly polite really doesn't exist. Nobody will
trust somebody who is so clearly hiding his true character.
(*) Paul Simon sang "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover", because quite
frankly, "A Million Ways to Tell a Developer He Is a D*ckhead" doesn't
scan nearly as well. But I'm sure he thought about it.
.. [#f2] Paul Simon sang "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover", because quite
frankly, "A Million Ways to Tell a Developer He Is a D*ckhead" doesn't
scan nearly as well. But I'm sure he thought about it.
Chapter 3: People II - the Good Kind
3) People II - the Good Kind
----------------------------
While it turns out that most people are idiots, the corollary to that is
sadly that you are one too, and that while we can all bask in the secure
knowledge that we're better than the average person (let's face it,
nobody ever believes that they're average or below-average), we should
also admit that we're not the sharpest knife around, and there will be
other people that are less of an idiot than you are.
other people that are less of an idiot than you are.
Some people react badly to smart people. Others take advantage of them.
Some people react badly to smart people. Others take advantage of them.
Make sure that you, as a kernel maintainer, are in the second group.
Make sure that you, as a kernel maintainer, are in the second group.
Suck up to them, because they are the people who will make your job
easier. In particular, they'll be able to make your decisions for you,
which is what the game is all about.
@ -191,7 +200,7 @@ So when you find somebody smarter than you are, just coast along. Your
management responsibilities largely become ones of saying "Sounds like a
good idea - go wild", or "That sounds good, but what about xxx?". The
second version in particular is a great way to either learn something
new about "xxx" or seem _extra_ managerial by pointing out something the
new about "xxx" or seem **extra** managerial by pointing out something the
smarter person hadn't thought about. In either case, you win.
One thing to look out for is to realize that greatness in one area does
@ -199,47 +208,49 @@ not necessarily translate to other areas. So you might prod people in
specific directions, but let's face it, they might be good at what they
do, and suck at everything else. The good news is that people tend to
naturally gravitate back to what they are good at, so it's not like you
are doing something irreversible when you _do_ prod them in some
are doing something irreversible when you **do** prod them in some
direction, just don't push too hard.
Chapter 4: Placing blame
4) Placing blame
----------------
Things will go wrong, and people want somebody to blame. Tag, you're it.
It's not actually that hard to accept the blame, especially if people
kind of realize that it wasn't _all_ your fault. Which brings us to the
kind of realize that it wasn't **all** your fault. Which brings us to the
best way of taking the blame: do it for another guy. You'll feel good
for taking the fall, he'll feel good about not getting blamed, and the
guy who lost his whole 36GB porn-collection because of your incompetence
will grudgingly admit that you at least didn't try to weasel out of it.
Then make the developer who really screwed up (if you can find him) know
_in_private_ that he screwed up. Not just so he can avoid it in the
**in_private** that he screwed up. Not just so he can avoid it in the
future, but so that he knows he owes you one. And, perhaps even more
importantly, he's also likely the person who can fix it. Because, let's
face it, it sure ain't you.
face it, it sure ain't you.
Taking the blame is also why you get to be manager in the first place.
Taking the blame is also why you get to be manager in the first place.
It's part of what makes people trust you, and allow you the potential
glory, because you're the one who gets to say "I screwed up". And if
you've followed the previous rules, you'll be pretty good at saying that
by now.
by now.
Chapter 5: Things to avoid
5) Things to avoid
------------------
There's one thing people hate even more than being called "d*ckhead",
and that is being called a "d*ckhead" in a sanctimonious voice. The
first you can apologize for, the second one you won't really get the
chance. They likely will no longer be listening even if you otherwise
do a good job.
do a good job.
We all think we're better than anybody else, which means that when
somebody else puts on airs, it _really_ rubs us the wrong way. You may
somebody else puts on airs, it **really** rubs us the wrong way. You may
be morally and intellectually superior to everybody around you, but
don't try to make it too obvious unless you really _intend_ to irritate
somebody (*).
don't try to make it too obvious unless you really **intend** to irritate
somebody [#f3]_.
Similarly, don't be too polite or subtle about things. Politeness easily
ends up going overboard and hiding the problem, and as they say, "On the
@ -251,15 +262,16 @@ Some humor can help pad both the bluntness and the moralizing. Going
overboard to the point of being ridiculous can drive a point home
without making it painful to the recipient, who just thinks you're being
silly. It can thus help get through the personal mental block we all
have about criticism.
have about criticism.
(*) Hint: internet newsgroups that are not directly related to your work
are great ways to take out your frustrations at other people. Write
insulting posts with a sneer just to get into a good flame every once in
a while, and you'll feel cleansed. Just don't crap too close to home.
.. [#f3] Hint: internet newsgroups that are not directly related to your work
are great ways to take out your frustrations at other people. Write
insulting posts with a sneer just to get into a good flame every once in
a while, and you'll feel cleansed. Just don't crap too close to home.
Chapter 6: Why me?
6) Why me?
----------
Since your main responsibility seems to be to take the blame for other
peoples mistakes, and make it painfully obvious to everybody else that
@ -268,9 +280,9 @@ first place?
First off, while you may or may not get screaming teenage girls (or
boys, let's not be judgmental or sexist here) knocking on your dressing
room door, you _will_ get an immense feeling of personal accomplishment
room door, you **will** get an immense feeling of personal accomplishment
for being "in charge". Never mind the fact that you're really leading
by trying to keep up with everybody else and running after them as fast
as you can. Everybody will still think you're the person in charge.
as you can. Everybody will still think you're the person in charge.
It's a great job if you can hack it.

24
Documentation/PCI/pcieaer-howto.txt
View File

@ -49,25 +49,17 @@ depends on CONFIG_PCIEPORTBUS, so pls. set CONFIG_PCIEPORTBUS=y and
CONFIG_PCIEAER = y.
2.2 Load PCI Express AER Root Driver
There is a case where a system has AER support in BIOS. Enabling the AER
Root driver and having AER support in BIOS may result unpredictable
behavior. To avoid this conflict, a successful load of the AER Root driver
requires ACPI _OSC support in the BIOS to allow the AER Root driver to
request for native control of AER. See the PCI FW 3.0 Specification for
details regarding OSC usage. Currently, lots of firmwares don't provide
_OSC support while they use PCI Express. To support such firmwares,
forceload, a parameter of type bool, could enable AER to continue to
be initiated although firmwares have no _OSC support. To enable the
walkaround, pls. add aerdriver.forceload=y to kernel boot parameter line
when booting kernel. Note that forceload=n by default.
nosourceid, another parameter of type bool, can be used when broken
hardware (mostly chipsets) has root ports that cannot obtain the reporting
source ID. nosourceid=n by default.
Some systems have AER support in firmware. Enabling Linux AER support at
the same time the firmware handles AER may result in unpredictable
behavior. Therefore, Linux does not handle AER events unless the firmware
grants AER control to the OS via the ACPI _OSC method. See the PCI FW 3.0
Specification for details regarding _OSC usage.
2.3 AER error output
When a PCI-E AER error is captured, an error message will be outputted to
console. If it's a correctable error, it is outputted as a warning.
When a PCIe AER error is captured, an error message will be output to
console. If it's a correctable error, it is output as a warning.
Otherwise, it is printed as an error. So users could choose different
log level to filter out correctable error messages.

22
Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
View File

@ -2493,6 +2493,28 @@ or some future &ldquo;lazy&rdquo;
variant of <tt>call_rcu()</tt> that might one day be created for
energy-efficiency purposes.
<p>
That said, there are limits.
RCU requires that the <tt>rcu_head</tt> structure be aligned to a
two-byte boundary, and passing a misaligned <tt>rcu_head</tt>
structure to one of the <tt>call_rcu()</tt> family of functions
will result in a splat.
It is therefore necessary to exercise caution when packing
structures containing fields of type <tt>rcu_head</tt>.
Why not a four-byte or even eight-byte alignment requirement?
Because the m68k architecture provides only two-byte alignment,
and thus acts as alignment's least common denominator.
<p>
The reason for reserving the bottom bit of pointers to
<tt>rcu_head</tt> structures is to leave the door open to
&ldquo;lazy&rdquo; callbacks whose invocations can safely be deferred.
Deferring invocation could potentially have energy-efficiency
benefits, but only if the rate of non-lazy callbacks decreases
significantly for some important workload.
In the meantime, reserving the bottom bit keeps this option open
in case it one day becomes useful.
<h3><a name="Performance, Scalability, Response Time, and Reliability">
Performance, Scalability, Response Time, and Reliability</a></h3>

2
Documentation/RCU/lockdep-splat.txt
View File

@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ Call Trace:
[<ffffffff817db154>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[<ffffffff81066430>] ? finish_task_switch+0x80/0x110
[<ffffffff817d9c04>] ? retint_restore_args+0xe/0xe
[<ffffffff81097510>] ? __init_kthread_worker+0x70/0x70
[<ffffffff81097510>] ? __kthread_init_worker+0x70/0x70
[<ffffffff817db150>] ? gs_change+0xb/0xb
Line 2776 of block/cfq-iosched.c in v3.0-rc5 is as follows:

15
Documentation/RCU/torture.txt
View File

@ -10,21 +10,6 @@ status messages via printk(), which can be examined via the dmesg
command (perhaps grepping for "torture"). The test is started
when the module is loaded, and stops when the module is unloaded.
CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE
It is also possible to specify CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST=y, which will
result in the tests being loaded into the base kernel. In this case,
the CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE config option is used to specify
whether the RCU torture tests are to be started immediately during
boot or whether the /proc/sys/kernel/rcutorture_runnable file is used
to enable them. This /proc file can be used to repeatedly pause and
restart the tests, regardless of the initial state specified by the
CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE config option.
You will normally -not- want to start the RCU torture tests during boot
(and thus the default is CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE=n), but doing
this can sometimes be useful in finding boot-time bugs.
MODULE PARAMETERS

8
Documentation/SecurityBugs
View File

@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
.. _securitybugs:
Security bugs
=============
Linux kernel developers take security very seriously. As such, we'd
like to know when a security bug is found so that it can be fixed and
disclosed as quickly as possible. Please report security bugs to the
Linux kernel security team.
1) Contact
----------
The Linux kernel security team can be contacted by email at
<security@kernel.org>. This is a private list of security officers
@ -18,6 +24,7 @@ Any exploit code is very helpful and will not be released without
consent from the reporter unless it has already been made public.
2) Disclosure
-------------
The goal of the Linux kernel security team is to work with the
bug submitter to bug resolution as well as disclosure. We prefer
@ -33,6 +40,7 @@ to a few weeks. As a basic default policy, we expect report date to
disclosure date to be on the order of 7 days.
3) Non-disclosure agreements
----------------------------
The Linux kernel security team is not a formal body and therefore unable
to enter any non-disclosure agreements.

127
Documentation/SubmitChecklist
View File

@ -1,109 +1,120 @@
.. _submitchecklist:
Linux Kernel patch submission checklist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are some basic things that developers should do if they want to see their
kernel patch submissions accepted more quickly.
These are all above and beyond the documentation that is provided in
Documentation/SubmittingPatches and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux
kernel patches.
:ref:`Documentation/SubmittingPatches <submittingpatches>`
and elsewhere regarding submitting Linux kernel patches.
1: If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares
1) If you use a facility then #include the file that defines/declares
that facility. Don't depend on other header files pulling in ones
that you use.
2: Builds cleanly with applicable or modified CONFIG options =y, =m, and
=n. No gcc warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
2) Builds cleanly:
2b: Passes allnoconfig, allmodconfig
a) with applicable or modified ``CONFIG`` options ``=y``, ``=m``, and
``=n``. No ``gcc`` warnings/errors, no linker warnings/errors.
2c: Builds successfully when using O=builddir
b) Passes ``allnoconfig``, ``allmodconfig``
3: Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
c) Builds successfully when using ``O=builddir``
3) Builds on multiple CPU architectures by using local cross-compile tools
or some other build farm.
4: ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
tends to use `unsigned long' for 64-bit quantities.
4) ppc64 is a good architecture for cross-compilation checking because it
tends to use ``unsigned long`` for 64-bit quantities.
5: Check your patch for general style as detailed in
Documentation/CodingStyle. Check for trivial violations with the
patch style checker prior to submission (scripts/checkpatch.pl).
5) Check your patch for general style as detailed in
:ref:`Documentation/CodingStyle <codingstyle>`.
Check for trivial violations with the patch style checker prior to
submission (``scripts/checkpatch.pl``).
You should be able to justify all violations that remain in
your patch.
6: Any new or modified CONFIG options don't muck up the config menu.
6) Any new or modified ``CONFIG`` options don't muck up the config menu.
7: All new Kconfig options have help text.
7) All new ``Kconfig`` options have help text.
8: Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant Kconfig
8) Has been carefully reviewed with respect to relevant ``Kconfig``
combinations. This is very hard to get right with testing -- brainpower
pays off here.
9: Check cleanly with sparse.
9) Check cleanly with sparse.
10: Use 'make checkstack' and 'make namespacecheck' and fix any problems
that they find. Note: checkstack does not point out problems explicitly,
but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
candidate for change.
10) Use ``make checkstack`` and ``make namespacecheck`` and fix any problems
that they find.
11: Include kernel-doc to document global kernel APIs. (Not required for
static functions, but OK there also.) Use 'make htmldocs' or 'make
mandocs' to check the kernel-doc and fix any issues.
.. note::
12: Has been tested with CONFIG_PREEMPT, CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT,
CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC, CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES,
CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK, CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP, CONFIG_PROVE_RCU
and CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD all simultaneously enabled.
``checkstack`` does not point out problems explicitly,
but any one function that uses more than 512 bytes on the stack is a
candidate for change.
13: Has been build- and runtime tested with and without CONFIG_SMP and
CONFIG_PREEMPT.
11) Include :ref:`kernel-doc <kernel_doc>` to document global kernel APIs.
(Not required for static functions, but OK there also.) Use
``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs`` to check the
:ref:`kernel-doc <kernel_doc>` and fix any issues.
14: If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
CONFIG_LBDAF.
12) Has been tested with ``CONFIG_PREEMPT``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PREEMPT``,
``CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES``,
``CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK``, ``CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP``,
``CONFIG_PROVE_RCU`` and ``CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD`` all
simultaneously enabled.
15: All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
13) Has been build- and runtime tested with and without ``CONFIG_SMP`` and
``CONFIG_PREEMPT.``
16: All new /proc entries are documented under Documentation/
14) If the patch affects IO/Disk, etc: has been tested with and without
``CONFIG_LBDAF.``
17: All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
15) All codepaths have been exercised with all lockdep features enabled.
18: All new module parameters are documented with MODULE_PARM_DESC()
16) All new ``/proc`` entries are documented under ``Documentation/``
19: All new userspace interfaces are documented in Documentation/ABI/.
See Documentation/ABI/README for more information.
17) All new kernel boot parameters are documented in
``Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt``.
18) All new module parameters are documented with ``MODULE_PARM_DESC()``
19) All new userspace interfaces are documented in ``Documentation/ABI/``.
See ``Documentation/ABI/README`` for more information.
Patches that change userspace interfaces should be CCed to
linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
20: Check that it all passes `make headers_check'.
20) Check that it all passes ``make headers_check``.
21: Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
failures. See Documentation/fault-injection/.
21) Has been checked with injection of at least slab and page-allocation
failures. See ``Documentation/fault-injection/``.
If the new code is substantial, addition of subsystem-specific fault
injection might be appropriate.
22: Newly-added code has been compiled with `gcc -W' (use "make
EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W"). This will generate lots of noise, but is good for
finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
22) Newly-added code has been compiled with ``gcc -W`` (use
``make EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W``). This will generate lots of noise, but is good
for finding bugs like "warning: comparison between signed and unsigned".
23: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
23) Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
24: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.
24) All memory barriers {e.g., ``barrier()``, ``rmb()``, ``wmb()``} need a
comment in the source code that explains the logic of what they are doing
and why.
25: If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update
Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt.
25) If any ioctl's are added by the patch, then also update
``Documentation/ioctl/ioctl-number.txt``.
26: If your modified source code depends on or uses any of the kernel
APIs or features that are related to the following kconfig symbols,
then test multiple builds with the related kconfig symbols disabled
and/or =m (if that option is available) [not all of these at the
26) If your modified source code depends on or uses any of the kernel
APIs or features that are related to the following ``Kconfig`` symbols,
then test multiple builds with the related ``Kconfig`` symbols disabled
and/or ``=m`` (if that option is available) [not all of these at the
same time, just various/random combinations of them]:
CONFIG_SMP, CONFIG_SYSFS, CONFIG_PROC_FS, CONFIG_INPUT, CONFIG_PCI,
CONFIG_BLOCK, CONFIG_PM, CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ,
CONFIG_NET, CONFIG_INET=n (but latter with CONFIG_NET=y)
``CONFIG_SMP``, ``CONFIG_SYSFS``, ``CONFIG_PROC_FS``, ``CONFIG_INPUT``, ``CONFIG_PCI``, ``CONFIG_BLOCK``, ``CONFIG_PM``, ``CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ``,
``CONFIG_NET``, ``CONFIG_INET=n`` (but latter with ``CONFIG_NET=y``).

54
Documentation/SubmittingDrivers
View File

@ -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/

312
Documentation/SubmittingPatches
View File

@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
.. _submittingpatches:
How to Get Your Change Into the Linux Kernel
or
Care And Operation Of Your Linus Torvalds
How to Get Your Change Into the Linux Kernel or Care And Operation Of Your Linus Torvalds
=========================================================================================
For a person or company who wishes to submit a change to the Linux
kernel, the process can sometimes be daunting if you're not familiar
@ -12,57 +10,59 @@ can greatly increase the chances of your change being accepted.
This document contains a large number of suggestions in a relatively terse
format. For detailed information on how the kernel development process
works, see Documentation/development-process. Also, read
Documentation/SubmitChecklist for a list of items to check before
works, see :ref:`Documentation/development-process <development_process_main>`.
Also, read :ref:`Documentation/SubmitChecklist <submitchecklist>`
for a list of items to check before
submitting code. If you are submitting a driver, also read
Documentation/SubmittingDrivers; for device tree binding patches, read
:ref:`Documentation/SubmittingDrivers <submittingdrivers>`;
for device tree binding patches, read
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/submitting-patches.txt.
Many of these steps describe the default behavior of the git version
control system; if you use git to prepare your patches, you'll find much
Many of these steps describe the default behavior of the ``git`` version
control system; if you use ``git`` to prepare your patches, you'll find much
of the mechanical work done for you, though you'll still need to prepare
and document a sensible set of patches. In general, use of git will make
and document a sensible set of patches. In general, use of ``git`` will make
your life as a kernel developer easier.
--------------------------------------------
SECTION 1 - CREATING AND SENDING YOUR CHANGE
--------------------------------------------
Creating and Sending your Change
********************************
0) Obtain a current source tree
-------------------------------
If you do not have a repository with the current kernel source handy, use
git to obtain one. You'll want to start with the mainline repository,
which can be grabbed with:
``git`` to obtain one. You'll want to start with the mainline repository,
which can be grabbed with::
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
Note, however, that you may not want to develop against the mainline tree
directly. Most subsystem maintainers run their own trees and want to see
patches prepared against those trees. See the "T:" entry for the subsystem
patches prepared against those trees. See the **T:** entry for the subsystem
in the MAINTAINERS file to find that tree, or simply ask the maintainer if
the tree is not listed there.
It is still possible to download kernel releases via tarballs (as described
in the next section), but that is the hard way to do kernel development.
1) "diff -up"
------------
1) ``diff -up``
---------------
If you must generate your patches by hand, use "diff -up" or "diff -uprN"
If you must generate your patches by hand, use ``diff -up`` or ``diff -uprN``
to create patches. Git generates patches in this form by default; if
you're using git, you can skip this section entirely.
you're using ``git``, you can skip this section entirely.
All changes to the Linux kernel occur in the form of patches, as
generated by diff(1). When creating your patch, make sure to create it
in "unified diff" format, as supplied by the '-u' argument to diff(1).
Also, please use the '-p' argument which shows which C function each
change is in - that makes the resultant diff a lot easier to read.
generated by :manpage:`diff(1)`. When creating your patch, make sure to
create it in "unified diff" format, as supplied by the ``-u`` argument
to :manpage:`diff(1)`.
Also, please use the ``-p`` argument which shows which C function each
change is in - that makes the resultant ``diff`` a lot easier to read.
Patches should be based in the root kernel source directory,
not in any lower subdirectory.
To create a patch for a single file, it is often sufficient to do:
To create a patch for a single file, it is often sufficient to do::
SRCTREE= linux
MYFILE= drivers/net/mydriver.c
@ -74,8 +74,8 @@ To create a patch for a single file, it is often sufficient to do:
diff -up $SRCTREE/$MYFILE{.orig,} > /tmp/patch
To create a patch for multiple files, you should unpack a "vanilla",
or unmodified kernel source tree, and generate a diff against your
own source tree. For example:
or unmodified kernel source tree, and generate a ``diff`` against your
own source tree. For example::
MYSRC= /devel/linux
@ -84,27 +84,27 @@ own source tree. For example:
diff -uprN -X linux-3.19-vanilla/Documentation/dontdiff \
linux-3.19-vanilla $MYSRC > /tmp/patch
"dontdiff" is a list of files which are generated by the kernel during
the build process, and should be ignored in any diff(1)-generated
``dontdiff`` is a list of files which are generated by the kernel during
the build process, and should be ignored in any :manpage:`diff(1)`-generated
patch.
Make sure your patch does not include any extra files which do not
belong in a patch submission. Make sure to review your patch -after-
generating it with diff(1), to ensure accuracy.
generating it with :manpage:`diff(1)`, to ensure accuracy.
If your changes produce a lot of deltas, you need to split them into
individual patches which modify things in logical stages; see section
#3. This will facilitate review by other kernel developers,
individual patches which modify things in logical stages; see
:ref:`split_changes`. This will facilitate review by other kernel developers,
very important if you want your patch accepted.
If you're using git, "git rebase -i" can help you with this process. If
you're not using git, quilt <http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt>
If you're using ``git``, ``git rebase -i`` can help you with this process. If
you're not using ``git``, ``quilt`` <http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt>
is another popular alternative.
.. _describe_changes:
2) Describe your changes.
-------------------------
2) Describe your changes
------------------------
Describe your problem. Whether your patch is a one-line bug fix or
5000 lines of a new feature, there must be an underlying problem that
@ -137,11 +137,11 @@ as you intend it to.
The maintainer will thank you if you write your patch description in a
form which can be easily pulled into Linux's source code management
system, git, as a "commit log". See #15, below.
system, ``git``, as a "commit log". See :ref:`explicit_in_reply_to`.
Solve only one problem per patch. If your description starts to get
long, that's a sign that you probably need to split up your patch.
See #3, next.
See :ref:`split_changes`.
When you submit or resubmit a patch or patch series, include the
complete patch description and justification for it. Don't just
@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ its behaviour.
If the patch fixes a logged bug entry, refer to that bug entry by
number and URL. If the patch follows from a mailing list discussion,
give a URL to the mailing list archive; use the https://lkml.kernel.org/
redirector with a Message-Id, to ensure that the links cannot become
redirector with a ``Message-Id``, to ensure that the links cannot become
stale.
However, try to make your explanation understandable without external
@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ patch as submitted.
If you want to refer to a specific commit, don't just refer to the
SHA-1 ID of the commit. Please also include the oneline summary of
the commit, to make it easier for reviewers to know what it is about.
Example:
Example::
Commit e21d2170f36602ae2708 ("video: remove unnecessary
platform_set_drvdata()") removed the unnecessary
@ -185,23 +185,25 @@ there is no collision with your six-character ID now, that condition may
change five years from now.
If your patch fixes a bug in a specific commit, e.g. you found an issue using
git-bisect, please use the 'Fixes:' tag with the first 12 characters of the
SHA-1 ID, and the one line summary. For example:
``git bisect``, please use the 'Fixes:' tag with the first 12 characters of
the SHA-1 ID, and the one line summary. For example::
Fixes: e21d2170f366 ("video: remove unnecessary platform_set_drvdata()")
The following git-config settings can be used to add a pretty format for
outputting the above style in the git log or git show commands
The following ``git config`` settings can be used to add a pretty format for
outputting the above style in the ``git log`` or ``git show`` commands::
[core]
abbrev = 12
[pretty]
fixes = Fixes: %h (\"%s\")
3) Separate your changes.
-------------------------
.. _split_changes:
Separate each _logical change_ into a separate patch.
3) Separate your changes
------------------------
Separate each **logical change** into a separate patch.
For example, if your changes include both bug fixes and performance
enhancements for a single driver, separate those changes into two
@ -217,12 +219,12 @@ change that can be verified by reviewers. Each patch should be justifiable
on its own merits.
If one patch depends on another patch in order for a change to be
complete, that is OK. Simply note "this patch depends on patch X"
complete, that is OK. Simply note **"this patch depends on patch X"**
in your patch description.
When dividing your change into a series of patches, take special care to
ensure that the kernel builds and runs properly after each patch in the
series. Developers using "git bisect" to track down a problem can end up
series. Developers using ``git bisect`` to track down a problem can end up
splitting your patch series at any point; they will not thank you if you
introduce bugs in the middle.
@ -231,11 +233,13 @@ then only post say 15 or so at a time and wait for review and integration.
4) Style-check your changes.
----------------------------
4) Style-check your changes
---------------------------
Check your patch for basic style violations, details of which can be
found in Documentation/CodingStyle. Failure to do so simply wastes
found in
:ref:`Documentation/CodingStyle <codingstyle>`.
Failure to do so simply wastes
the reviewers time and will get your patch rejected, probably
without even being read.
@ -260,8 +264,8 @@ You should be able to justify all violations that remain in your
patch.
5) Select the recipients for your patch.
----------------------------------------
5) Select the recipients for your patch
---------------------------------------
You should always copy the appropriate subsystem maintainer(s) on any patch
to code that they maintain; look through the MAINTAINERS file and the
@ -295,13 +299,14 @@ to allow distributors to get the patch out to users; in such cases,
obviously, the patch should not be sent to any public lists.
Patches that fix a severe bug in a released kernel should be directed
toward the stable maintainers by putting a line like this:
toward the stable maintainers by putting a line like this::
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
into the sign-off area of your patch (note, NOT an email recipient). You
should also read Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt in addition to this
file.
should also read
:ref:`Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt <stable_kernel_rules>`
in addition to this file.
Note, however, that some subsystem maintainers want to come to their own
conclusions on which patches should go to the stable trees. The networking
@ -312,28 +317,30 @@ If changes affect userland-kernel interfaces, please send the MAN-PAGES
maintainer (as listed in the MAINTAINERS file) a man-pages patch, or at
least a notification of the change, so that some information makes its way
into the manual pages. User-space API changes should also be copied to
linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
linux-api@vger.kernel.org.
For small patches you may want to CC the Trivial Patch Monkey
trivial@kernel.org which collects "trivial" patches. Have a look
into the MAINTAINERS file for its current manager.
Trivial patches must qualify for one of the following rules:
Spelling fixes in documentation
Spelling fixes for errors which could break grep(1)
Warning fixes (cluttering with useless warnings is bad)
Compilation fixes (only if they are actually correct)
Runtime fixes (only if they actually fix things)
Removing use of deprecated functions/macros
Contact detail and documentation fixes
Non-portable code replaced by portable code (even in arch-specific,
since people copy, as long as it's trivial)
Any fix by the author/maintainer of the file (ie. patch monkey
in re-transmission mode)
- Spelling fixes in documentation
- Spelling fixes for errors which could break :manpage:`grep(1)`
- Warning fixes (cluttering with useless warnings is bad)
- Compilation fixes (only if they are actually correct)
- Runtime fixes (only if they actually fix things)
- Removing use of deprecated functions/macros
- Contact detail and documentation fixes
- Non-portable code replaced by portable code (even in arch-specific,
since people copy, as long as it's trivial)
- Any fix by the author/maintainer of the file (ie. patch monkey
in re-transmission mode)
6) No MIME, no links, no compression, no attachments. Just plain text.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
6) No MIME, no links, no compression, no attachments. Just plain text
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Linus and other kernel developers need to be able to read and comment
on the changes you are submitting. It is important for a kernel
@ -341,8 +348,11 @@ developer to be able to "quote" your changes, using standard e-mail
tools, so that they may comment on specific portions of your code.
For this reason, all patches should be submitted by e-mail "inline".
WARNING: Be wary of your editor's word-wrap corrupting your patch,
if you choose to cut-n-paste your patch.
.. warning::
Be wary of your editor's word-wrap corrupting your patch,
if you choose to cut-n-paste your patch.
Do not attach the patch as a MIME attachment, compressed or not.
Many popular e-mail applications will not always transmit a MIME
@ -353,11 +363,12 @@ decreasing the likelihood of your MIME-attached change being accepted.
Exception: If your mailer is mangling patches then someone may ask
you to re-send them using MIME.
See Documentation/email-clients.txt for hints about configuring
your e-mail client so that it sends your patches untouched.
See :ref:`Documentation/email-clients.txt <email_clients>`
for hints about configuring your e-mail client so that it sends your patches
untouched.
7) E-mail size.
---------------
7) E-mail size
--------------
Large changes are not appropriate for mailing lists, and some
maintainers. If your patch, uncompressed, exceeds 300 kB in size,
@ -366,8 +377,8 @@ server, and provide instead a URL (link) pointing to your patch. But note
that if your patch exceeds 300 kB, it almost certainly needs to be broken up
anyway.
8) Respond to review comments.
------------------------------
8) Respond to review comments
-----------------------------
Your patch will almost certainly get comments from reviewers on ways in
which the patch can be improved. You must respond to those comments;
@ -382,8 +393,8 @@ reviewers sometimes get grumpy. Even in that case, though, respond
politely and address the problems they have pointed out.
9) Don't get discouraged - or impatient.
----------------------------------------
9) Don't get discouraged - or impatient
---------------------------------------
After you have submitted your change, be patient and wait. Reviewers are
busy people and may not get to your patch right away.
@ -419,9 +430,10 @@ patch, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have the right to
pass it on as an open-source patch. The rules are pretty simple: if you
can certify the below:
Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
have the right to submit it under the open source license
@ -445,7 +457,7 @@ can certify the below:
maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
this project or the open source license(s) involved.
then you just add a line saying
then you just add a line saying::
Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
@ -466,7 +478,7 @@ you add a line between the last Signed-off-by header and yours, indicating
the nature of your changes. While there is nothing mandatory about this, it
seems like prepending the description with your mail and/or name, all
enclosed in square brackets, is noticeable enough to make it obvious that
you are responsible for last-minute changes. Example :
you are responsible for last-minute changes. Example::
Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
[lucky@maintainer.example.org: struct foo moved from foo.c to foo.h]
@ -481,15 +493,15 @@ which appears in the changelog.
Special note to back-porters: It seems to be a common and useful practice
to insert an indication of the origin of a patch at the top of the commit
message (just after the subject line) to facilitate tracking. For instance,
here's what we see in a 3.x-stable release:
here's what we see in a 3.x-stable release::
Date: Tue Oct 7 07:26:38 2014 -0400
Date: Tue Oct 7 07:26:38 2014 -0400
libata: Un-break ATA blacklist
commit 1c40279960bcd7d52dbdf1d466b20d24b99176c8 upstream.
And here's what might appear in an older kernel once a patch is backported:
And here's what might appear in an older kernel once a patch is backported::
Date: Tue May 13 22:12:27 2008 +0200
@ -529,7 +541,7 @@ When in doubt people should refer to the original discussion in the mailing
list archives.
If a person has had the opportunity to comment on a patch, but has not
provided such comments, you may optionally add a "Cc:" tag to the patch.
provided such comments, you may optionally add a ``Cc:`` tag to the patch.
This is the only tag which might be added without an explicit action by the
person it names - but it should indicate that this person was copied on the
patch. This tag documents that potentially interested parties
@ -552,11 +564,12 @@ future patches, and ensures credit for the testers.
Reviewed-by:, instead, indicates that the patch has been reviewed and found
acceptable according to the Reviewer's Statement:
Reviewer's statement of oversight
Reviewer's statement of oversight
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By offering my Reviewed-by: tag, I state that:
By offering my Reviewed-by: tag, I state that:
(a) I have carried out a technical review of this patch to
(a) I have carried out a technical review of this patch to
evaluate its appropriateness and readiness for inclusion into
the mainline kernel.
@ -594,24 +607,25 @@ A Fixes: tag indicates that the patch fixes an issue in a previous commit. It
is used to make it easy to determine where a bug originated, which can help
review a bug fix. This tag also assists the stable kernel team in determining
which stable kernel versions should receive your fix. This is the preferred
method for indicating a bug fixed by the patch. See #2 above for more details.
method for indicating a bug fixed by the patch. See :ref:`describe_changes`
for more details.
14) The canonical patch format
------------------------------
This section describes how the patch itself should be formatted. Note
that, if you have your patches stored in a git repository, proper patch
formatting can be had with "git format-patch". The tools cannot create
that, if you have your patches stored in a ``git`` repository, proper patch
formatting can be had with ``git format-patch``. The tools cannot create
the necessary text, though, so read the instructions below anyway.
The canonical patch subject line is:
The canonical patch subject line is::
Subject: [PATCH 001/123] subsystem: summary phrase
The canonical patch message body contains the following:
- A "from" line specifying the patch author (only needed if the person
- A ``from`` line specifying the patch author (only needed if the person
sending the patch is not the author).
- An empty line.
@ -619,46 +633,46 @@ The canonical patch message body contains the following:
- The body of the explanation, line wrapped at 75 columns, which will
be copied to the permanent changelog to describe this patch.
- The "Signed-off-by:" lines, described above, which will
- The ``Signed-off-by:`` lines, described above, which will
also go in the changelog.
- A marker line containing simply "---".
- A marker line containing simply ``---``.
- Any additional comments not suitable for the changelog.
- The actual patch (diff output).
- The actual patch (``diff`` output).
The Subject line format makes it very easy to sort the emails
alphabetically by subject line - pretty much any email reader will
support that - since because the sequence number is zero-padded,
the numerical and alphabetic sort is the same.
The "subsystem" in the email's Subject should identify which
The ``subsystem`` in the email's Subject should identify which
area or subsystem of the kernel is being patched.
The "summary phrase" in the email's Subject should concisely
describe the patch which that email contains. The "summary
phrase" should not be a filename. Do not use the same "summary
phrase" for every patch in a whole patch series (where a "patch
series" is an ordered sequence of multiple, related patches).
The ``summary phrase`` in the email's Subject should concisely
describe the patch which that email contains. The ``summary
phrase`` should not be a filename. Do not use the same ``summary
phrase`` for every patch in a whole patch series (where a ``patch
series`` is an ordered sequence of multiple, related patches).
Bear in mind that the "summary phrase" of your email becomes a
Bear in mind that the ``summary phrase`` of your email becomes a
globally-unique identifier for that patch. It propagates all the way
into the git changelog. The "summary phrase" may later be used in
into the ``git`` changelog. The ``summary phrase`` may later be used in
developer discussions which refer to the patch. People will want to
google for the "summary phrase" to read discussion regarding that
google for the ``summary phrase`` to read discussion regarding that
patch. It will also be the only thing that people may quickly see
when, two or three months later, they are going through perhaps
thousands of patches using tools such as "gitk" or "git log
--oneline".
thousands of patches using tools such as ``gitk`` or ``git log
--oneline``.
For these reasons, the "summary" must be no more than 70-75
For these reasons, the ``summary`` must be no more than 70-75
characters, and it must describe both what the patch changes, as well
as why the patch might be necessary. It is challenging to be both
succinct and descriptive, but that is what a well-written summary
should do.
The "summary phrase" may be prefixed by tags enclosed in square
The ``summary phrase`` may be prefixed by tags enclosed in square
brackets: "Subject: [PATCH <tag>...] <summary phrase>". The tags are
not considered part of the summary phrase, but describe how the patch
should be treated. Common tags might include a version descriptor if
@ -670,19 +684,19 @@ that developers understand the order in which the patches should be
applied and that they have reviewed or applied all of the patches in
the patch series.
A couple of example Subjects:
A couple of example Subjects::
Subject: [PATCH 2/5] ext2: improve scalability of bitmap searching
Subject: [PATCH v2 01/27] x86: fix eflags tracking
The "from" line must be the very first line in the message body,
The ``from`` line must be the very first line in the message body,
and has the form:
From: Original Author <author@example.com>
The "from" line specifies who will be credited as the author of the
patch in the permanent changelog. If the "from" line is missing,
then the "From:" line from the email header will be used to determine
The ``from`` line specifies who will be credited as the author of the
patch in the permanent changelog. If the ``from`` line is missing,
then the ``From:`` line from the email header will be used to determine
the patch author in the changelog.
The explanation body will be committed to the permanent source
@ -694,35 +708,37 @@ especially useful for people who might be searching the commit logs
looking for the applicable patch. If a patch fixes a compile failure,
it may not be necessary to include _all_ of the compile failures; just
enough that it is likely that someone searching for the patch can find
it. As in the "summary phrase", it is important to be both succinct as
it. As in the ``summary phrase``, it is important to be both succinct as
well as descriptive.
The "---" marker line serves the essential purpose of marking for patch
The ``---`` marker line serves the essential purpose of marking for patch
handling tools where the changelog message ends.
One good use for the additional comments after the "---" marker is for
a diffstat, to show what files have changed, and the number of
inserted and deleted lines per file. A diffstat is especially useful
One good use for the additional comments after the ``---`` marker is for
a ``diffstat``, to show what files have changed, and the number of
inserted and deleted lines per file. A ``diffstat`` is especially useful
on bigger patches. Other comments relevant only to the moment or the
maintainer, not suitable for the permanent changelog, should also go
here. A good example of such comments might be "patch changelogs"
here. A good example of such comments might be ``patch changelogs``
which describe what has changed between the v1 and v2 version of the
patch.
If you are going to include a diffstat after the "---" marker, please
use diffstat options "-p 1 -w 70" so that filenames are listed from
If you are going to include a ``diffstat`` after the ``---`` marker, please
use ``diffstat`` options ``-p 1 -w 70`` so that filenames are listed from
the top of the kernel source tree and don't use too much horizontal
space (easily fit in 80 columns, maybe with some indentation). (git
space (easily fit in 80 columns, maybe with some indentation). (``git``
generates appropriate diffstats by default.)
See more details on the proper patch format in the following
references.
.. _explicit_in_reply_to:
15) Explicit In-Reply-To headers
--------------------------------
It can be helpful to manually add In-Reply-To: headers to a patch
(e.g., when using "git send-email") to associate the patch with
(e.g., when using ``git send-email``) to associate the patch with
previous relevant discussion, e.g. to link a bug fix to the email with
the bug report. However, for a multi-patch series, it is generally
best to avoid using In-Reply-To: to link to older versions of the
@ -732,12 +748,12 @@ helpful, you can use the https://lkml.kernel.org/ redirector (e.g., in
the cover email text) to link to an earlier version of the patch series.
16) Sending "git pull" requests
-------------------------------
16) Sending ``git pull`` requests
---------------------------------
If you have a series of patches, it may be most convenient to have the
maintainer pull them directly into the subsystem repository with a
"git pull" operation. Note, however, that pulling patches from a developer
``git pull`` operation. Note, however, that pulling patches from a developer
requires a higher degree of trust than taking patches from a mailing list.
As a result, many subsystem maintainers are reluctant to take pull
requests, especially from new, unknown developers. If in doubt you can use
@ -746,7 +762,7 @@ series, giving the maintainer the option of using either.
A pull request should have [GIT] or [PULL] in the subject line. The
request itself should include the repository name and the branch of
interest on a single line; it should look something like:
interest on a single line; it should look something like::
Please pull from
@ -755,10 +771,10 @@ interest on a single line; it should look something like:
to get these changes:
A pull request should also include an overall message saying what will be
included in the request, a "git shortlog" listing of the patches
themselves, and a diffstat showing the overall effect of the patch series.
included in the request, a ``git shortlog`` listing of the patches
themselves, and a ``diffstat`` showing the overall effect of the patch series.
The easiest way to get all this information together is, of course, to let
git do it for you with the "git request-pull" command.
``git`` do it for you with the ``git request-pull`` command.
Some maintainers (including Linus) want to see pull requests from signed
commits; that increases their confidence that the request actually came
@ -770,8 +786,8 @@ signed by one or more core kernel developers. This step can be hard for
new developers, but there is no way around it. Attending conferences can
be a good way to find developers who can sign your key.
Once you have prepared a patch series in git that you wish to have somebody
pull, create a signed tag with "git tag -s". This will create a new tag
Once you have prepared a patch series in ``git`` that you wish to have somebody
pull, create a signed tag with ``git tag -s``. This will create a new tag
identifying the last commit in the series and containing a signature
created with your private key. You will also have the opportunity to add a
changelog-style message to the tag; this is an ideal place to describe the
@ -782,14 +798,13 @@ are working from, don't forget to push the signed tag explicitly to the
public tree.
When generating your pull request, use the signed tag as the target. A
command like this will do the trick:
command like this will do the trick::
git request-pull master git://my.public.tree/linux.git my-signed-tag
----------------------
SECTION 2 - REFERENCES
----------------------
REFERENCES
**********
Andrew Morton, "The perfect patch" (tpp).
<http://www.ozlabs.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt>
@ -799,23 +814,28 @@ Jeff Garzik, "Linux kernel patch submission format".
Greg Kroah-Hartman, "How to piss off a kernel subsystem maintainer".
<http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/maintainer.html>
<http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/maintainer-02.html>
<http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/maintainer-03.html>
<http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/maintainer-04.html>
<http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/maintainer-05.html>
<http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/maintainer-06.html>
NO!!!! No more huge patch bombs to linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org people!
<https://lkml.org/lkml/2005/7/11/336>
Kernel Documentation/CodingStyle:
<Documentation/CodingStyle>
:ref:`Documentation/CodingStyle <codingstyle>`
Linus Torvalds's mail on the canonical patch format:
<http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/4/7/183>
Andi Kleen, "On submitting kernel patches"
Some strategies to get difficult or controversial changes in.
http://halobates.de/on-submitting-patches.pdf
--

7
Documentation/accounting/Makefile
View File

@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
# List of programs to build
hostprogs-y := getdelays
# Tell kbuild to always build the programs
always := $(hostprogs-y)
HOSTCFLAGS_getdelays.o += -I$(objtree)/usr/include

6
Documentation/accounting/delay-accounting.txt
View File

@ -54,9 +54,9 @@ are sent to userspace without requiring a command. If it is the last exiting
task of a thread group, the per-tgid statistics are also sent. More details
are given in the taskstats interface description.
The getdelays.c userspace utility in this directory allows simple commands to
be run and the corresponding delay statistics to be displayed. It also serves
as an example of using the taskstats interface.
The getdelays.c userspace utility in tools/accounting directory allows simple
commands to be run and the corresponding delay statistics to be displayed. It
also serves as an example of using the taskstats interface.
Usage
-----

96
Documentation/acpi/acpi-lid.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
Special Usage Model of the ACPI Control Method Lid Device
Copyright (C) 2016, Intel Corporation
Author: Lv Zheng <lv.zheng@intel.com>
Abstract:
Platforms containing lids convey lid state (open/close) to OSPMs using a
control method lid device. To implement this, the AML tables issue
Notify(lid_device, 0x80) to notify the OSPMs whenever the lid state has
changed. The _LID control method for the lid device must be implemented to
report the "current" state of the lid as either "opened" or "closed".
For most platforms, both the _LID method and the lid notifications are
reliable. However, there are exceptions. In order to work with these
exceptional buggy platforms, special restrictions and expections should be
taken into account. This document describes the restrictions and the
expections of the Linux ACPI lid device driver.
1. Restrictions of the returning value of the _LID control method
The _LID control method is described to return the "current" lid state.
However the word of "current" has ambiguity, some buggy AML tables return
the lid state upon the last lid notification instead of returning the lid
state upon the last _LID evaluation. There won't be difference when the
_LID control method is evaluated during the runtime, the problem is its
initial returning value. When the AML tables implement this control method
with cached value, the initial returning value is likely not reliable.
There are platforms always retun "closed" as initial lid state.
2. Restrictions of the lid state change notifications
There are buggy AML tables never notifying when the lid device state is
changed to "opened". Thus the "opened" notification is not guaranteed. But
it is guaranteed that the AML tables always notify "closed" when the lid
state is changed to "closed". The "closed" notification is normally used to
trigger some system power saving operations on Windows. Since it is fully
tested, it is reliable from all AML tables.
3. Expections for the userspace users of the ACPI lid device driver
The ACPI button driver exports the lid state to the userspace via the
following file:
/proc/acpi/button/lid/LID0/state
This file actually calls the _LID control method described above. And given
the previous explanation, it is not reliable enough on some platforms. So
it is advised for the userspace program to not to solely rely on this file
to determine the actual lid state.
The ACPI button driver emits the following input event to the userspace:
SW_LID
The ACPI lid device driver is implemented to try to deliver the platform
triggered events to the userspace. However, given the fact that the buggy
firmware cannot make sure "opened"/"closed" events are paired, the ACPI
button driver uses the following 3 modes in order not to trigger issues.
If the userspace hasn't been prepared to ignore the unreliable "opened"
events and the unreliable initial state notification, Linux users can use
the following kernel parameters to handle the possible issues:
A. button.lid_init_state=method:
When this option is specified, the ACPI button driver reports the
initial lid state using the returning value of the _LID control method
and whether the "opened"/"closed" events are paired fully relies on the
firmware implementation.
This option can be used to fix some platforms where the returning value
of the _LID control method is reliable but the initial lid state
notification is missing.
This option is the default behavior during the period the userspace
isn't ready to handle the buggy AML tables.
B. button.lid_init_state=open:
When this option is specified, the ACPI button driver always reports the
initial lid state as "opened" and whether the "opened"/"closed" events
are paired fully relies on the firmware implementation.
This may fix some platforms where the returning value of the _LID
control method is not reliable and the initial lid state notification is
missing.
If the userspace has been prepared to ignore the unreliable "opened" events
and the unreliable initial state notification, Linux users should always
use the following kernel parameter:
C. button.lid_init_state=ignore:
When this option is specified, the ACPI button driver never reports the
initial lid state and there is a compensation mechanism implemented to
ensure that the reliable "closed" notifications can always be delievered
to the userspace by always pairing "closed" input events with complement
"opened" input events. But there is still no guarantee that the "opened"
notifications can be delivered to the userspace when the lid is actually
opens given that some AML tables do not send "opened" notifications
reliably.
In this mode, if everything is correctly implemented by the platform
firmware, the old userspace programs should still work. Otherwise, the
new userspace programs are required to work with the ACPI button driver.
This option will be the default behavior after the userspace is ready to
handle the buggy AML tables.

10
Documentation/acpi/gpio-properties.txt
View File

@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ index, like the ASL example below shows:
ToUUID("daffd814-6eba-4d8c-8a91-bc9bbf4aa301"),
Package ()
{
Package () {"reset-gpio", Package() {^BTH, 1, 1, 0 }},
Package () {"shutdown-gpio", Package() {^BTH, 0, 0, 0 }},
Package () {"reset-gpios", Package() {^BTH, 1, 1, 0 }},
Package () {"shutdown-gpios", Package() {^BTH, 0, 0, 0 }},
}
})
}
@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Since ACPI GpioIo() resource does not have a field saying whether it is
active low or high, the "active_low" argument can be used here. Setting
it to 1 marks the GPIO as active low.
In our Bluetooth example the "reset-gpio" refers to the second GpioIo()
In our Bluetooth example the "reset-gpios" refers to the second GpioIo()
resource, second pin in that resource with the GPIO number of 31.
ACPI GPIO Mappings Provided by Drivers
@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ static const struct acpi_gpio_params reset_gpio = { 1, 1, false };
static const struct acpi_gpio_params shutdown_gpio = { 0, 0, false };
static const struct acpi_gpio_mapping bluetooth_acpi_gpios[] = {
{ "reset-gpio", &reset_gpio, 1 },
{ "shutdown-gpio", &shutdown_gpio, 1 },
{ "reset-gpios", &reset_gpio, 1 },
{ "shutdown-gpios", &shutdown_gpio, 1 },
{ },
};

409
Documentation/applying-patches.txt
View File

@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
.. _applying_patches:
Applying Patches To The Linux Kernel
------------------------------------
Applying Patches To The Linux Kernel
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Original by: Jesper Juhl, August 2005
Last update: 2006-01-05
Original by:
Jesper Juhl, August 2005
Last update:
2016-09-14
A frequently asked question on the Linux Kernel Mailing List is how to apply
@ -17,10 +21,12 @@ their specific patches) is also provided.
What is a patch?
---
A patch is a small text document containing a delta of changes between two
different versions of a source tree. Patches are created with the `diff'
================
A patch is a small text document containing a delta of changes between two
different versions of a source tree. Patches are created with the ``diff``
program.
To correctly apply a patch you need to know what base it was generated from
and what new version the patch will change the source tree into. These
should both be present in the patch file metadata or be possible to deduce
@ -28,8 +34,9 @@ from the filename.
How do I apply or revert a patch?
---
You apply a patch with the `patch' program. The patch program reads a diff
=================================
You apply a patch with the ``patch`` program. The patch program reads a diff
(or patch) file and makes the changes to the source tree described in it.
Patches for the Linux kernel are generated relative to the parent directory
@ -38,26 +45,33 @@ holding the kernel source dir.
This means that paths to files inside the patch file contain the name of the
kernel source directories it was generated against (or some other directory
names like "a/" and "b/").
Since this is unlikely to match the name of the kernel source dir on your
local machine (but is often useful info to see what version an otherwise
unlabeled patch was generated against) you should change into your kernel
source directory and then strip the first element of the path from filenames
in the patch file when applying it (the -p1 argument to `patch' does this).
in the patch file when applying it (the ``-p1`` argument to ``patch`` does
this).
To revert a previously applied patch, use the -R argument to patch.
So, if you applied a patch like this:
So, if you applied a patch like this::
patch -p1 < ../patch-x.y.z
You can revert (undo) it like this:
You can revert (undo) it like this::
patch -R -p1 < ../patch-x.y.z
How do I feed a patch/diff file to `patch'?
---
This (as usual with Linux and other UNIX like operating systems) can be
How do I feed a patch/diff file to ``patch``?
=============================================
This (as usual with Linux and other UNIX like operating systems) can be
done in several different ways.
In all the examples below I feed the file (in uncompressed form) to patch
via stdin using the following syntax:
via stdin using the following syntax::
patch -p1 < path/to/patch-x.y.z
If you just want to be able to follow the examples below and don't want to
@ -65,35 +79,40 @@ know of more than one way to use patch, then you can stop reading this
section here.
Patch can also get the name of the file to use via the -i argument, like
this:
this::
patch -p1 -i path/to/patch-x.y.z
If your patch file is compressed with gzip or bzip2 and you don't want to
If your patch file is compressed with gzip or xz and you don't want to
uncompress it before applying it, then you can feed it to patch like this
instead:
zcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.gz | patch -p1
bzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.bz2 | patch -p1
instead::
xzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.xz | patch -p1
bzcat path/to/patch-x.y.z.gz | patch -p1
If you wish to uncompress the patch file by hand first before applying it
(what I assume you've done in the examples below), then you simply run
gunzip or bunzip2 on the file -- like this:
gunzip or xz on the file -- like this::
gunzip patch-x.y.z.gz
bunzip2 patch-x.y.z.bz2
xz -d patch-x.y.z.xz
Which will leave you with a plain text patch-x.y.z file that you can feed to
patch via stdin or the -i argument, as you prefer.
patch via stdin or the ``-i`` argument, as you prefer.
A few other nice arguments for patch are -s which causes patch to be silent
A few other nice arguments for patch are ``-s`` which causes patch to be silent
except for errors which is nice to prevent errors from scrolling out of the
screen too fast, and --dry-run which causes patch to just print a listing of
what would happen, but doesn't actually make any changes. Finally --verbose
screen too fast, and ``--dry-run`` which causes patch to just print a listing of
what would happen, but doesn't actually make any changes. Finally ``--verbose``
tells patch to print more information about the work being done.
Common errors when patching
---
When patch applies a patch file it attempts to verify the sanity of the
===========================
When patch applies a patch file it attempts to verify the sanity of the
file in different ways.
Checking that the file looks like a valid patch file and checking the code
around the bits being modified matches the context provided in the patch are
just two of the basic sanity checks patch does.
@ -111,13 +130,13 @@ everything looks good it has just moved up or down a bit, and patch will
usually adjust the line numbers and apply the patch.
Whenever patch applies a patch that it had to modify a bit to make it fit
it'll tell you about it by saying the patch applied with 'fuzz'.
it'll tell you about it by saying the patch applied with **fuzz**.
You should be wary of such changes since even though patch probably got it
right it doesn't /always/ get it right, and the result will sometimes be
wrong.
When patch encounters a change that it can't fix up with fuzz it rejects it
outright and leaves a file with a .rej extension (a reject file). You can
outright and leaves a file with a ``.rej`` extension (a reject file). You can
read this file to see exactly what change couldn't be applied, so you can
go fix it up by hand if you wish.
@ -132,43 +151,47 @@ to start with a fresh tree downloaded in full from kernel.org.
Let's look a bit more at some of the messages patch can produce.
If patch stops and presents a "File to patch:" prompt, then patch could not
If patch stops and presents a ``File to patch:`` prompt, then patch could not
find a file to be patched. Most likely you forgot to specify -p1 or you are
in the wrong directory. Less often, you'll find patches that need to be
applied with -p0 instead of -p1 (reading the patch file should reveal if
applied with ``-p0`` instead of ``-p1`` (reading the patch file should reveal if
this is the case -- if so, then this is an error by the person who created
the patch but is not fatal).
If you get "Hunk #2 succeeded at 1887 with fuzz 2 (offset 7 lines)." or a
If you get ``Hunk #2 succeeded at 1887 with fuzz 2 (offset 7 lines).`` or a
message similar to that, then it means that patch had to adjust the location
of the change (in this example it needed to move 7 lines from where it
expected to make the change to make it fit).
The resulting file may or may not be OK, depending on the reason the file
was different than expected.
This often happens if you try to apply a patch that was generated against a
different kernel version than the one you are trying to patch.
If you get a message like "Hunk #3 FAILED at 2387.", then it means that the
If you get a message like ``Hunk #3 FAILED at 2387.``, then it means that the
patch could not be applied correctly and the patch program was unable to
fuzz its way through. This will generate a .rej file with the change that
caused the patch to fail and also a .orig file showing you the original
fuzz its way through. This will generate a ``.rej`` file with the change that
caused the patch to fail and also a ``.orig`` file showing you the original
content that couldn't be changed.
If you get "Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Assume -R? [n]"
If you get ``Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Assume -R? [n]``
then patch detected that the change contained in the patch seems to have
already been made.
If you actually did apply this patch previously and you just re-applied it
in error, then just say [n]o and abort this patch. If you applied this patch
previously and actually intended to revert it, but forgot to specify -R,
then you can say [y]es here to make patch revert it for you.
then you can say [**y**]es here to make patch revert it for you.
This can also happen if the creator of the patch reversed the source and
destination directories when creating the patch, and in that case reverting
the patch will in fact apply it.
A message similar to "patch: **** unexpected end of file in patch" or "patch
unexpectedly ends in middle of line" means that patch could make no sense of
the file you fed to it. Either your download is broken, you tried to feed
patch a compressed patch file without uncompressing it first, or the patch
A message similar to ``patch: **** unexpected end of file in patch`` or
``patch unexpectedly ends in middle of line`` means that patch could make no
sense of the file you fed to it. Either your download is broken, you tried to
feed patch a compressed patch file without uncompressing it first, or the patch
file that you are using has been mangled by a mail client or mail transfer
agent along the way somewhere, e.g., by splitting a long line into two lines.
Often these warnings can easily be fixed by joining (concatenating) the
@ -182,28 +205,32 @@ to start over with a fresh download of a full kernel tree and the patch you
wish to apply.
Are there any alternatives to `patch'?
---
Yes there are alternatives.
Are there any alternatives to ``patch``?
========================================
You can use the `interdiff' program (http://cyberelk.net/tim/patchutils/) to
Yes there are alternatives.
You can use the ``interdiff`` program (http://cyberelk.net/tim/patchutils/) to
generate a patch representing the differences between two patches and then
apply the result.
This will let you move from something like 2.6.12.2 to 2.6.12.3 in a single
This will let you move from something like 4.7.2 to 4.7.3 in a single
step. The -z flag to interdiff will even let you feed it patches in gzip or
bzip2 compressed form directly without the use of zcat or bzcat or manual
decompression.
Here's how you'd go from 2.6.12.2 to 2.6.12.3 in a single step:
interdiff -z ../patch-2.6.12.2.bz2 ../patch-2.6.12.3.gz | patch -p1
Here's how you'd go from 4.7.2 to 4.7.3 in a single step::
interdiff -z ../patch-4.7.2.gz ../patch-4.7.3.gz | patch -p1
Although interdiff may save you a step or two you are generally advised to
do the additional steps since interdiff can get things wrong in some cases.
Another alternative is `ketchup', which is a python script for automatic
Another alternative is ``ketchup``, which is a python script for automatic
downloading and applying of patches (http://www.selenic.com/ketchup/).
Other nice tools are diffstat, which shows a summary of changes made by a
Other nice tools are diffstat, which shows a summary of changes made by a
patch; lsdiff, which displays a short listing of affected files in a patch
file, along with (optionally) the line numbers of the start of each patch;
and grepdiff, which displays a list of the files modified by a patch where
@ -211,99 +238,103 @@ the patch contains a given regular expression.
Where can I download the patches?
---
The patches are available at http://kernel.org/
=================================
The patches are available at http://kernel.org/
Most recent patches are linked from the front page, but they also have
specific homes.
The 2.6.x.y (-stable) and 2.6.x patches live at
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/
The 4.x.y (-stable) and 4.x patches live at
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/
The -rc patches live at
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/
The -git patches live at
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/snapshots/
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/testing/
The -mm kernels live at
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/
In place of ftp.kernel.org you can use ftp.cc.kernel.org, where cc is a
In place of ``ftp.kernel.org`` you can use ``ftp.cc.kernel.org``, where cc is a
country code. This way you'll be downloading from a mirror site that's most
likely geographically closer to you, resulting in faster downloads for you,
less bandwidth used globally and less load on the main kernel.org servers --
these are good things, so do use mirrors when possible.
The 2.6.x kernels
---
These are the base stable releases released by Linus. The highest numbered
The 4.x kernels
===============
These are the base stable releases released by Linus. The highest numbered
release is the most recent.
If regressions or other serious flaws are found, then a -stable fix patch
will be released (see below) on top of this base. Once a new 2.6.x base
will be released (see below) on top of this base. Once a new 4.x base
kernel is released, a patch is made available that is a delta between the
previous 2.6.x kernel and the new one.
previous 4.x kernel and the new one.
To apply a patch moving from 2.6.11 to 2.6.12, you'd do the following (note
that such patches do *NOT* apply on top of 2.6.x.y kernels but on top of the
base 2.6.x kernel -- if you need to move from 2.6.x.y to 2.6.x+1 you need to
first revert the 2.6.x.y patch).
To apply a patch moving from 4.6 to 4.7, you'd do the following (note
that such patches do **NOT** apply on top of 4.x.y kernels but on top of the
base 4.x kernel -- if you need to move from 4.x.y to 4.x+1 you need to
first revert the 4.x.y patch).
Here are some examples:
Here are some examples::
# moving from 2.6.11 to 2.6.12
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.11 # change to kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.12 # apply the 2.6.12 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.11 linux-2.6.12 # rename source dir
# moving from 4.6 to 4.7
# moving from 2.6.11.1 to 2.6.12
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.11.1 # change to kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-2.6.11.1 # revert the 2.6.11.1 patch
# source dir is now 2.6.11
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.12 # apply new 2.6.12 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.11.1 linux-2.6.12 # rename source dir
$ cd ~/linux-4.6 # change to kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7 # apply the 4.7 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.6 linux-4.7 # rename source dir
# moving from 4.6.1 to 4.7
$ cd ~/linux-4.6.1 # change to kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.6.1 # revert the 4.6.1 patch
# source dir is now 4.6
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7 # apply new 4.7 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.6.1 linux-4.7 # rename source dir
The 2.6.x.y kernels
---
Kernels with 4-digit versions are -stable kernels. They contain small(ish)
The 4.x.y kernels
=================
Kernels with 3-digit versions are -stable kernels. They contain small(ish)
critical fixes for security problems or significant regressions discovered
in a given 2.6.x kernel.
in a given 4.x kernel.
This is the recommended branch for users who want the most recent stable
kernel and are not interested in helping test development/experimental
versions.
If no 2.6.x.y kernel is available, then the highest numbered 2.6.x kernel is
If no 4.x.y kernel is available, then the highest numbered 4.x kernel is
the current stable kernel.
note: the -stable team usually do make incremental patches available as well
.. note::
The -stable team usually do make incremental patches available as well
as patches against the latest mainline release, but I only cover the
non-incremental ones below. The incremental ones can be found at
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/incr/
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/incr/
These patches are not incremental, meaning that for example the 2.6.12.3
patch does not apply on top of the 2.6.12.2 kernel source, but rather on top
of the base 2.6.12 kernel source .
So, in order to apply the 2.6.12.3 patch to your existing 2.6.12.2 kernel
source you have to first back out the 2.6.12.2 patch (so you are left with a
base 2.6.12 kernel source) and then apply the new 2.6.12.3 patch.
These patches are not incremental, meaning that for example the 4.7.3
patch does not apply on top of the 4.7.2 kernel source, but rather on top
of the base 4.7 kernel source.
Here's a small example:
So, in order to apply the 4.7.3 patch to your existing 4.7.2 kernel
source you have to first back out the 4.7.2 patch (so you are left with a
base 4.7 kernel source) and then apply the new 4.7.3 patch.
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12.2 # change into the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-2.6.12.2 # revert the 2.6.12.2 patch
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.12.3 # apply the new 2.6.12.3 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12.2 linux-2.6.12.3 # rename the kernel source dir
Here's a small example::
$ cd ~/linux-4.7.2 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.7.2 # revert the 4.7.2 patch
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7.3 # apply the new 4.7.3 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.7.2 linux-4.7.3 # rename the kernel source dir
The -rc kernels
---
These are release-candidate kernels. These are development kernels released
===============
These are release-candidate kernels. These are development kernels released
by Linus whenever he deems the current git (the kernel's source management
tool) tree to be in a reasonably sane state adequate for testing.
@ -317,39 +348,44 @@ This is a good branch to run for people who want to help out testing
development kernels but do not want to run some of the really experimental
stuff (such people should see the sections about -git and -mm kernels below).
The -rc patches are not incremental, they apply to a base 2.6.x kernel, just
like the 2.6.x.y patches described above. The kernel version before the -rcN
The -rc patches are not incremental, they apply to a base 4.x kernel, just
like the 4.x.y patches described above. The kernel version before the -rcN
suffix denotes the version of the kernel that this -rc kernel will eventually
turn into.
So, 2.6.13-rc5 means that this is the fifth release candidate for the 2.6.13
kernel and the patch should be applied on top of the 2.6.12 kernel source.
Here are 3 examples of how to apply these patches:
So, 4.8-rc5 means that this is the fifth release candidate for the 4.8
kernel and the patch should be applied on top of the 4.7 kernel source.
# first an example of moving from 2.6.12 to 2.6.13-rc3
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12 # change into the 2.6.12 source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.13-rc3 # apply the 2.6.13-rc3 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12 linux-2.6.13-rc3 # rename the source dir
Here are 3 examples of how to apply these patches::
# now let's move from 2.6.13-rc3 to 2.6.13-rc5
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.13-rc3 # change into the 2.6.13-rc3 dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-2.6.13-rc3 # revert the 2.6.13-rc3 patch
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.13-rc5 # apply the new 2.6.13-rc5 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.13-rc3 linux-2.6.13-rc5 # rename the source dir
# first an example of moving from 4.7 to 4.8-rc3
# finally let's try and move from 2.6.12.3 to 2.6.13-rc5
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12.3 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-2.6.12.3 # revert the 2.6.12.3 patch
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.13-rc5 # apply new 2.6.13-rc5 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12.3 linux-2.6.13-rc5 # rename the kernel source dir
$ cd ~/linux-4.7 # change to the 4.7 source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc3 # apply the 4.8-rc3 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.7 linux-4.8-rc3 # rename the source dir
# now let's move from 4.8-rc3 to 4.8-rc5
$ cd ~/linux-4.8-rc3 # change to the 4.8-rc3 dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.8-rc3 # revert the 4.8-rc3 patch
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc5 # apply the new 4.8-rc5 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.8-rc3 linux-4.8-rc5 # rename the source dir
# finally let's try and move from 4.7.3 to 4.8-rc5
$ cd ~/linux-4.7.3 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.7.3 # revert the 4.7.3 patch
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc5 # apply new 4.8-rc5 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.7.3 linux-4.8-rc5 # rename the kernel source dir
The -git kernels
---
These are daily snapshots of Linus' kernel tree (managed in a git
================
These are daily snapshots of Linus' kernel tree (managed in a git
repository, hence the name).
These patches are usually released daily and represent the current state of
@ -357,91 +393,66 @@ Linus's tree. They are more experimental than -rc kernels since they are
generated automatically without even a cursory glance to see if they are
sane.
-git patches are not incremental and apply either to a base 2.6.x kernel or
a base 2.6.x-rc kernel -- you can see which from their name.
A patch named 2.6.12-git1 applies to the 2.6.12 kernel source and a patch
named 2.6.13-rc3-git2 applies to the source of the 2.6.13-rc3 kernel.
-git patches are not incremental and apply either to a base 4.x kernel or
a base 4.x-rc kernel -- you can see which from their name.
A patch named 4.7-git1 applies to the 4.7 kernel source and a patch
named 4.8-rc3-git2 applies to the source of the 4.8-rc3 kernel.
Here are some examples of how to apply these patches:
Here are some examples of how to apply these patches::
# moving from 2.6.12 to 2.6.12-git1
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.12-git1 # apply the 2.6.12-git1 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12 linux-2.6.12-git1 # rename the kernel source dir
# moving from 4.7 to 4.7-git1
# moving from 2.6.12-git1 to 2.6.13-rc2-git3
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12-git1 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-2.6.12-git1 # revert the 2.6.12-git1 patch
# we now have a 2.6.12 kernel
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.13-rc2 # apply the 2.6.13-rc2 patch
# the kernel is now 2.6.13-rc2
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.13-rc2-git3 # apply the 2.6.13-rc2-git3 patch
# the kernel is now 2.6.13-rc2-git3
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12-git1 linux-2.6.13-rc2-git3 # rename source dir
$ cd ~/linux-4.7 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.7-git1 # apply the 4.7-git1 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.7 linux-4.7-git1 # rename the kernel source dir
# moving from 4.7-git1 to 4.8-rc2-git3
$ cd ~/linux-4.7-git1 # change to the kernel source dir
$ patch -p1 -R < ../patch-4.7-git1 # revert the 4.7-git1 patch
# we now have a 4.7 kernel
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc2 # apply the 4.8-rc2 patch
# the kernel is now 4.8-rc2
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-4.8-rc2-git3 # apply the 4.8-rc2-git3 patch
# the kernel is now 4.8-rc2-git3
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-4.7-git1 linux-4.8-rc2-git3 # rename source dir
The -mm kernels
---
These are experimental kernels released by Andrew Morton.
The -mm patches and the linux-next tree
=======================================
The -mm tree serves as a sort of proving ground for new features and other
experimental patches.
Once a patch has proved its worth in -mm for a while Andrew pushes it on to
Linus for inclusion in mainline.
The -mm patches are experimental patches released by Andrew Morton.
Although it's encouraged that patches flow to Linus via the -mm tree, this
is not always enforced.
Subsystem maintainers (or individuals) sometimes push their patches directly
to Linus, even though (or after) they have been merged and tested in -mm (or
sometimes even without prior testing in -mm).
In the past, -mm tree were used to also test subsystem patches, but this
function is now done via the
:ref:`linux-next <https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/linux-next.html>`
tree. The Subsystem maintainers push their patches first to linux-next,
and, during the merge window, sends them directly to Linus.
You should generally strive to get your patches into mainline via -mm to
ensure maximum testing.
The -mm patches serve as a sort of proving ground for new features and other
experimental patches that aren't merged via a subsystem tree.
Once such patches has proved its worth in -mm for a while Andrew pushes
it on to Linus for inclusion in mainline.
This branch is in constant flux and contains many experimental features, a
The linux-next tree is daily updated, and includes the -mm patches.
Both are in constant flux and contains many experimental features, a
lot of debugging patches not appropriate for mainline etc., and is the most
experimental of the branches described in this document.
These kernels are not appropriate for use on systems that are supposed to be
These patches are not appropriate for use on systems that are supposed to be
stable and they are more risky to run than any of the other branches (make
sure you have up-to-date backups -- that goes for any experimental kernel but
even more so for -mm kernels).
even more so for -mm patches or using a Kernel from the linux-next tree).
These kernels in addition to all the other experimental patches they contain
usually also contain any changes in the mainline -git kernels available at
the time of release.
Testing of -mm patches and linux-next is greatly appreciated since the whole
point of those are to weed out regressions, crashes, data corruption bugs,
build breakage (and any other bug in general) before changes are merged into
the more stable mainline Linus tree.
Testing of -mm kernels is greatly appreciated since the whole point of the
tree is to weed out regressions, crashes, data corruption bugs, build
breakage (and any other bug in general) before changes are merged into the
more stable mainline Linus tree.
But testers of -mm should be aware that breakage in this tree is more common
than in any other tree.
The -mm kernels are not released on a fixed schedule, but usually a few -mm
kernels are released in between each -rc kernel (1 to 3 is common).
The -mm kernels apply to either a base 2.6.x kernel (when no -rc kernels
have been released yet) or to a Linus -rc kernel.
Here are some examples of applying the -mm patches:
# moving from 2.6.12 to 2.6.12-mm1
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12 # change to the 2.6.12 source dir
$ patch -p1 < ../2.6.12-mm1 # apply the 2.6.12-mm1 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12 linux-2.6.12-mm1 # rename the source appropriately
# moving from 2.6.12-mm1 to 2.6.13-rc3-mm3
$ cd ~/linux-2.6.12-mm1
$ patch -p1 -R < ../2.6.12-mm1 # revert the 2.6.12-mm1 patch
# we now have a 2.6.12 source
$ patch -p1 < ../patch-2.6.13-rc3 # apply the 2.6.13-rc3 patch
# we now have a 2.6.13-rc3 source
$ patch -p1 < ../2.6.13-rc3-mm3 # apply the 2.6.13-rc3-mm3 patch
$ cd ..
$ mv linux-2.6.12-mm1 linux-2.6.13-rc3-mm3 # rename the source dir
But testers of -mm and linux-next should be aware that breakages are
more common than in any other tree.
This concludes this list of explanations of the various kernel trees.

2
Documentation/arm/00-INDEX
View File

@ -8,8 +8,6 @@ Interrupts
- ARM Interrupt subsystem documentation
IXP4xx
- Intel IXP4xx Network processor.
Makefile
- Build sourcefiles as part of the Documentation-build for arm
Netwinder
- Netwinder specific documentation
Porting

13
Documentation/arm/sunxi/README
View File

@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ SunXi family
+ User Manual
http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/A13/A13%20User%20Manual%20-%20v1.2%20%282013-01-08%29.pdf
- Next Thing Co GR8 (sun5i)
* Dual ARM Cortex-A7 based SoCs
- Allwinner A20 (sun7i)
+ User Manual
@ -73,4 +75,13 @@ SunXi family
* Octa ARM Cortex-A7 based SoCs
- Allwinner A83T
+ Datasheet
http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/A83T/A83T_datasheet_Revision_1.1.pdf
https://github.com/allwinner-zh/documents/raw/master/A83T/A83T_Datasheet_v1.3_20150510.pdf
+ User Manual
https://github.com/allwinner-zh/documents/raw/master/A83T/A83T_User_Manual_v1.5.1_20150513.pdf
* Quad ARM Cortex-A53 based SoCs
- Allwinner A64
+ Datasheet
http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/A64/A64_Datasheet_V1.1.pdf
+ User Manual
http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/A64/Allwinner%20A64%20User%20Manual%20v1.0.pdf

2
Documentation/arm64/silicon-errata.txt
View File

@ -61,3 +61,5 @@ stable kernels.
| Cavium | ThunderX GICv3 | #23154 | CAVIUM_ERRATUM_23154 |
| Cavium | ThunderX Core | #27456 | CAVIUM_ERRATUM_27456 |
| Cavium | ThunderX SMMUv2 | #27704 | N/A |
| | | | |
| Freescale/NXP | LS2080A/LS1043A | A-008585 | FSL_ERRATUM_A008585 |

7
Documentation/auxdisplay/Makefile
View File

@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
# List of programs to build
hostprogs-y := cfag12864b-example
# Tell kbuild to always build the programs
always := $(hostprogs-y)
HOSTCFLAGS_cfag12864b-example.o += -I$(objtree)/usr/include

2
Documentation/auxdisplay/cfag12864b
View File

@ -101,5 +101,5 @@ Although the LCD won't get updated until the next refresh time arrives.
Also, you can mmap the framebuffer: open & mmap, munmap & close...
which is the best option for most uses.
Check Documentation/auxdisplay/cfag12864b-example.c
Check samples/auxdisplay/cfag12864b-example.c
for a real working userspace complete program with usage examples.

4
Documentation/blackfin/00-INDEX
View File

@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
00-INDEX
- This file
Makefile
- Makefile for gptimers example file.
bfin-gpio-notes.txt
- Notes in developing/using bfin-gpio driver.
bfin-spi-notes.txt
- Notes for using bfin spi bus driver.
gptimers-example.c
- gptimers example

5
Documentation/blackfin/Makefile
View File

@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
ifneq ($(CONFIG_BLACKFIN),)
ifneq ($(CONFIG_BFIN_GPTIMERS),)
obj-m := gptimers-example.o
endif
endif

4
Documentation/block/biodoc.txt
View File

@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ i. Per-queue limits/values exported to the generic layer by the driver
Various parameters that the generic i/o scheduler logic uses are set at
a per-queue level (e.g maximum request size, maximum number of segments in
a scatter-gather list, hardsect size)
a scatter-gather list, logical block size)
Some parameters that were earlier available as global arrays indexed by
major/minor are now directly associated with the queue. Some of these may
@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ Some new queue property settings:
blk_queue_max_segment_size(q, max_seg_size)
Maximum size of a clustered segment, 64kB default.
blk_queue_hardsect_size(q, hardsect_size)
blk_queue_logical_block_size(q, logical_block_size)
Lowest possible sector size that the hardware can operate
on, 512 bytes default.

267
Documentation/cec.txt
View File

@ -1,267 +0,0 @@
CEC Kernel Support
==================
The CEC framework provides a unified kernel interface for use with HDMI CEC
hardware. It is designed to handle a multiple types of hardware (receivers,
transmitters, USB dongles). The framework also gives the option to decide
what to do in the kernel driver and what should be handled by userspace
applications. In addition it integrates the remote control passthrough
feature into the kernel's remote control framework.
The CEC Protocol
----------------
The CEC protocol enables consumer electronic devices to communicate with each
other through the HDMI connection. The protocol uses logical addresses in the
communication. The logical address is strictly connected with the functionality
provided by the device. The TV acting as the communication hub is always
assigned address 0. The physical address is determined by the physical
connection between devices.
The CEC framework described here is up to date with the CEC 2.0 specification.
It is documented in the HDMI 1.4 specification with the new 2.0 bits documented
in the HDMI 2.0 specification. But for most of the features the freely available
HDMI 1.3a specification is sufficient:
http://www.microprocessor.org/HDMISpecification13a.pdf
The Kernel Interface
====================
CEC Adapter
-----------
The struct cec_adapter represents the CEC adapter hardware. It is created by
calling cec_allocate_adapter() and deleted by calling cec_delete_adapter():
struct cec_adapter *cec_allocate_adapter(const struct cec_adap_ops *ops,
void *priv, const char *name, u32 caps, u8 available_las,
struct device *parent);
void cec_delete_adapter(struct cec_adapter *adap);
To create an adapter you need to pass the following information:
ops: adapter operations which are called by the CEC framework and that you
have to implement.
priv: will be stored in adap->priv and can be used by the adapter ops.
name: the name of the CEC adapter. Note: this name will be copied.
caps: capabilities of the CEC adapter. These capabilities determine the
capabilities of the hardware and which parts are to be handled
by userspace and which parts are handled by kernelspace. The
capabilities are returned by CEC_ADAP_G_CAPS.
available_las: the number of simultaneous logical addresses that this
adapter can handle. Must be 1 <= available_las <= CEC_MAX_LOG_ADDRS.
parent: the parent device.
To register the /dev/cecX device node and the remote control device (if
CEC_CAP_RC is set) you call:
int cec_register_adapter(struct cec_adapter *adap);
To unregister the devices call:
void cec_unregister_adapter(struct cec_adapter *adap);
Note: if cec_register_adapter() fails, then call cec_delete_adapter() to
clean up. But if cec_register_adapter() succeeded, then only call
cec_unregister_adapter() to clean up, never cec_delete_adapter(). The
unregister function will delete the adapter automatically once the last user
of that /dev/cecX device has closed its file handle.
Implementing the Low-Level CEC Adapter
--------------------------------------
The following low-level adapter operations have to be implemented in
your driver:
struct cec_adap_ops {
/* Low-level callbacks */
int (*adap_enable)(struct cec_adapter *adap, bool enable);
int (*adap_monitor_all_enable)(struct cec_adapter *adap, bool enable);
int (*adap_log_addr)(struct cec_adapter *adap, u8 logical_addr);
int (*adap_transmit)(struct cec_adapter *adap, u8 attempts,
u32 signal_free_time, struct cec_msg *msg);
void (*adap_log_status)(struct cec_adapter *adap);
/* High-level callbacks */
...
};
The three low-level ops deal with various aspects of controlling the CEC adapter
hardware:
To enable/disable the hardware:
int (*adap_enable)(struct cec_adapter *adap, bool enable);
This callback enables or disables the CEC hardware. Enabling the CEC hardware
means powering it up in a state where no logical addresses are claimed. This
op assumes that the physical address (adap->phys_addr) is valid when enable is
true and will not change while the CEC adapter remains enabled. The initial
state of the CEC adapter after calling cec_allocate_adapter() is disabled.
Note that adap_enable must return 0 if enable is false.
To enable/disable the 'monitor all' mode:
int (*adap_monitor_all_enable)(struct cec_adapter *adap, bool enable);
If enabled, then the adapter should be put in a mode to also monitor messages
that not for us. Not all hardware supports this and this function is only
called if the CEC_CAP_MONITOR_ALL capability is set. This callback is optional
(some hardware may always be in 'monitor all' mode).
Note that adap_monitor_all_enable must return 0 if enable is false.
To program a new logical address:
int (*adap_log_addr)(struct cec_adapter *adap, u8 logical_addr);
If logical_addr == CEC_LOG_ADDR_INVALID then all programmed logical addresses
are to be erased. Otherwise the given logical address should be programmed.
If the maximum number of available logical addresses is exceeded, then it
should return -ENXIO. Once a logical address is programmed the CEC hardware
can receive directed messages to that address.
Note that adap_log_addr must return 0 if logical_addr is CEC_LOG_ADDR_INVALID.
To transmit a new message:
int (*adap_transmit)(struct cec_adapter *adap, u8 attempts,
u32 signal_free_time, struct cec_msg *msg);
This transmits a new message. The attempts argument is the suggested number of
attempts for the transmit.
The signal_free_time is the number of data bit periods that the adapter should
wait when the line is free before attempting to send a message. This value
depends on whether this transmit is a retry, a message from a new initiator or
a new message for the same initiator. Most hardware will handle this
automatically, but in some cases this information is needed.
The CEC_FREE_TIME_TO_USEC macro can be used to convert signal_free_time to
microseconds (one data bit period is 2.4 ms).
To log the current CEC hardware status:
void (*adap_status)(struct cec_adapter *adap, struct seq_file *file);
This optional callback can be used to show the status of the CEC hardware.
The status is available through debugfs: cat /sys/kernel/debug/cec/cecX/status
Your adapter driver will also have to react to events (typically interrupt
driven) by calling into the framework in the following situations:
When a transmit finished (successfully or otherwise):
void cec_transmit_done(struct cec_adapter *adap, u8 status, u8 arb_lost_cnt,
u8 nack_cnt, u8 low_drive_cnt, u8 error_cnt);
The status can be one of:
CEC_TX_STATUS_OK: the transmit was successful.
CEC_TX_STATUS_ARB_LOST: arbitration was lost: another CEC initiator
took control of the CEC line and you lost the arbitration.
CEC_TX_STATUS_NACK: the message was nacked (for a directed message) or
acked (for a broadcast message). A retransmission is needed.
CEC_TX_STATUS_LOW_DRIVE: low drive was detected on the CEC bus. This
indicates that a follower detected an error on the bus and requested a
retransmission.
CEC_TX_STATUS_ERROR: some unspecified error occurred: this can be one of
the previous two if the hardware cannot differentiate or something else
entirely.
CEC_TX_STATUS_MAX_RETRIES: could not transmit the message after
trying multiple times. Should only be set by the driver if it has hardware
support for retrying messages. If set, then the framework assumes that it
doesn't have to make another attempt to transmit the message since the
hardware did that already.
The *_cnt arguments are the number of error conditions that were seen.
This may be 0 if no information is available. Drivers that do not support
hardware retry can just set the counter corresponding to the transmit error
to 1, if the hardware does support retry then either set these counters to
0 if the hardware provides no feedback of which errors occurred and how many
times, or fill in the correct values as reported by the hardware.
When a CEC message was received:
void cec_received_msg(struct cec_adapter *adap, struct cec_msg *msg);
Speaks for itself.
Implementing the High-Level CEC Adapter
---------------------------------------
The low-level operations drive the hardware, the high-level operations are
CEC protocol driven. The following high-level callbacks are available:
struct cec_adap_ops {
/* Low-level callbacks */
...
/* High-level CEC message callback */
int (*received)(struct cec_adapter *adap, struct cec_msg *msg);
};
The received() callback allows the driver to optionally handle a newly
received CEC message
int (*received)(struct cec_adapter *adap, struct cec_msg *msg);
If the driver wants to process a CEC message, then it can implement this
callback. If it doesn't want to handle this message, then it should return
-ENOMSG, otherwise the CEC framework assumes it processed this message and
it will not no anything with it.
CEC framework functions
-----------------------
CEC Adapter drivers can call the following CEC framework functions:
int cec_transmit_msg(struct cec_adapter *adap, struct cec_msg *msg,
bool block);
Transmit a CEC message. If block is true, then wait until the message has been
transmitted, otherwise just queue it and return.
void cec_s_phys_addr(struct cec_adapter *adap, u16 phys_addr, bool block);
Change the physical address. This function will set adap->phys_addr and
send an event if it has changed. If cec_s_log_addrs() has been called and
the physical address has become valid, then the CEC framework will start
claiming the logical addresses. If block is true, then this function won't
return until this process has finished.
When the physical address is set to a valid value the CEC adapter will
be enabled (see the adap_enable op). When it is set to CEC_PHYS_ADDR_INVALID,
then the CEC adapter will be disabled. If you change a valid physical address
to another valid physical address, then this function will first set the
address to CEC_PHYS_ADDR_INVALID before enabling the new physical address.
int cec_s_log_addrs(struct cec_adapter *adap,
struct cec_log_addrs *log_addrs, bool block);
Claim the CEC logical addresses. Should never be called if CEC_CAP_LOG_ADDRS
is set. If block is true, then wait until the logical addresses have been
claimed, otherwise just queue it and return. To unconfigure all logical
addresses call this function with log_addrs set to NULL or with
log_addrs->num_log_addrs set to 0. The block argument is ignored when
unconfiguring. This function will just return if the physical address is
invalid. Once the physical address becomes valid, then the framework will
attempt to claim these logical addresses.

42
Documentation/clk.txt
View File

@ -31,24 +31,25 @@ serve as a convenient shorthand for the implementation of the
hardware-specific bits for the hypothetical "foo" hardware.
Tying the two halves of this interface together is struct clk_hw, which
is defined in struct clk_foo and pointed to within struct clk. This
is defined in struct clk_foo and pointed to within struct clk_core. This
allows for easy navigation between the two discrete halves of the common
clock interface.
Part 2 - common data structures and api
Below is the common struct clk definition from
include/linux/clk-private.h, modified for brevity:
Below is the common struct clk_core definition from
drivers/clk/clk.c, modified for brevity:
struct clk {
struct clk_core {
const char *name;
const struct clk_ops *ops;
struct clk_hw *hw;
char **parent_names;
struct clk **parents;
struct clk *parent;
struct hlist_head children;
struct hlist_node child_node;
struct module *owner;
struct clk_core *parent;
const char **parent_names;
struct clk_core **parents;
u8 num_parents;
u8 new_parent_index;
...
};
@ -56,16 +57,19 @@ The members above make up the core of the clk tree topology. The clk
api itself defines several driver-facing functions which operate on
struct clk. That api is documented in include/linux/clk.h.
Platforms and devices utilizing the common struct clk use the struct
clk_ops pointer in struct clk to perform the hardware-specific parts of
the operations defined in clk.h:
Platforms and devices utilizing the common struct clk_core use the struct
clk_ops pointer in struct clk_core to perform the hardware-specific parts of
the operations defined in clk-provider.h:
struct clk_ops {
int (*prepare)(struct clk_hw *hw);
void (*unprepare)(struct clk_hw *hw);
int (*is_prepared)(struct clk_hw *hw);
void (*unprepare_unused)(struct clk_hw *hw);
int (*enable)(struct clk_hw *hw);
void (*disable)(struct clk_hw *hw);
int (*is_enabled)(struct clk_hw *hw);
void (*disable_unused)(struct clk_hw *hw);
unsigned long (*recalc_rate)(struct clk_hw *hw,
unsigned long parent_rate);
long (*round_rate)(struct clk_hw *hw,
@ -84,6 +88,8 @@ the operations defined in clk.h:
u8 index);
unsigned long (*recalc_accuracy)(struct clk_hw *hw,
unsigned long parent_accuracy);
int (*get_phase)(struct clk_hw *hw);
int (*set_phase)(struct clk_hw *hw, int degrees);
void (*init)(struct clk_hw *hw);
int (*debug_init)(struct clk_hw *hw,
struct dentry *dentry);
@ -91,7 +97,7 @@ the operations defined in clk.h:
Part 3 - hardware clk implementations
The strength of the common struct clk comes from its .ops and .hw pointers
The strength of the common struct clk_core comes from its .ops and .hw pointers
which abstract the details of struct clk from the hardware-specific bits, and
vice versa. To illustrate consider the simple gateable clk implementation in
drivers/clk/clk-gate.c:
@ -107,7 +113,7 @@ struct clk_gate contains struct clk_hw hw as well as hardware-specific
knowledge about which register and bit controls this clk's gating.
Nothing about clock topology or accounting, such as enable_count or
notifier_count, is needed here. That is all handled by the common
framework code and struct clk.
framework code and struct clk_core.
Let's walk through enabling this clk from driver code:
@ -139,22 +145,18 @@ static void clk_gate_set_bit(struct clk_gate *gate)
Note that to_clk_gate is defined as:
#define to_clk_gate(_hw) container_of(_hw, struct clk_gate, clk)
#define to_clk_gate(_hw) container_of(_hw, struct clk_gate, hw)
This pattern of abstraction is used for every clock hardware
representation.
Part 4 - supporting your own clk hardware
When implementing support for a new type of clock it only necessary to
When implementing support for a new type of clock it is only necessary to
include the following header:
#include <linux/clk-provider.h>
include/linux/clk.h is included within that header and clk-private.h
must never be included from the code which implements the operations for
a clock. More on that below in Part 5.
To construct a clk hardware structure for your platform you must define
the following:

470
Documentation/coccinelle.txt
View File

@ -1,470 +0,0 @@
Copyright 2010 Nicolas Palix <npalix@diku.dk>
Copyright 2010 Julia Lawall <julia@diku.dk>
Copyright 2010 Gilles Muller <Gilles.Muller@lip6.fr>
Getting Coccinelle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The semantic patches included in the kernel use features and options
which are provided by Coccinelle version 1.0.0-rc11 and above.
Using earlier versions will fail as the option names used by
the Coccinelle files and coccicheck have been updated.
Coccinelle is available through the package manager
of many distributions, e.g. :
- Debian
- Fedora
- Ubuntu
- OpenSUSE
- Arch Linux
- NetBSD
- FreeBSD
You can get the latest version released from the Coccinelle homepage at
http://coccinelle.lip6.fr/
Information and tips about Coccinelle are also provided on the wiki
pages at http://cocci.ekstranet.diku.dk/wiki/doku.php
Once you have it, run the following command:
./configure
make
as a regular user, and install it with
sudo make install
Supplemental documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For supplemental documentation refer to the wiki:
https://bottest.wiki.kernel.org/coccicheck
The wiki documentation always refers to the linux-next version of the script.
Using Coccinelle on the Linux kernel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Coccinelle-specific target is defined in the top level
Makefile. This target is named 'coccicheck' and calls the 'coccicheck'
front-end in the 'scripts' directory.
Four basic modes are defined: patch, report, context, and org. The mode to
use is specified by setting the MODE variable with 'MODE=<mode>'.
'patch' proposes a fix, when possible.
'report' generates a list in the following format:
file:line:column-column: message
'context' highlights lines of interest and their context in a
diff-like style.Lines of interest are indicated with '-'.
'org' generates a report in the Org mode format of Emacs.
Note that not all semantic patches implement all modes. For easy use
of Coccinelle, the default mode is "report".
Two other modes provide some common combinations of these modes.
'chain' tries the previous modes in the order above until one succeeds.
'rep+ctxt' runs successively the report mode and the context mode.
It should be used with the C option (described later)
which checks the code on a file basis.
Examples:
To make a report for every semantic patch, run the following command:
make coccicheck MODE=report
To produce patches, run:
make coccicheck MODE=patch
The coccicheck target applies every semantic patch available in the
sub-directories of 'scripts/coccinelle' to the entire Linux kernel.
For each semantic patch, a commit message is proposed. It gives a
description of the problem being checked by the semantic patch, and
includes a reference to Coccinelle.
As any static code analyzer, Coccinelle produces false
positives. Thus, reports must be carefully checked, and patches
reviewed.
To enable verbose messages set the V= variable, for example:
make coccicheck MODE=report V=1
Coccinelle parallelization
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By default, coccicheck tries to run as parallel as possible. To change
the parallelism, set the J= variable. For example, to run across 4 CPUs:
make coccicheck MODE=report J=4
As of Coccinelle 1.0.2 Coccinelle uses Ocaml parmap for parallelization,
if support for this is detected you will benefit from parmap parallelization.
When parmap is enabled coccicheck will enable dynamic load balancing by using
'--chunksize 1' argument, this ensures we keep feeding threads with work
one by one, so that we avoid the situation where most work gets done by only
a few threads. With dynamic load balancing, if a thread finishes early we keep
feeding it more work.
When parmap is enabled, if an error occurs in Coccinelle, this error
value is propagated back, the return value of the 'make coccicheck'
captures this return value.
Using Coccinelle with a single semantic patch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The optional make variable COCCI can be used to check a single
semantic patch. In that case, the variable must be initialized with
the name of the semantic patch to apply.
For instance:
make coccicheck COCCI=<my_SP.cocci> MODE=patch
or
make coccicheck COCCI=<my_SP.cocci> MODE=report
Controlling Which Files are Processed by Coccinelle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By default the entire kernel source tree is checked.
To apply Coccinelle to a specific directory, M= can be used.
For example, to check drivers/net/wireless/ one may write:
make coccicheck M=drivers/net/wireless/
To apply Coccinelle on a file basis, instead of a directory basis, the
following command may be used:
make C=1 CHECK="scripts/coccicheck"
To check only newly edited code, use the value 2 for the C flag, i.e.
make C=2 CHECK="scripts/coccicheck"
In these modes, which works on a file basis, there is no information
about semantic patches displayed, and no commit message proposed.
This runs every semantic patch in scripts/coccinelle by default. The
COCCI variable may additionally be used to only apply a single
semantic patch as shown in the previous section.
The "report" mode is the default. You can select another one with the
MODE variable explained above.
Debugging Coccinelle SmPL patches
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Using coccicheck is best as it provides in the spatch command line
include options matching the options used when we compile the kernel.
You can learn what these options are by using V=1, you could then
manually run Coccinelle with debug options added.
Alternatively you can debug running Coccinelle against SmPL patches
by asking for stderr to be redirected to stderr, by default stderr
is redirected to /dev/null, if you'd like to capture stderr you
can specify the DEBUG_FILE="file.txt" option to coccicheck. For
instance:
rm -f cocci.err
make coccicheck COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/free/kfree.cocci MODE=report DEBUG_FILE=cocci.err
cat cocci.err
You can use SPFLAGS to add debugging flags, for instance you may want to
add both --profile --show-trying to SPFLAGS when debugging. For instance
you may want to use:
rm -f err.log
export COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/misc/irqf_oneshot.cocci
make coccicheck DEBUG_FILE="err.log" MODE=report SPFLAGS="--profile --show-trying" M=./drivers/mfd/arizona-irq.c
err.log will now have the profiling information, while stdout will
provide some progress information as Coccinelle moves forward with
work.
DEBUG_FILE support is only supported when using coccinelle >= 1.2.
.cocciconfig support
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coccinelle supports reading .cocciconfig for default Coccinelle options that
should be used every time spatch is spawned, the order of precedence for
variables for .cocciconfig is as follows:
o Your current user's home directory is processed first
o Your directory from which spatch is called is processed next
o The directory provided with the --dir option is processed last, if used
Since coccicheck runs through make, it naturally runs from the kernel
proper dir, as such the second rule above would be implied for picking up a
.cocciconfig when using 'make coccicheck'.
'make coccicheck' also supports using M= targets.If you do not supply
any M= target, it is assumed you want to target the entire kernel.
The kernel coccicheck script has:
if [ "$KBUILD_EXTMOD" = "" ] ; then
OPTIONS="--dir $srctree $COCCIINCLUDE"
else
OPTIONS="--dir $KBUILD_EXTMOD $COCCIINCLUDE"
fi
KBUILD_EXTMOD is set when an explicit target with M= is used. For both cases
the spatch --dir argument is used, as such third rule applies when whether M=
is used or not, and when M= is used the target directory can have its own
.cocciconfig file. When M= is not passed as an argument to coccicheck the
target directory is the same as the directory from where spatch was called.
If not using the kernel's coccicheck target, keep the above precedence
order logic of .cocciconfig reading. If using the kernel's coccicheck target,
override any of the kernel's .coccicheck's settings using SPFLAGS.
We help Coccinelle when used against Linux with a set of sensible defaults
options for Linux with our own Linux .cocciconfig. This hints to coccinelle
git can be used for 'git grep' queries over coccigrep. A timeout of 200
seconds should suffice for now.
The options picked up by coccinelle when reading a .cocciconfig do not appear
as arguments to spatch processes running on your system, to confirm what
options will be used by Coccinelle run:
spatch --print-options-only
You can override with your own preferred index option by using SPFLAGS. Take
note that when there are conflicting options Coccinelle takes precedence for
the last options passed. Using .cocciconfig is possible to use idutils, however
given the order of precedence followed by Coccinelle, since the kernel now
carries its own .cocciconfig, you will need to use SPFLAGS to use idutils if
desired. See below section "Additional flags" for more details on how to use
idutils.
Additional flags
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Additional flags can be passed to spatch through the SPFLAGS
variable. This works as Coccinelle respects the last flags
given to it when options are in conflict.
make SPFLAGS=--use-glimpse coccicheck
Coccinelle supports idutils as well but requires coccinelle >= 1.0.6.
When no ID file is specified coccinelle assumes your ID database file
is in the file .id-utils.index on the top level of the kernel, coccinelle
carries a script scripts/idutils_index.sh which creates the database with
mkid -i C --output .id-utils.index
If you have another database filename you can also just symlink with this
name.
make SPFLAGS=--use-idutils coccicheck
Alternatively you can specify the database filename explicitly, for
instance:
make SPFLAGS="--use-idutils /full-path/to/ID" coccicheck
See spatch --help to learn more about spatch options.
Note that the '--use-glimpse' and '--use-idutils' options
require external tools for indexing the code. None of them is
thus active by default. However, by indexing the code with
one of these tools, and according to the cocci file used,
spatch could proceed the entire code base more quickly.
SmPL patch specific options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SmPL patches can have their own requirements for options passed
to Coccinelle. SmPL patch specific options can be provided by
providing them at the top of the SmPL patch, for instance:
// Options: --no-includes --include-headers
SmPL patch Coccinelle requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Coccinelle features get added some more advanced SmPL patches
may require newer versions of Coccinelle. If an SmPL patch requires
at least a version of Coccinelle, this can be specified as follows,
as an example if requiring at least Coccinelle >= 1.0.5:
// Requires: 1.0.5
Proposing new semantic patches
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New semantic patches can be proposed and submitted by kernel
developers. For sake of clarity, they should be organized in the
sub-directories of 'scripts/coccinelle/'.
Detailed description of the 'report' mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'report' generates a list in the following format:
file:line:column-column: message
Example:
Running
make coccicheck MODE=report COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script.
<smpl>
@r depends on !context && !patch && (org || report)@
expression x;
position p;
@@
ERR_PTR@p(PTR_ERR(x))
@script:python depends on report@
p << r.p;
x << r.x;
@@
msg="ERR_CAST can be used with %s" % (x)
coccilib.report.print_report(p[0], msg)
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates entries on the standard output, as
illustrated below:
/home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c:188:9-16: ERR_CAST can be used with alg
/home/user/linux/crypto/authenc.c:619:9-16: ERR_CAST can be used with auth
/home/user/linux/crypto/xts.c:227:9-16: ERR_CAST can be used with alg
Detailed description of the 'patch' mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the 'patch' mode is available, it proposes a fix for each problem
identified.
Example:
Running
make coccicheck MODE=patch COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script.
<smpl>
@ depends on !context && patch && !org && !report @
expression x;
@@
- ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(x))
+ ERR_CAST(x)
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates patch hunks on the standard output, as
illustrated below:
diff -u -p a/crypto/ctr.c b/crypto/ctr.c
--- a/crypto/ctr.c 2010-05-26 10:49:38.000000000 +0200
+++ b/crypto/ctr.c 2010-06-03 23:44:49.000000000 +0200
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ static struct crypto_instance *crypto_ct
alg = crypto_attr_alg(tb[1], CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_CIPHER,
CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_MASK);
if (IS_ERR(alg))
- return ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(alg));
+ return ERR_CAST(alg);
/* Block size must be >= 4 bytes. */
err = -EINVAL;
Detailed description of the 'context' mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'context' highlights lines of interest and their context
in a diff-like style.
NOTE: The diff-like output generated is NOT an applicable patch. The
intent of the 'context' mode is to highlight the important lines
(annotated with minus, '-') and gives some surrounding context
lines around. This output can be used with the diff mode of
Emacs to review the code.
Example:
Running
make coccicheck MODE=context COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script.
<smpl>
@ depends on context && !patch && !org && !report@
expression x;
@@
* ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(x))
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates diff hunks on the standard output, as
illustrated below:
diff -u -p /home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c /tmp/nothing
--- /home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c 2010-05-26 10:49:38.000000000 +0200
+++ /tmp/nothing
@@ -185,7 +185,6 @@ static struct crypto_instance *crypto_ct
alg = crypto_attr_alg(tb[1], CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_CIPHER,
CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_MASK);
if (IS_ERR(alg))
- return ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(alg));
/* Block size must be >= 4 bytes. */
err = -EINVAL;
Detailed description of the 'org' mode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'org' generates a report in the Org mode format of Emacs.
Example:
Running
make coccicheck MODE=org COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script.
<smpl>
@r depends on !context && !patch && (org || report)@
expression x;
position p;
@@
ERR_PTR@p(PTR_ERR(x))
@script:python depends on org@
p << r.p;
x << r.x;
@@
msg="ERR_CAST can be used with %s" % (x)
msg_safe=msg.replace("[","@(").replace("]",")")
coccilib.org.print_todo(p[0], msg_safe)
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates Org entries on the standard output, as
illustrated below:
* TODO [[view:/home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c::face=ovl-face1::linb=188::colb=9::cole=16][ERR_CAST can be used with alg]]
* TODO [[view:/home/user/linux/crypto/authenc.c::face=ovl-face1::linb=619::colb=9::cole=16][ERR_CAST can be used with auth]]
* TODO [[view:/home/user/linux/crypto/xts.c::face=ovl-face1::linb=227::colb=9::cole=16][ERR_CAST can be used with alg]]

106
Documentation/conf.py
View File

@ -14,11 +14,17 @@
import sys
import os
import sphinx
# Get Sphinx version
major, minor, patch = map(int, sphinx.__version__.split("."))
# If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
# add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
# documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('sphinx'))
from load_config import loadConfig
# -- General configuration ------------------------------------------------
@ -28,14 +34,13 @@ sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('sphinx'))
# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
# ones.
extensions = ['kernel-doc', 'rstFlatTable', 'kernel_include']
extensions = ['kernel-doc', 'rstFlatTable', 'kernel_include', 'cdomain']
# Gracefully handle missing rst2pdf.
try:
import rst2pdf
extensions += ['rst2pdf.pdfbuilder']
except ImportError:
pass
# The name of the math extension changed on Sphinx 1.4
if minor > 3:
extensions.append("sphinx.ext.imgmath")
else:
extensions.append("sphinx.ext.pngmath")
# Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
templates_path = ['_templates']
@ -252,23 +257,92 @@ htmlhelp_basename = 'TheLinuxKerneldoc'
latex_elements = {
# The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
#'papersize': 'letterpaper',
'papersize': 'a4paper',
# The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
#'pointsize': '10pt',
# Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
#'preamble': '',
'pointsize': '8pt',
# Latex figure (float) alignment
#'figure_align': 'htbp',
# Don't mangle with UTF-8 chars
'inputenc': '',
'utf8extra': '',
# Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
'preamble': '''
% Adjust margins
\\usepackage[margin=0.5in, top=1in, bottom=1in]{geometry}
% Allow generate some pages in landscape
\\usepackage{lscape}
% Put notes in color and let them be inside a table
\\definecolor{NoteColor}{RGB}{204,255,255}
\\definecolor{WarningColor}{RGB}{255,204,204}
\\definecolor{AttentionColor}{RGB}{255,255,204}
\\definecolor{OtherColor}{RGB}{204,204,204}
\\newlength{\\mynoticelength}
\\makeatletter\\newenvironment{coloredbox}[1]{%
\\setlength{\\fboxrule}{1pt}
\\setlength{\\fboxsep}{7pt}
\\setlength{\\mynoticelength}{\\linewidth}
\\addtolength{\\mynoticelength}{-2\\fboxsep}
\\addtolength{\\mynoticelength}{-2\\fboxrule}
\\begin{lrbox}{\\@tempboxa}\\begin{minipage}{\\mynoticelength}}{\\end{minipage}\\end{lrbox}%
\\ifthenelse%
{\\equal{\\py@noticetype}{note}}%
{\\colorbox{NoteColor}{\\usebox{\\@tempboxa}}}%
{%
\\ifthenelse%
{\\equal{\\py@noticetype}{warning}}%
{\\colorbox{WarningColor}{\\usebox{\\@tempboxa}}}%
{%
\\ifthenelse%
{\\equal{\\py@noticetype}{attention}}%
{\\colorbox{AttentionColor}{\\usebox{\\@tempboxa}}}%
{\\colorbox{OtherColor}{\\usebox{\\@tempboxa}}}%
}%
}%
}\\makeatother
\\makeatletter
\\renewenvironment{notice}[2]{%
\\def\\py@noticetype{#1}
\\begin{coloredbox}{#1}
\\bf\\it
\\par\\strong{#2}
\\csname py@noticestart@#1\\endcsname
}
{
\\csname py@noticeend@\\py@noticetype\\endcsname
\\end{coloredbox}
}
\\makeatother
% Use some font with UTF-8 support with XeLaTeX
\\usepackage{fontspec}
\\setsansfont{DejaVu Serif}
\\setromanfont{DejaVu Sans}
\\setmonofont{DejaVu Sans Mono}
% To allow adjusting table sizes
\\usepackage{adjustbox}
'''
}
# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
# (source start file, target name, title,
# author, documentclass [howto, manual, or own class]).
latex_documents = [
(master_doc, 'TheLinuxKernel.tex', 'The Linux Kernel Documentation',
('kernel-documentation', 'kernel-documentation.tex', 'The Linux Kernel Documentation',
'The kernel development community', 'manual'),
('development-process/index', 'development-process.tex', 'Linux Kernel Development Documentation',
'The kernel development community', 'manual'),
('gpu/index', 'gpu.tex', 'Linux GPU Driver Developer\'s Guide',
'The kernel development community', 'manual'),
('media/index', 'media.tex', 'Linux Media Subsystem Documentation',
'The kernel development community', 'manual'),
]
@ -419,3 +493,9 @@ pdf_documents = [
# line arguments.
kerneldoc_bin = '../scripts/kernel-doc'
kerneldoc_srctree = '..'
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Since loadConfig overwrites settings from the global namespace, it has to be
# the last statement in the conf.py file
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
loadConfig(globals())

491
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@ -0,0 +1,491 @@
.. Copyright 2010 Nicolas Palix <npalix@diku.dk>
.. Copyright 2010 Julia Lawall <julia@diku.dk>
.. Copyright 2010 Gilles Muller <Gilles.Muller@lip6.fr>
.. highlight:: none
Coccinelle
==========
Coccinelle is a tool for pattern matching and text transformation that has
many uses in kernel development, including the application of complex,
tree-wide patches and detection of problematic programming patterns.
Getting Coccinelle
-------------------
The semantic patches included in the kernel use features and options
which are provided by Coccinelle version 1.0.0-rc11 and above.
Using earlier versions will fail as the option names used by
the Coccinelle files and coccicheck have been updated.
Coccinelle is available through the package manager
of many distributions, e.g. :
- Debian
- Fedora
- Ubuntu
- OpenSUSE
- Arch Linux
- NetBSD
- FreeBSD
You can get the latest version released from the Coccinelle homepage at
http://coccinelle.lip6.fr/
Information and tips about Coccinelle are also provided on the wiki
pages at http://cocci.ekstranet.diku.dk/wiki/doku.php
Once you have it, run the following command::
./configure
make
as a regular user, and install it with::
sudo make install
Supplemental documentation
---------------------------
For supplemental documentation refer to the wiki:
https://bottest.wiki.kernel.org/coccicheck
The wiki documentation always refers to the linux-next version of the script.
Using Coccinelle on the Linux kernel
------------------------------------
A Coccinelle-specific target is defined in the top level
Makefile. This target is named ``coccicheck`` and calls the ``coccicheck``
front-end in the ``scripts`` directory.
Four basic modes are defined: ``patch``, ``report``, ``context``, and
``org``. The mode to use is specified by setting the MODE variable with
``MODE=<mode>``.
- ``patch`` proposes a fix, when possible.
- ``report`` generates a list in the following format:
file:line:column-column: message
- ``context`` highlights lines of interest and their context in a
diff-like style.Lines of interest are indicated with ``-``.
- ``org`` generates a report in the Org mode format of Emacs.
Note that not all semantic patches implement all modes. For easy use
of Coccinelle, the default mode is "report".
Two other modes provide some common combinations of these modes.
- ``chain`` tries the previous modes in the order above until one succeeds.
- ``rep+ctxt`` runs successively the report mode and the context mode.
It should be used with the C option (described later)
which checks the code on a file basis.
Examples
~~~~~~~~
To make a report for every semantic patch, run the following command::
make coccicheck MODE=report
To produce patches, run::
make coccicheck MODE=patch
The coccicheck target applies every semantic patch available in the
sub-directories of ``scripts/coccinelle`` to the entire Linux kernel.
For each semantic patch, a commit message is proposed. It gives a
description of the problem being checked by the semantic patch, and
includes a reference to Coccinelle.
As any static code analyzer, Coccinelle produces false
positives. Thus, reports must be carefully checked, and patches
reviewed.
To enable verbose messages set the V= variable, for example::
make coccicheck MODE=report V=1
Coccinelle parallelization
---------------------------
By default, coccicheck tries to run as parallel as possible. To change
the parallelism, set the J= variable. For example, to run across 4 CPUs::
make coccicheck MODE=report J=4
As of Coccinelle 1.0.2 Coccinelle uses Ocaml parmap for parallelization,
if support for this is detected you will benefit from parmap parallelization.
When parmap is enabled coccicheck will enable dynamic load balancing by using
``--chunksize 1`` argument, this ensures we keep feeding threads with work
one by one, so that we avoid the situation where most work gets done by only
a few threads. With dynamic load balancing, if a thread finishes early we keep
feeding it more work.
When parmap is enabled, if an error occurs in Coccinelle, this error
value is propagated back, the return value of the ``make coccicheck``
captures this return value.
Using Coccinelle with a single semantic patch
---------------------------------------------
The optional make variable COCCI can be used to check a single
semantic patch. In that case, the variable must be initialized with
the name of the semantic patch to apply.
For instance::
make coccicheck COCCI=<my_SP.cocci> MODE=patch
or::
make coccicheck COCCI=<my_SP.cocci> MODE=report
Controlling Which Files are Processed by Coccinelle
---------------------------------------------------
By default the entire kernel source tree is checked.
To apply Coccinelle to a specific directory, ``M=`` can be used.
For example, to check drivers/net/wireless/ one may write::
make coccicheck M=drivers/net/wireless/
To apply Coccinelle on a file basis, instead of a directory basis, the
following command may be used::
make C=1 CHECK="scripts/coccicheck"
To check only newly edited code, use the value 2 for the C flag, i.e.::
make C=2 CHECK="scripts/coccicheck"
In these modes, which works on a file basis, there is no information
about semantic patches displayed, and no commit message proposed.
This runs every semantic patch in scripts/coccinelle by default. The
COCCI variable may additionally be used to only apply a single
semantic patch as shown in the previous section.
The "report" mode is the default. You can select another one with the
MODE variable explained above.
Debugging Coccinelle SmPL patches
---------------------------------
Using coccicheck is best as it provides in the spatch command line
include options matching the options used when we compile the kernel.
You can learn what these options are by using V=1, you could then
manually run Coccinelle with debug options added.
Alternatively you can debug running Coccinelle against SmPL patches
by asking for stderr to be redirected to stderr, by default stderr
is redirected to /dev/null, if you'd like to capture stderr you
can specify the ``DEBUG_FILE="file.txt"`` option to coccicheck. For
instance::
rm -f cocci.err
make coccicheck COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/free/kfree.cocci MODE=report DEBUG_FILE=cocci.err
cat cocci.err
You can use SPFLAGS to add debugging flags, for instance you may want to
add both --profile --show-trying to SPFLAGS when debugging. For instance
you may want to use::
rm -f err.log
export COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/misc/irqf_oneshot.cocci
make coccicheck DEBUG_FILE="err.log" MODE=report SPFLAGS="--profile --show-trying" M=./drivers/mfd/arizona-irq.c
err.log will now have the profiling information, while stdout will
provide some progress information as Coccinelle moves forward with
work.
DEBUG_FILE support is only supported when using coccinelle >= 1.2.
.cocciconfig support
--------------------
Coccinelle supports reading .cocciconfig for default Coccinelle options that
should be used every time spatch is spawned, the order of precedence for
variables for .cocciconfig is as follows:
- Your current user's home directory is processed first
- Your directory from which spatch is called is processed next
- The directory provided with the --dir option is processed last, if used
Since coccicheck runs through make, it naturally runs from the kernel
proper dir, as such the second rule above would be implied for picking up a
.cocciconfig when using ``make coccicheck``.
``make coccicheck`` also supports using M= targets.If you do not supply
any M= target, it is assumed you want to target the entire kernel.
The kernel coccicheck script has::
if [ "$KBUILD_EXTMOD" = "" ] ; then
OPTIONS="--dir $srctree $COCCIINCLUDE"
else
OPTIONS="--dir $KBUILD_EXTMOD $COCCIINCLUDE"
fi
KBUILD_EXTMOD is set when an explicit target with M= is used. For both cases
the spatch --dir argument is used, as such third rule applies when whether M=
is used or not, and when M= is used the target directory can have its own
.cocciconfig file. When M= is not passed as an argument to coccicheck the
target directory is the same as the directory from where spatch was called.
If not using the kernel's coccicheck target, keep the above precedence
order logic of .cocciconfig reading. If using the kernel's coccicheck target,
override any of the kernel's .coccicheck's settings using SPFLAGS.
We help Coccinelle when used against Linux with a set of sensible defaults
options for Linux with our own Linux .cocciconfig. This hints to coccinelle
git can be used for ``git grep`` queries over coccigrep. A timeout of 200
seconds should suffice for now.
The options picked up by coccinelle when reading a .cocciconfig do not appear
as arguments to spatch processes running on your system, to confirm what
options will be used by Coccinelle run::
spatch --print-options-only
You can override with your own preferred index option by using SPFLAGS. Take
note that when there are conflicting options Coccinelle takes precedence for
the last options passed. Using .cocciconfig is possible to use idutils, however
given the order of precedence followed by Coccinelle, since the kernel now
carries its own .cocciconfig, you will need to use SPFLAGS to use idutils if
desired. See below section "Additional flags" for more details on how to use
idutils.
Additional flags
----------------
Additional flags can be passed to spatch through the SPFLAGS
variable. This works as Coccinelle respects the last flags
given to it when options are in conflict. ::
make SPFLAGS=--use-glimpse coccicheck
Coccinelle supports idutils as well but requires coccinelle >= 1.0.6.
When no ID file is specified coccinelle assumes your ID database file
is in the file .id-utils.index on the top level of the kernel, coccinelle
carries a script scripts/idutils_index.sh which creates the database with::
mkid -i C --output .id-utils.index
If you have another database filename you can also just symlink with this
name. ::
make SPFLAGS=--use-idutils coccicheck
Alternatively you can specify the database filename explicitly, for
instance::
make SPFLAGS="--use-idutils /full-path/to/ID" coccicheck
See ``spatch --help`` to learn more about spatch options.
Note that the ``--use-glimpse`` and ``--use-idutils`` options
require external tools for indexing the code. None of them is
thus active by default. However, by indexing the code with
one of these tools, and according to the cocci file used,
spatch could proceed the entire code base more quickly.
SmPL patch specific options
---------------------------
SmPL patches can have their own requirements for options passed
to Coccinelle. SmPL patch specific options can be provided by
providing them at the top of the SmPL patch, for instance::
// Options: --no-includes --include-headers
SmPL patch Coccinelle requirements
----------------------------------
As Coccinelle features get added some more advanced SmPL patches
may require newer versions of Coccinelle. If an SmPL patch requires
at least a version of Coccinelle, this can be specified as follows,
as an example if requiring at least Coccinelle >= 1.0.5::
// Requires: 1.0.5
Proposing new semantic patches
-------------------------------
New semantic patches can be proposed and submitted by kernel
developers. For sake of clarity, they should be organized in the
sub-directories of ``scripts/coccinelle/``.
Detailed description of the ``report`` mode
-------------------------------------------
``report`` generates a list in the following format::
file:line:column-column: message
Example
~~~~~~~
Running::
make coccicheck MODE=report COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script::
<smpl>
@r depends on !context && !patch && (org || report)@
expression x;
position p;
@@
ERR_PTR@p(PTR_ERR(x))
@script:python depends on report@
p << r.p;
x << r.x;
@@
msg="ERR_CAST can be used with %s" % (x)
coccilib.report.print_report(p[0], msg)
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates entries on the standard output, as
illustrated below::
/home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c:188:9-16: ERR_CAST can be used with alg
/home/user/linux/crypto/authenc.c:619:9-16: ERR_CAST can be used with auth
/home/user/linux/crypto/xts.c:227:9-16: ERR_CAST can be used with alg
Detailed description of the ``patch`` mode
------------------------------------------
When the ``patch`` mode is available, it proposes a fix for each problem
identified.
Example
~~~~~~~
Running::
make coccicheck MODE=patch COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script::
<smpl>
@ depends on !context && patch && !org && !report @
expression x;
@@
- ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(x))
+ ERR_CAST(x)
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates patch hunks on the standard output, as
illustrated below::
diff -u -p a/crypto/ctr.c b/crypto/ctr.c
--- a/crypto/ctr.c 2010-05-26 10:49:38.000000000 +0200
+++ b/crypto/ctr.c 2010-06-03 23:44:49.000000000 +0200
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ static struct crypto_instance *crypto_ct
alg = crypto_attr_alg(tb[1], CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_CIPHER,
CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_MASK);
if (IS_ERR(alg))
- return ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(alg));
+ return ERR_CAST(alg);
/* Block size must be >= 4 bytes. */
err = -EINVAL;
Detailed description of the ``context`` mode
--------------------------------------------
``context`` highlights lines of interest and their context
in a diff-like style.
**NOTE**: The diff-like output generated is NOT an applicable patch. The
intent of the ``context`` mode is to highlight the important lines
(annotated with minus, ``-``) and gives some surrounding context
lines around. This output can be used with the diff mode of
Emacs to review the code.
Example
~~~~~~~
Running::
make coccicheck MODE=context COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script::
<smpl>
@ depends on context && !patch && !org && !report@
expression x;
@@
* ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(x))
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates diff hunks on the standard output, as
illustrated below::
diff -u -p /home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c /tmp/nothing
--- /home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c 2010-05-26 10:49:38.000000000 +0200
+++ /tmp/nothing
@@ -185,7 +185,6 @@ static struct crypto_instance *crypto_ct
alg = crypto_attr_alg(tb[1], CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_CIPHER,
CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_MASK);
if (IS_ERR(alg))
- return ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR(alg));
/* Block size must be >= 4 bytes. */
err = -EINVAL;
Detailed description of the ``org`` mode
----------------------------------------
``org`` generates a report in the Org mode format of Emacs.
Example
~~~~~~~
Running::
make coccicheck MODE=org COCCI=scripts/coccinelle/api/err_cast.cocci
will execute the following part of the SmPL script::
<smpl>
@r depends on !context && !patch && (org || report)@
expression x;
position p;
@@
ERR_PTR@p(PTR_ERR(x))
@script:python depends on org@
p << r.p;
x << r.x;
@@
msg="ERR_CAST can be used with %s" % (x)
msg_safe=msg.replace("[","@(").replace("]",")")
coccilib.org.print_todo(p[0], msg_safe)
</smpl>
This SmPL excerpt generates Org entries on the standard output, as
illustrated below::
* TODO [[view:/home/user/linux/crypto/ctr.c::face=ovl-face1::linb=188::colb=9::cole=16][ERR_CAST can be used with alg]]
* TODO [[view:/home/user/linux/crypto/authenc.c::face=ovl-face1::linb=619::colb=9::cole=16][ERR_CAST can be used with auth]]
* TODO [[view:/home/user/linux/crypto/xts.c::face=ovl-face1::linb=227::colb=9::cole=16][ERR_CAST can be used with alg]]

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Using gcov with the Linux kernel
================================
gcov profiling kernel support enables the use of GCC's coverage testing
tool gcov_ with the Linux kernel. Coverage data of a running kernel
is exported in gcov-compatible format via the "gcov" debugfs directory.
To get coverage data for a specific file, change to the kernel build
directory and use gcov with the ``-o`` option as follows (requires root)::
# cd /tmp/linux-out
# gcov -o /sys/kernel/debug/gcov/tmp/linux-out/kernel spinlock.c
This will create source code files annotated with execution counts
in the current directory. In addition, graphical gcov front-ends such
as lcov_ can be used to automate the process of collecting data
for the entire kernel and provide coverage overviews in HTML format.
Possible uses:
* debugging (has this line been reached at all?)
* test improvement (how do I change my test to cover these lines?)
* minimizing kernel configurations (do I need this option if the
associated code is never run?)
.. _gcov: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Gcov.html
.. _lcov: http://ltp.sourceforge.net/coverage/lcov.php
Preparation
-----------
Configure the kernel with::
CONFIG_DEBUG_FS=y
CONFIG_GCOV_KERNEL=y
select the gcc's gcov format, default is autodetect based on gcc version::
CONFIG_GCOV_FORMAT_AUTODETECT=y
and to get coverage data for the entire kernel::
CONFIG_GCOV_PROFILE_ALL=y
Note that kernels compiled with profiling flags will be significantly
larger and run slower. Also CONFIG_GCOV_PROFILE_ALL may not be supported
on all architectures.
Profiling data will only become accessible once debugfs has been
mounted::
mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
Customization
-------------
To enable profiling for specific files or directories, add a line
similar to the following to the respective kernel Makefile:
- For a single file (e.g. main.o)::
GCOV_PROFILE_main.o := y
- For all files in one directory::
GCOV_PROFILE := y
To exclude files from being profiled even when CONFIG_GCOV_PROFILE_ALL
is specified, use::
GCOV_PROFILE_main.o := n
and::
GCOV_PROFILE := n
Only files which are linked to the main kernel image or are compiled as
kernel modules are supported by this mechanism.
Files
-----
The gcov kernel support creates the following files in debugfs:
``/sys/kernel/debug/gcov``
Parent directory for all gcov-related files.
``/sys/kernel/debug/gcov/reset``
Global reset file: resets all coverage data to zero when
written to.
``/sys/kernel/debug/gcov/path/to/compile/dir/file.gcda``
The actual gcov data file as understood by the gcov
tool. Resets file coverage data to zero when written to.
``/sys/kernel/debug/gcov/path/to/compile/dir/file.gcno``
Symbolic link to a static data file required by the gcov
tool. This file is generated by gcc when compiling with
option ``-ftest-coverage``.
Modules
-------
Kernel modules may contain cleanup code which is only run during
module unload time. The gcov mechanism provides a means to collect
coverage data for such code by keeping a copy of the data associated
with the unloaded module. This data remains available through debugfs.
Once the module is loaded again, the associated coverage counters are
initialized with the data from its previous instantiation.
This behavior can be deactivated by specifying the gcov_persist kernel
parameter::
gcov_persist=0
At run-time, a user can also choose to discard data for an unloaded
module by writing to its data file or the global reset file.
Separated build and test machines
---------------------------------
The gcov kernel profiling infrastructure is designed to work out-of-the
box for setups where kernels are built and run on the same machine. In
cases where the kernel runs on a separate machine, special preparations
must be made, depending on where the gcov tool is used:
a) gcov is run on the TEST machine
The gcov tool version on the test machine must be compatible with the
gcc version used for kernel build. Also the following files need to be
copied from build to test machine:
from the source tree:
- all C source files + headers
from the build tree:
- all C source files + headers
- all .gcda and .gcno files
- all links to directories
It is important to note that these files need to be placed into the
exact same file system location on the test machine as on the build
machine. If any of the path components is symbolic link, the actual
directory needs to be used instead (due to make's CURDIR handling).
b) gcov is run on the BUILD machine
The following files need to be copied after each test case from test
to build machine:
from the gcov directory in sysfs:
- all .gcda files
- all links to .gcno files
These files can be copied to any location on the build machine. gcov
must then be called with the -o option pointing to that directory.
Example directory setup on the build machine::
/tmp/linux: kernel source tree
/tmp/out: kernel build directory as specified by make O=
/tmp/coverage: location of the files copied from the test machine
[user@build] cd /tmp/out
[user@build] gcov -o /tmp/coverage/tmp/out/init main.c
Troubleshooting
---------------
Problem
Compilation aborts during linker step.
Cause
Profiling flags are specified for source files which are not
linked to the main kernel or which are linked by a custom
linker procedure.
Solution
Exclude affected source files from profiling by specifying
``GCOV_PROFILE := n`` or ``GCOV_PROFILE_basename.o := n`` in the
corresponding Makefile.
Problem
Files copied from sysfs appear empty or incomplete.
Cause
Due to the way seq_file works, some tools such as cp or tar
may not correctly copy files from sysfs.
Solution
Use ``cat``' to read ``.gcda`` files and ``cp -d`` to copy links.
Alternatively use the mechanism shown in Appendix B.
Appendix A: gather_on_build.sh
------------------------------
Sample script to gather coverage meta files on the build machine
(see 6a)::
#!/bin/bash
KSRC=$1
KOBJ=$2
DEST=$3
if [ -z "$KSRC" ] || [ -z "$KOBJ" ] || [ -z "$DEST" ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 <ksrc directory> <kobj directory> <output.tar.gz>" >&2
exit 1
fi
KSRC=$(cd $KSRC; printf "all:\n\t@echo \${CURDIR}\n" | make -f -)
KOBJ=$(cd $KOBJ; printf "all:\n\t@echo \${CURDIR}\n" | make -f -)
find $KSRC $KOBJ \( -name '*.gcno' -o -name '*.[ch]' -o -type l \) -a \
-perm /u+r,g+r | tar cfz $DEST -P -T -
if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then
echo "$DEST successfully created, copy to test system and unpack with:"
echo " tar xfz $DEST -P"
else
echo "Could not create file $DEST"
fi
Appendix B: gather_on_test.sh
-----------------------------
Sample script to gather coverage data files on the test machine
(see 6b)::
#!/bin/bash -e
DEST=$1
GCDA=/sys/kernel/debug/gcov
if [ -z "$DEST" ] ; then
echo "Usage: $0 <output.tar.gz>" >&2
exit 1
fi
TEMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
echo Collecting data..
find $GCDA -type d -exec mkdir -p $TEMPDIR/\{\} \;
find $GCDA -name '*.gcda' -exec sh -c 'cat < $0 > '$TEMPDIR'/$0' {} \;
find $GCDA -name '*.gcno' -exec sh -c 'cp -d $0 '$TEMPDIR'/$0' {} \;
tar czf $DEST -C $TEMPDIR sys
rm -rf $TEMPDIR
echo "$DEST successfully created, copy to build system and unpack with:"
echo " tar xfz $DEST"

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.. highlight:: none
Debugging kernel and modules via gdb
====================================
The kernel debugger kgdb, hypervisors like QEMU or JTAG-based hardware
interfaces allow to debug the Linux kernel and its modules during runtime
using gdb. Gdb comes with a powerful scripting interface for python. The
kernel provides a collection of helper scripts that can simplify typical
kernel debugging steps. This is a short tutorial about how to enable and use
them. It focuses on QEMU/KVM virtual machines as target, but the examples can
be transferred to the other gdb stubs as well.
Requirements
------------
- gdb 7.2+ (recommended: 7.4+) with python support enabled (typically true
for distributions)
Setup
-----
- Create a virtual Linux machine for QEMU/KVM (see www.linux-kvm.org and
www.qemu.org for more details). For cross-development,
http://landley.net/aboriginal/bin keeps a pool of machine images and
toolchains that can be helpful to start from.
- Build the kernel with CONFIG_GDB_SCRIPTS enabled, but leave
CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_REDUCED off. If your architecture supports
CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER, keep it enabled.
- Install that kernel on the guest.
Alternatively, QEMU allows to boot the kernel directly using -kernel,
-append, -initrd command line switches. This is generally only useful if
you do not depend on modules. See QEMU documentation for more details on
this mode.
- Enable the gdb stub of QEMU/KVM, either
- at VM startup time by appending "-s" to the QEMU command line
or
- during runtime by issuing "gdbserver" from the QEMU monitor
console
- cd /path/to/linux-build
- Start gdb: gdb vmlinux
Note: Some distros may restrict auto-loading of gdb scripts to known safe
directories. In case gdb reports to refuse loading vmlinux-gdb.py, add::
add-auto-load-safe-path /path/to/linux-build
to ~/.gdbinit. See gdb help for more details.
- Attach to the booted guest::
(gdb) target remote :1234
Examples of using the Linux-provided gdb helpers
------------------------------------------------
- Load module (and main kernel) symbols::
(gdb) lx-symbols
loading vmlinux
scanning for modules in /home/user/linux/build
loading @0xffffffffa0020000: /home/user/linux/build/net/netfilter/xt_tcpudp.ko
loading @0xffffffffa0016000: /home/user/linux/build/net/netfilter/xt_pkttype.ko
loading @0xffffffffa0002000: /home/user/linux/build/net/netfilter/xt_limit.ko
loading @0xffffffffa00ca000: /home/user/linux/build/net/packet/af_packet.ko
loading @0xffffffffa003c000: /home/user/linux/build/fs/fuse/fuse.ko
...
loading @0xffffffffa0000000: /home/user/linux/build/drivers/ata/ata_generic.ko
- Set a breakpoint on some not yet loaded module function, e.g.::
(gdb) b btrfs_init_sysfs
Function "btrfs_init_sysfs" not defined.
Make breakpoint pending on future shared library load? (y or [n]) y
Breakpoint 1 (btrfs_init_sysfs) pending.
- Continue the target::
(gdb) c
- Load the module on the target and watch the symbols being loaded as well as
the breakpoint hit::
loading @0xffffffffa0034000: /home/user/linux/build/lib/libcrc32c.ko
loading @0xffffffffa0050000: /home/user/linux/build/lib/lzo/lzo_compress.ko
loading @0xffffffffa006e000: /home/user/linux/build/lib/zlib_deflate/zlib_deflate.ko
loading @0xffffffffa01b1000: /home/user/linux/build/fs/btrfs/btrfs.ko
Breakpoint 1, btrfs_init_sysfs () at /home/user/linux/fs/btrfs/sysfs.c:36
36 btrfs_kset = kset_create_and_add("btrfs", NULL, fs_kobj);
- Dump the log buffer of the target kernel::
(gdb) lx-dmesg
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[ 0.000000] Linux version 3.8.0-rc4-dbg+ (...
[ 0.000000] Command line: root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda1 vga=0x314
[ 0.000000] e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009fbff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000009fc00-0x000000000009ffff] reserved
....
- Examine fields of the current task struct::
(gdb) p $lx_current().pid
$1 = 4998
(gdb) p $lx_current().comm
$2 = "modprobe\000\000\000\000\000\000\000"
- Make use of the per-cpu function for the current or a specified CPU::
(gdb) p $lx_per_cpu("runqueues").nr_running
$3 = 1
(gdb) p $lx_per_cpu("runqueues", 2).nr_running
$4 = 0
- Dig into hrtimers using the container_of helper::
(gdb) set $next = $lx_per_cpu("hrtimer_bases").clock_base[0].active.next
(gdb) p *$container_of($next, "struct hrtimer", "node")
$5 = {
node = {
node = {
__rb_parent_color = 18446612133355256072,
rb_right = 0x0 <irq_stack_union>,
rb_left = 0x0 <irq_stack_union>
},
expires = {
tv64 = 1835268000000
}
},
_softexpires = {
tv64 = 1835268000000
},
function = 0xffffffff81078232 <tick_sched_timer>,
base = 0xffff88003fd0d6f0,
state = 1,
start_pid = 0,
start_site = 0xffffffff81055c1f <hrtimer_start_range_ns+20>,
start_comm = "swapper/2\000\000\000\000\000\000"
}
List of commands and functions
------------------------------
The number of commands and convenience functions may evolve over the time,
this is just a snapshot of the initial version::
(gdb) apropos lx
function lx_current -- Return current task
function lx_module -- Find module by name and return the module variable
function lx_per_cpu -- Return per-cpu variable
function lx_task_by_pid -- Find Linux task by PID and return the task_struct variable
function lx_thread_info -- Calculate Linux thread_info from task variable
lx-dmesg -- Print Linux kernel log buffer
lx-lsmod -- List currently loaded modules
lx-symbols -- (Re-)load symbols of Linux kernel and currently loaded modules
Detailed help can be obtained via "help <command-name>" for commands and "help
function <function-name>" for convenience functions.

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The Kernel Address Sanitizer (KASAN)
====================================
Overview
--------
KernelAddressSANitizer (KASAN) is a dynamic memory error detector. It provides
a fast and comprehensive solution for finding use-after-free and out-of-bounds
bugs.
KASAN uses compile-time instrumentation for checking every memory access,
therefore you will need a GCC version 4.9.2 or later. GCC 5.0 or later is
required for detection of out-of-bounds accesses to stack or global variables.
Currently KASAN is supported only for the x86_64 and arm64 architectures.
Usage
-----
To enable KASAN configure kernel with::
CONFIG_KASAN = y
and choose between CONFIG_KASAN_OUTLINE and CONFIG_KASAN_INLINE. Outline and
inline are compiler instrumentation types. The former produces smaller binary
the latter is 1.1 - 2 times faster. Inline instrumentation requires a GCC
version 5.0 or later.
KASAN works with both SLUB and SLAB memory allocators.
For better bug detection and nicer reporting, enable CONFIG_STACKTRACE.
To disable instrumentation for specific files or directories, add a line
similar to the following to the respective kernel Makefile:
- For a single file (e.g. main.o)::
KASAN_SANITIZE_main.o := n
- For all files in one directory::
KASAN_SANITIZE := n
Error reports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A typical out of bounds access report looks like this::
==================================================================
BUG: AddressSanitizer: out of bounds access in kmalloc_oob_right+0x65/0x75 [test_kasan] at addr ffff8800693bc5d3
Write of size 1 by task modprobe/1689
=============================================================================
BUG kmalloc-128 (Not tainted): kasan error
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
INFO: Allocated in kmalloc_oob_right+0x3d/0x75 [test_kasan] age=0 cpu=0 pid=1689
__slab_alloc+0x4b4/0x4f0
kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x10b/0x190
kmalloc_oob_right+0x3d/0x75 [test_kasan]
init_module+0x9/0x47 [test_kasan]
do_one_initcall+0x99/0x200
load_module+0x2cb3/0x3b20
SyS_finit_module+0x76/0x80
system_call_fastpath+0x12/0x17
INFO: Slab 0xffffea0001a4ef00 objects=17 used=7 fp=0xffff8800693bd728 flags=0x100000000004080
INFO: Object 0xffff8800693bc558 @offset=1368 fp=0xffff8800693bc720
Bytes b4 ffff8800693bc548: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a ........ZZZZZZZZ
Object ffff8800693bc558: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc568: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc578: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc588: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc598: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc5a8: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc5b8: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Object ffff8800693bc5c8: 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b a5 kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.
Redzone ffff8800693bc5d8: cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc ........
Padding ffff8800693bc718: 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a ZZZZZZZZ
CPU: 0 PID: 1689 Comm: modprobe Tainted: G B 3.18.0-rc1-mm1+ #98
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.7.5-0-ge51488c-20140602_164612-nilsson.home.kraxel.org 04/01/2014
ffff8800693bc000 0000000000000000 ffff8800693bc558 ffff88006923bb78
ffffffff81cc68ae 00000000000000f3 ffff88006d407600 ffff88006923bba8
ffffffff811fd848 ffff88006d407600 ffffea0001a4ef00 ffff8800693bc558
Call Trace:
[<ffffffff81cc68ae>] dump_stack+0x46/0x58
[<ffffffff811fd848>] print_trailer+0xf8/0x160
[<ffffffffa00026a7>] ? kmem_cache_oob+0xc3/0xc3 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffff811ff0f5>] object_err+0x35/0x40
[<ffffffffa0002065>] ? kmalloc_oob_right+0x65/0x75 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffff8120b9fa>] kasan_report_error+0x38a/0x3f0
[<ffffffff8120a79f>] ? kasan_poison_shadow+0x2f/0x40
[<ffffffff8120b344>] ? kasan_unpoison_shadow+0x14/0x40
[<ffffffff8120a79f>] ? kasan_poison_shadow+0x2f/0x40
[<ffffffffa00026a7>] ? kmem_cache_oob+0xc3/0xc3 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffff8120a995>] __asan_store1+0x75/0xb0
[<ffffffffa0002601>] ? kmem_cache_oob+0x1d/0xc3 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffffa0002065>] ? kmalloc_oob_right+0x65/0x75 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffffa0002065>] kmalloc_oob_right+0x65/0x75 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffffa00026b0>] init_module+0x9/0x47 [test_kasan]
[<ffffffff810002d9>] do_one_initcall+0x99/0x200
[<ffffffff811e4e5c>] ? __vunmap+0xec/0x160
[<ffffffff81114f63>] load_module+0x2cb3/0x3b20
[<ffffffff8110fd70>] ? m_show+0x240/0x240
[<ffffffff81115f06>] SyS_finit_module+0x76/0x80
[<ffffffff81cd3129>] system_call_fastpath+0x12/0x17
Memory state around the buggy address:
ffff8800693bc300: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
ffff8800693bc380: fc fc 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 fc
ffff8800693bc400: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
ffff8800693bc480: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
ffff8800693bc500: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc 00 00 00 00 00
>ffff8800693bc580: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 fc fc fc fc fc
^
ffff8800693bc600: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
ffff8800693bc680: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
ffff8800693bc700: fc fc fc fc fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
ffff8800693bc780: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
ffff8800693bc800: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
==================================================================
The header of the report discribe what kind of bug happened and what kind of
access caused it. It's followed by the description of the accessed slub object
(see 'SLUB Debug output' section in Documentation/vm/slub.txt for details) and
the description of the accessed memory page.
In the last section the report shows memory state around the accessed address.
Reading this part requires some understanding of how KASAN works.
The state of each 8 aligned bytes of memory is encoded in one shadow byte.
Those 8 bytes can be accessible, partially accessible, freed or be a redzone.
We use the following encoding for each shadow byte: 0 means that all 8 bytes
of the corresponding memory region are accessible; number N (1 <= N <= 7) means
that the first N bytes are accessible, and other (8 - N) bytes are not;
any negative value indicates that the entire 8-byte word is inaccessible.
We use different negative values to distinguish between different kinds of
inaccessible memory like redzones or freed memory (see mm/kasan/kasan.h).
In the report above the arrows point to the shadow byte 03, which means that
the accessed address is partially accessible.
Implementation details
----------------------
From a high level, our approach to memory error detection is similar to that
of kmemcheck: use shadow memory to record whether each byte of memory is safe
to access, and use compile-time instrumentation to check shadow memory on each
memory access.
AddressSanitizer dedicates 1/8 of kernel memory to its shadow memory
(e.g. 16TB to cover 128TB on x86_64) and uses direct mapping with a scale and
offset to translate a memory address to its corresponding shadow address.
Here is the function which translates an address to its corresponding shadow
address::
static inline void *kasan_mem_to_shadow(const void *addr)
{
return ((unsigned long)addr >> KASAN_SHADOW_SCALE_SHIFT)
+ KASAN_SHADOW_OFFSET;
}
where ``KASAN_SHADOW_SCALE_SHIFT = 3``.
Compile-time instrumentation used for checking memory accesses. Compiler inserts
function calls (__asan_load*(addr), __asan_store*(addr)) before each memory
access of size 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. These functions check whether memory access is
valid or not by checking corresponding shadow memory.
GCC 5.0 has possibility to perform inline instrumentation. Instead of making
function calls GCC directly inserts the code to check the shadow memory.
This option significantly enlarges kernel but it gives x1.1-x2 performance
boost over outline instrumented kernel.

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kcov: code coverage for fuzzing
===============================
kcov exposes kernel code coverage information in a form suitable for coverage-
guided fuzzing (randomized testing). Coverage data of a running kernel is
exported via the "kcov" debugfs file. Coverage collection is enabled on a task
basis, and thus it can capture precise coverage of a single system call.
Note that kcov does not aim to collect as much coverage as possible. It aims
to collect more or less stable coverage that is function of syscall inputs.
To achieve this goal it does not collect coverage in soft/hard interrupts
and instrumentation of some inherently non-deterministic parts of kernel is
disbled (e.g. scheduler, locking).
Usage
-----
Configure the kernel with::
CONFIG_KCOV=y
CONFIG_KCOV requires gcc built on revision 231296 or later.
Profiling data will only become accessible once debugfs has been mounted::
mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
The following program demonstrates kcov usage from within a test program::
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#define KCOV_INIT_TRACE _IOR('c', 1, unsigned long)
#define KCOV_ENABLE _IO('c', 100)
#define KCOV_DISABLE _IO('c', 101)
#define COVER_SIZE (64<<10)
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int fd;
unsigned long *cover, n, i;
/* A single fd descriptor allows coverage collection on a single
* thread.
*/
fd = open("/sys/kernel/debug/kcov", O_RDWR);
if (fd == -1)
perror("open"), exit(1);
/* Setup trace mode and trace size. */
if (ioctl(fd, KCOV_INIT_TRACE, COVER_SIZE))
perror("ioctl"), exit(1);
/* Mmap buffer shared between kernel- and user-space. */
cover = (unsigned long*)mmap(NULL, COVER_SIZE * sizeof(unsigned long),
PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if ((void*)cover == MAP_FAILED)
perror("mmap"), exit(1);
/* Enable coverage collection on the current thread. */
if (ioctl(fd, KCOV_ENABLE, 0))
perror("ioctl"), exit(1);
/* Reset coverage from the tail of the ioctl() call. */
__atomic_store_n(&cover[0], 0, __ATOMIC_RELAXED);
/* That's the target syscal call. */
read(-1, NULL, 0);
/* Read number of PCs collected. */
n = __atomic_load_n(&cover[0], __ATOMIC_RELAXED);
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
printf("0x%lx\n", cover[i + 1]);
/* Disable coverage collection for the current thread. After this call
* coverage can be enabled for a different thread.
*/
if (ioctl(fd, KCOV_DISABLE, 0))
perror("ioctl"), exit(1);
/* Free resources. */
if (munmap(cover, COVER_SIZE * sizeof(unsigned long)))
perror("munmap"), exit(1);
if (close(fd))
perror("close"), exit(1);
return 0;
}
After piping through addr2line output of the program looks as follows::
SyS_read
fs/read_write.c:562
__fdget_pos
fs/file.c:774
__fget_light
fs/file.c:746
__fget_light
fs/file.c:750
__fget_light
fs/file.c:760
__fdget_pos
fs/file.c:784
SyS_read
fs/read_write.c:562
If a program needs to collect coverage from several threads (independently),
it needs to open /sys/kernel/debug/kcov in each thread separately.
The interface is fine-grained to allow efficient forking of test processes.
That is, a parent process opens /sys/kernel/debug/kcov, enables trace mode,
mmaps coverage buffer and then forks child processes in a loop. Child processes
only need to enable coverage (disable happens automatically on thread end).

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Getting started with kmemcheck
==============================
Vegard Nossum <vegardno@ifi.uio.no>
Introduction
------------
kmemcheck is a debugging feature for the Linux Kernel. More specifically, it
is a dynamic checker that detects and warns about some uses of uninitialized
memory.
Userspace programmers might be familiar with Valgrind's memcheck. The main
difference between memcheck and kmemcheck is that memcheck works for userspace
programs only, and kmemcheck works for the kernel only. The implementations
are of course vastly different. Because of this, kmemcheck is not as accurate
as memcheck, but it turns out to be good enough in practice to discover real
programmer errors that the compiler is not able to find through static
analysis.
Enabling kmemcheck on a kernel will probably slow it down to the extent that
the machine will not be usable for normal workloads such as e.g. an
interactive desktop. kmemcheck will also cause the kernel to use about twice
as much memory as normal. For this reason, kmemcheck is strictly a debugging
feature.
Downloading
-----------
As of version 2.6.31-rc1, kmemcheck is included in the mainline kernel.
Configuring and compiling
-------------------------
kmemcheck only works for the x86 (both 32- and 64-bit) platform. A number of
configuration variables must have specific settings in order for the kmemcheck
menu to even appear in "menuconfig". These are:
- ``CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE=n``
This option is located under "General setup" / "Optimize for size".
Without this, gcc will use certain optimizations that usually lead to
false positive warnings from kmemcheck. An example of this is a 16-bit
field in a struct, where gcc may load 32 bits, then discard the upper
16 bits. kmemcheck sees only the 32-bit load, and may trigger a
warning for the upper 16 bits (if they're uninitialized).
- ``CONFIG_SLAB=y`` or ``CONFIG_SLUB=y``
This option is located under "General setup" / "Choose SLAB
allocator".
- ``CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER=n``
This option is located under "Kernel hacking" / "Tracers" / "Kernel
Function Tracer"
When function tracing is compiled in, gcc emits a call to another
function at the beginning of every function. This means that when the
page fault handler is called, the ftrace framework will be called
before kmemcheck has had a chance to handle the fault. If ftrace then
modifies memory that was tracked by kmemcheck, the result is an
endless recursive page fault.
- ``CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC=n``
This option is located under "Kernel hacking" / "Memory Debugging"
/ "Debug page memory allocations".
In addition, I highly recommend turning on ``CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=y``. This is also
located under "Kernel hacking". With this, you will be able to get line number
information from the kmemcheck warnings, which is extremely valuable in
debugging a problem. This option is not mandatory, however, because it slows
down the compilation process and produces a much bigger kernel image.
Now the kmemcheck menu should be visible (under "Kernel hacking" / "Memory
Debugging" / "kmemcheck: trap use of uninitialized memory"). Here follows
a description of the kmemcheck configuration variables:
- ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK``
This must be enabled in order to use kmemcheck at all...
- ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK_``[``DISABLED`` | ``ENABLED`` | ``ONESHOT``]``_BY_DEFAULT``
This option controls the status of kmemcheck at boot-time. "Enabled"
will enable kmemcheck right from the start, "disabled" will boot the
kernel as normal (but with the kmemcheck code compiled in, so it can
be enabled at run-time after the kernel has booted), and "one-shot" is
a special mode which will turn kmemcheck off automatically after
detecting the first use of uninitialized memory.
If you are using kmemcheck to actively debug a problem, then you
probably want to choose "enabled" here.
The one-shot mode is mostly useful in automated test setups because it
can prevent floods of warnings and increase the chances of the machine
surviving in case something is really wrong. In other cases, the one-
shot mode could actually be counter-productive because it would turn
itself off at the very first error -- in the case of a false positive
too -- and this would come in the way of debugging the specific
problem you were interested in.
If you would like to use your kernel as normal, but with a chance to
enable kmemcheck in case of some problem, it might be a good idea to
choose "disabled" here. When kmemcheck is disabled, most of the run-
time overhead is not incurred, and the kernel will be almost as fast
as normal.
- ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK_QUEUE_SIZE``
Select the maximum number of error reports to store in an internal
(fixed-size) buffer. Since errors can occur virtually anywhere and in
any context, we need a temporary storage area which is guaranteed not
to generate any other page faults when accessed. The queue will be
emptied as soon as a tasklet may be scheduled. If the queue is full,
new error reports will be lost.
The default value of 64 is probably fine. If some code produces more
than 64 errors within an irqs-off section, then the code is likely to
produce many, many more, too, and these additional reports seldom give
any more information (the first report is usually the most valuable
anyway).
This number might have to be adjusted if you are not using serial
console or similar to capture the kernel log. If you are using the
"dmesg" command to save the log, then getting a lot of kmemcheck
warnings might overflow the kernel log itself, and the earlier reports
will get lost in that way instead. Try setting this to 10 or so on
such a setup.
- ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK_SHADOW_COPY_SHIFT``
Select the number of shadow bytes to save along with each entry of the
error-report queue. These bytes indicate what parts of an allocation
are initialized, uninitialized, etc. and will be displayed when an
error is detected to help the debugging of a particular problem.
The number entered here is actually the logarithm of the number of
bytes that will be saved. So if you pick for example 5 here, kmemcheck
will save 2^5 = 32 bytes.
The default value should be fine for debugging most problems. It also
fits nicely within 80 columns.
- ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK_PARTIAL_OK``
This option (when enabled) works around certain GCC optimizations that
produce 32-bit reads from 16-bit variables where the upper 16 bits are
thrown away afterwards.
The default value (enabled) is recommended. This may of course hide
some real errors, but disabling it would probably produce a lot of
false positives.
- ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK_BITOPS_OK``
This option silences warnings that would be generated for bit-field
accesses where not all the bits are initialized at the same time. This
may also hide some real bugs.
This option is probably obsolete, or it should be replaced with
the kmemcheck-/bitfield-annotations for the code in question. The
default value is therefore fine.
Now compile the kernel as usual.
How to use
----------
Booting
~~~~~~~
First some information about the command-line options. There is only one
option specific to kmemcheck, and this is called "kmemcheck". It can be used
to override the default mode as chosen by the ``CONFIG_KMEMCHECK_*_BY_DEFAULT``
option. Its possible settings are:
- ``kmemcheck=0`` (disabled)
- ``kmemcheck=1`` (enabled)
- ``kmemcheck=2`` (one-shot mode)
If SLUB debugging has been enabled in the kernel, it may take precedence over
kmemcheck in such a way that the slab caches which are under SLUB debugging
will not be tracked by kmemcheck. In order to ensure that this doesn't happen
(even though it shouldn't by default), use SLUB's boot option ``slub_debug``,
like this: ``slub_debug=-``
In fact, this option may also be used for fine-grained control over SLUB vs.
kmemcheck. For example, if the command line includes
``kmemcheck=1 slub_debug=,dentry``, then SLUB debugging will be used only
for the "dentry" slab cache, and with kmemcheck tracking all the other
caches. This is advanced usage, however, and is not generally recommended.
Run-time enable/disable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the kernel has booted, it is possible to enable or disable kmemcheck at
run-time. WARNING: This feature is still experimental and may cause false
positive warnings to appear. Therefore, try not to use this. If you find that
it doesn't work properly (e.g. you see an unreasonable amount of warnings), I
will be happy to take bug reports.
Use the file ``/proc/sys/kernel/kmemcheck`` for this purpose, e.g.::
$ echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/kmemcheck # disables kmemcheck
The numbers are the same as for the ``kmemcheck=`` command-line option.
Debugging
~~~~~~~~~
A typical report will look something like this::
WARNING: kmemcheck: Caught 32-bit read from uninitialized memory (ffff88003e4a2024)
80000000000000000000000000000000000000000088ffff0000000000000000
i i i i u u u u i i i i i i i i u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u
^
Pid: 1856, comm: ntpdate Not tainted 2.6.29-rc5 #264 945P-A
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff8104ede8>] [<ffffffff8104ede8>] __dequeue_signal+0xc8/0x190
RSP: 0018:ffff88003cdf7d98 EFLAGS: 00210002
RAX: 0000000000000030 RBX: ffff88003d4ea968 RCX: 0000000000000009
RDX: ffff88003e5d6018 RSI: ffff88003e5d6024 RDI: ffff88003cdf7e84
RBP: ffff88003cdf7db8 R08: ffff88003e5d6000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000080 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 000000000000000e
R13: ffff88003cdf7e78 R14: ffff88003d530710 R15: ffff88003d5a98c8
FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff880001982000(0063) knlGS:00000
CS: 0010 DS: 002b ES: 002b CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: ffff88003f806ea0 CR3: 000000003c036000 CR4: 00000000000006a0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff4ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[<ffffffff8104f04e>] dequeue_signal+0x8e/0x170
[<ffffffff81050bd8>] get_signal_to_deliver+0x98/0x390
[<ffffffff8100b87d>] do_notify_resume+0xad/0x7d0
[<ffffffff8100c7b5>] int_signal+0x12/0x17
[<ffffffffffffffff>] 0xffffffffffffffff
The single most valuable information in this report is the RIP (or EIP on 32-
bit) value. This will help us pinpoint exactly which instruction that caused
the warning.
If your kernel was compiled with ``CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=y``, then all we have to do
is give this address to the addr2line program, like this::
$ addr2line -e vmlinux -i ffffffff8104ede8
arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h:12
include/asm-generic/siginfo.h:287
kernel/signal.c:380
kernel/signal.c:410
The "``-e vmlinux``" tells addr2line which file to look in. **IMPORTANT:**
This must be the vmlinux of the kernel that produced the warning in the
first place! If not, the line number information will almost certainly be
wrong.
The "``-i``" tells addr2line to also print the line numbers of inlined
functions. In this case, the flag was very important, because otherwise,
it would only have printed the first line, which is just a call to
``memcpy()``, which could be called from a thousand places in the kernel, and
is therefore not very useful. These inlined functions would not show up in
the stack trace above, simply because the kernel doesn't load the extra
debugging information. This technique can of course be used with ordinary
kernel oopses as well.
In this case, it's the caller of ``memcpy()`` that is interesting, and it can be
found in ``include/asm-generic/siginfo.h``, line 287::
281 static inline void copy_siginfo(struct siginfo *to, struct siginfo *from)
282 {
283 if (from->si_code < 0)
284 memcpy(to, from, sizeof(*to));
285 else
286 /* _sigchld is currently the largest know union member */
287 memcpy(to, from, __ARCH_SI_PREAMBLE_SIZE + sizeof(from->_sifields._sigchld));
288 }
Since this was a read (kmemcheck usually warns about reads only, though it can
warn about writes to unallocated or freed memory as well), it was probably the
"from" argument which contained some uninitialized bytes. Following the chain
of calls, we move upwards to see where "from" was allocated or initialized,
``kernel/signal.c``, line 380::
359 static void collect_signal(int sig, struct sigpending *list, siginfo_t *info)
360 {
...
367 list_for_each_entry(q, &list->list, list) {
368 if (q->info.si_signo == sig) {
369 if (first)
370 goto still_pending;
371 first = q;
...
377 if (first) {
378 still_pending:
379 list_del_init(&first->list);
380 copy_siginfo(info, &first->info);
381 __sigqueue_free(first);
...
392 }
393 }
Here, it is ``&first->info`` that is being passed on to ``copy_siginfo()``. The
variable ``first`` was found on a list -- passed in as the second argument to
``collect_signal()``. We continue our journey through the stack, to figure out
where the item on "list" was allocated or initialized. We move to line 410::
395 static int __dequeue_signal(struct sigpending *pending, sigset_t *mask,
396 siginfo_t *info)
397 {
...
410 collect_signal(sig, pending, info);
...
414 }
Now we need to follow the ``pending`` pointer, since that is being passed on to
``collect_signal()`` as ``list``. At this point, we've run out of lines from the
"addr2line" output. Not to worry, we just paste the next addresses from the
kmemcheck stack dump, i.e.::
[<ffffffff8104f04e>] dequeue_signal+0x8e/0x170
[<ffffffff81050bd8>] get_signal_to_deliver+0x98/0x390
[<ffffffff8100b87d>] do_notify_resume+0xad/0x7d0
[<ffffffff8100c7b5>] int_signal+0x12/0x17
$ addr2line -e vmlinux -i ffffffff8104f04e ffffffff81050bd8 \
ffffffff8100b87d ffffffff8100c7b5
kernel/signal.c:446
kernel/signal.c:1806
arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:805
arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:871
arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S:694
Remember that since these addresses were found on the stack and not as the
RIP value, they actually point to the _next_ instruction (they are return
addresses). This becomes obvious when we look at the code for line 446::
422 int dequeue_signal(struct task_struct *tsk, sigset_t *mask, siginfo_t *info)
423 {
...
431 signr = __dequeue_signal(&tsk->signal->shared_pending,
432 mask, info);
433 /*
434 * itimer signal ?
435 *
436 * itimers are process shared and we restart periodic
437 * itimers in the signal delivery path to prevent DoS
438 * attacks in the high resolution timer case. This is
439 * compliant with the old way of self restarting
440 * itimers, as the SIGALRM is a legacy signal and only
441 * queued once. Changing the restart behaviour to
442 * restart the timer in the signal dequeue path is
443 * reducing the timer noise on heavy loaded !highres
444 * systems too.
445 */
446 if (unlikely(signr == SIGALRM)) {
...
489 }
So instead of looking at 446, we should be looking at 431, which is the line
that executes just before 446. Here we see that what we are looking for is
``&tsk->signal->shared_pending``.
Our next task is now to figure out which function that puts items on this
``shared_pending`` list. A crude, but efficient tool, is ``git grep``::
$ git grep -n 'shared_pending' kernel/
...
kernel/signal.c:828: pending = group ? &t->signal->shared_pending : &t->pending;
kernel/signal.c:1339: pending = group ? &t->signal->shared_pending : &t->pending;
...
There were more results, but none of them were related to list operations,
and these were the only assignments. We inspect the line numbers more closely
and find that this is indeed where items are being added to the list::
816 static int send_signal(int sig, struct siginfo *info, struct task_struct *t,
817 int group)
818 {
...
828 pending = group ? &t->signal->shared_pending : &t->pending;
...
851 q = __sigqueue_alloc(t, GFP_ATOMIC, (sig < SIGRTMIN &&
852 (is_si_special(info) ||
853 info->si_code >= 0)));
854 if (q) {
855 list_add_tail(&q->list, &pending->list);
...
890 }
and::
1309 int send_sigqueue(struct sigqueue *q, struct task_struct *t, int group)
1310 {
....
1339 pending = group ? &t->signal->shared_pending : &t->pending;
1340 list_add_tail(&q->list, &pending->list);
....
1347 }
In the first case, the list element we are looking for, ``q``, is being
returned from the function ``__sigqueue_alloc()``, which looks like an
allocation function. Let's take a look at it::
187 static struct sigqueue *__sigqueue_alloc(struct task_struct *t, gfp_t flags,
188 int override_rlimit)
189 {
190 struct sigqueue *q = NULL;
191 struct user_struct *user;
192
193 /*
194 * We won't get problems with the target's UID changing under us
195 * because changing it requires RCU be used, and if t != current, the
196 * caller must be holding the RCU readlock (by way of a spinlock) and
197 * we use RCU protection here
198 */
199 user = get_uid(__task_cred(t)->user);
200 atomic_inc(&user->sigpending);
201 if (override_rlimit ||
202 atomic_read(&user->sigpending) <=
203 t->signal->rlim[RLIMIT_SIGPENDING].rlim_cur)
204 q = kmem_cache_alloc(sigqueue_cachep, flags);
205 if (unlikely(q == NULL)) {
206 atomic_dec(&user->sigpending);
207 free_uid(user);
208 } else {
209 INIT_LIST_HEAD(&q->list);
210 q->flags = 0;
211 q->user = user;
212 }
213
214 return q;
215 }
We see that this function initializes ``q->list``, ``q->flags``, and
``q->user``. It seems that now is the time to look at the definition of
``struct sigqueue``, e.g.::
14 struct sigqueue {
15 struct list_head list;
16 int flags;
17 siginfo_t info;
18 struct user_struct *user;
19 };
And, you might remember, it was a ``memcpy()`` on ``&first->info`` that
caused the warning, so this makes perfect sense. It also seems reasonable
to assume that it is the caller of ``__sigqueue_alloc()`` that has the
responsibility of filling out (initializing) this member.
But just which fields of the struct were uninitialized? Let's look at
kmemcheck's report again::
WARNING: kmemcheck: Caught 32-bit read from uninitialized memory (ffff88003e4a2024)
80000000000000000000000000000000000000000088ffff0000000000000000
i i i i u u u u i i i i i i i i u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u
^
These first two lines are the memory dump of the memory object itself, and
the shadow bytemap, respectively. The memory object itself is in this case
``&first->info``. Just beware that the start of this dump is NOT the start
of the object itself! The position of the caret (^) corresponds with the
address of the read (ffff88003e4a2024).
The shadow bytemap dump legend is as follows:
- i: initialized
- u: uninitialized
- a: unallocated (memory has been allocated by the slab layer, but has not
yet been handed off to anybody)
- f: freed (memory has been allocated by the slab layer, but has been freed
by the previous owner)
In order to figure out where (relative to the start of the object) the
uninitialized memory was located, we have to look at the disassembly. For
that, we'll need the RIP address again::
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff8104ede8>] [<ffffffff8104ede8>] __dequeue_signal+0xc8/0x190
$ objdump -d --no-show-raw-insn vmlinux | grep -C 8 ffffffff8104ede8:
ffffffff8104edc8: mov %r8,0x8(%r8)
ffffffff8104edcc: test %r10d,%r10d
ffffffff8104edcf: js ffffffff8104ee88 <__dequeue_signal+0x168>
ffffffff8104edd5: mov %rax,%rdx
ffffffff8104edd8: mov $0xc,%ecx
ffffffff8104eddd: mov %r13,%rdi
ffffffff8104ede0: mov $0x30,%eax
ffffffff8104ede5: mov %rdx,%rsi
ffffffff8104ede8: rep movsl %ds:(%rsi),%es:(%rdi)
ffffffff8104edea: test $0x2,%al
ffffffff8104edec: je ffffffff8104edf0 <__dequeue_signal+0xd0>
ffffffff8104edee: movsw %ds:(%rsi),%es:(%rdi)
ffffffff8104edf0: test $0x1,%al
ffffffff8104edf2: je ffffffff8104edf5 <__dequeue_signal+0xd5>
ffffffff8104edf4: movsb %ds:(%rsi),%es:(%rdi)
ffffffff8104edf5: mov %r8,%rdi
ffffffff8104edf8: callq ffffffff8104de60 <__sigqueue_free>
As expected, it's the "``rep movsl``" instruction from the ``memcpy()``
that causes the warning. We know about ``REP MOVSL`` that it uses the register
``RCX`` to count the number of remaining iterations. By taking a look at the
register dump again (from the kmemcheck report), we can figure out how many
bytes were left to copy::
RAX: 0000000000000030 RBX: ffff88003d4ea968 RCX: 0000000000000009
By looking at the disassembly, we also see that ``%ecx`` is being loaded
with the value ``$0xc`` just before (ffffffff8104edd8), so we are very
lucky. Keep in mind that this is the number of iterations, not bytes. And
since this is a "long" operation, we need to multiply by 4 to get the
number of bytes. So this means that the uninitialized value was encountered
at 4 * (0xc - 0x9) = 12 bytes from the start of the object.
We can now try to figure out which field of the "``struct siginfo``" that
was not initialized. This is the beginning of the struct::
40 typedef struct siginfo {
41 int si_signo;
42 int si_errno;
43 int si_code;
44
45 union {
..
92 } _sifields;
93 } siginfo_t;
On 64-bit, the int is 4 bytes long, so it must the union member that has
not been initialized. We can verify this using gdb::
$ gdb vmlinux
...
(gdb) p &((struct siginfo *) 0)->_sifields
$1 = (union {...} *) 0x10
Actually, it seems that the union member is located at offset 0x10 -- which
means that gcc has inserted 4 bytes of padding between the members ``si_code``
and ``_sifields``. We can now get a fuller picture of the memory dump::
_----------------------------=> si_code
/ _--------------------=> (padding)
| / _------------=> _sifields(._kill._pid)
| | / _----=> _sifields(._kill._uid)
| | | /
-------|-------|-------|-------|
80000000000000000000000000000000000000000088ffff0000000000000000
i i i i u u u u i i i i i i i i u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u
This allows us to realize another important fact: ``si_code`` contains the
value 0x80. Remember that x86 is little endian, so the first 4 bytes
"80000000" are really the number 0x00000080. With a bit of research, we
find that this is actually the constant ``SI_KERNEL`` defined in
``include/asm-generic/siginfo.h``::
144 #define SI_KERNEL 0x80 /* sent by the kernel from somewhere */
This macro is used in exactly one place in the x86 kernel: In ``send_signal()``
in ``kernel/signal.c``::
816 static int send_signal(int sig, struct siginfo *info, struct task_struct *t,
817 int group)
818 {
...
828 pending = group ? &t->signal->shared_pending : &t->pending;
...
851 q = __sigqueue_alloc(t, GFP_ATOMIC, (sig < SIGRTMIN &&
852 (is_si_special(info) ||
853 info->si_code >= 0)));
854 if (q) {
855 list_add_tail(&q->list, &pending->list);
856 switch ((unsigned long) info) {
...
865 case (unsigned long) SEND_SIG_PRIV:
866 q->info.si_signo = sig;
867 q->info.si_errno = 0;
868 q->info.si_code = SI_KERNEL;
869 q->info.si_pid = 0;
870 q->info.si_uid = 0;
871 break;
...
890 }
Not only does this match with the ``.si_code`` member, it also matches the place
we found earlier when looking for where siginfo_t objects are enqueued on the
``shared_pending`` list.
So to sum up: It seems that it is the padding introduced by the compiler
between two struct fields that is uninitialized, and this gets reported when
we do a ``memcpy()`` on the struct. This means that we have identified a false
positive warning.
Normally, kmemcheck will not report uninitialized accesses in ``memcpy()`` calls
when both the source and destination addresses are tracked. (Instead, we copy
the shadow bytemap as well). In this case, the destination address clearly
was not tracked. We can dig a little deeper into the stack trace from above::
arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:805
arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:871
arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S:694
And we clearly see that the destination siginfo object is located on the
stack::
782 static void do_signal(struct pt_regs *regs)
783 {
784 struct k_sigaction ka;
785 siginfo_t info;
...
804 signr = get_signal_to_deliver(&info, &ka, regs, NULL);
...
854 }
And this ``&info`` is what eventually gets passed to ``copy_siginfo()`` as the
destination argument.
Now, even though we didn't find an actual error here, the example is still a
good one, because it shows how one would go about to find out what the report
was all about.
Annotating false positives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are a few different ways to make annotations in the source code that
will keep kmemcheck from checking and reporting certain allocations. Here
they are:
- ``__GFP_NOTRACK_FALSE_POSITIVE``
This flag can be passed to ``kmalloc()`` or ``kmem_cache_alloc()``
(therefore also to other functions that end up calling one of
these) to indicate that the allocation should not be tracked
because it would lead to a false positive report. This is a "big
hammer" way of silencing kmemcheck; after all, even if the false
positive pertains to particular field in a struct, for example, we
will now lose the ability to find (real) errors in other parts of
the same struct.
Example::
/* No warnings will ever trigger on accessing any part of x */
x = kmalloc(sizeof *x, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOTRACK_FALSE_POSITIVE);
- ``kmemcheck_bitfield_begin(name)``/``kmemcheck_bitfield_end(name)`` and
``kmemcheck_annotate_bitfield(ptr, name)``
The first two of these three macros can be used inside struct
definitions to signal, respectively, the beginning and end of a
bitfield. Additionally, this will assign the bitfield a name, which
is given as an argument to the macros.
Having used these markers, one can later use
kmemcheck_annotate_bitfield() at the point of allocation, to indicate
which parts of the allocation is part of a bitfield.
Example::
struct foo {
int x;
kmemcheck_bitfield_begin(flags);
int flag_a:1;
int flag_b:1;
kmemcheck_bitfield_end(flags);
int y;
};
struct foo *x = kmalloc(sizeof *x);
/* No warnings will trigger on accessing the bitfield of x */
kmemcheck_annotate_bitfield(x, flags);
Note that ``kmemcheck_annotate_bitfield()`` can be used even before the
return value of ``kmalloc()`` is checked -- in other words, passing NULL
as the first argument is legal (and will do nothing).
Reporting errors
----------------
As we have seen, kmemcheck will produce false positive reports. Therefore, it
is not very wise to blindly post kmemcheck warnings to mailing lists and
maintainers. Instead, I encourage maintainers and developers to find errors
in their own code. If you get a warning, you can try to work around it, try
to figure out if it's a real error or not, or simply ignore it. Most
developers know their own code and will quickly and efficiently determine the
root cause of a kmemcheck report. This is therefore also the most efficient
way to work with kmemcheck.
That said, we (the kmemcheck maintainers) will always be on the lookout for
false positives that we can annotate and silence. So whatever you find,
please drop us a note privately! Kernel configs and steps to reproduce (if
available) are of course a great help too.
Happy hacking!
Technical description
---------------------
kmemcheck works by marking memory pages non-present. This means that whenever
somebody attempts to access the page, a page fault is generated. The page
fault handler notices that the page was in fact only hidden, and so it calls
on the kmemcheck code to make further investigations.
When the investigations are completed, kmemcheck "shows" the page by marking
it present (as it would be under normal circumstances). This way, the
interrupted code can continue as usual.
But after the instruction has been executed, we should hide the page again, so
that we can catch the next access too! Now kmemcheck makes use of a debugging
feature of the processor, namely single-stepping. When the processor has
finished the one instruction that generated the memory access, a debug
exception is raised. From here, we simply hide the page again and continue
execution, this time with the single-stepping feature turned off.
kmemcheck requires some assistance from the memory allocator in order to work.
The memory allocator needs to
1. Tell kmemcheck about newly allocated pages and pages that are about to
be freed. This allows kmemcheck to set up and tear down the shadow memory
for the pages in question. The shadow memory stores the status of each
byte in the allocation proper, e.g. whether it is initialized or
uninitialized.
2. Tell kmemcheck which parts of memory should be marked uninitialized.
There are actually a few more states, such as "not yet allocated" and
"recently freed".
If a slab cache is set up using the SLAB_NOTRACK flag, it will never return
memory that can take page faults because of kmemcheck.
If a slab cache is NOT set up using the SLAB_NOTRACK flag, callers can still
request memory with the __GFP_NOTRACK or __GFP_NOTRACK_FALSE_POSITIVE flags.
This does not prevent the page faults from occurring, however, but marks the
object in question as being initialized so that no warnings will ever be
produced for this object.
Currently, the SLAB and SLUB allocators are supported by kmemcheck.

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Kernel Memory Leak Detector
===========================
Kmemleak provides a way of detecting possible kernel memory leaks in a
way similar to a tracing garbage collector
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_%28computer_science%29#Tracing_garbage_collectors),
with the difference that the orphan objects are not freed but only
reported via /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak. A similar method is used by the
Valgrind tool (``memcheck --leak-check``) to detect the memory leaks in
user-space applications.
Kmemleak is supported on x86, arm, powerpc, sparc, sh, microblaze, ppc, mips, s390, metag and tile.
Usage
-----
CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK in "Kernel hacking" has to be enabled. A kernel
thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints the
number of new unreferenced objects found. To display the details of all
the possible memory leaks::
# mount -t debugfs nodev /sys/kernel/debug/
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
To trigger an intermediate memory scan::
# echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
To clear the list of all current possible memory leaks::
# echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
New leaks will then come up upon reading ``/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak``
again.
Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated
and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent
objects to be reported as orphan.
Memory scanning parameters can be modified at run-time by writing to the
``/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak`` file. The following parameters are supported:
- off
disable kmemleak (irreversible)
- stack=on
enable the task stacks scanning (default)
- stack=off
disable the tasks stacks scanning
- scan=on
start the automatic memory scanning thread (default)
- scan=off
stop the automatic memory scanning thread
- scan=<secs>
set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds
(default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning)
- scan
trigger a memory scan
- clear
clear list of current memory leak suspects, done by
marking all current reported unreferenced objects grey,
or free all kmemleak objects if kmemleak has been disabled.
- dump=<addr>
dump information about the object found at <addr>
Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing ``kmemleak=off`` on
the kernel command line.
Memory may be allocated or freed before kmemleak is initialised and
these actions are stored in an early log buffer. The size of this buffer
is configured via the CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_EARLY_LOG_SIZE option.
If CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_DEFAULT_OFF are enabled, the kmemleak is
disabled by default. Passing ``kmemleak=on`` on the kernel command
line enables the function.
Basic Algorithm
---------------
The memory allocations via :c:func:`kmalloc`, :c:func:`vmalloc`,
:c:func:`kmem_cache_alloc` and
friends are traced and the pointers, together with additional
information like size and stack trace, are stored in a rbtree.
The corresponding freeing function calls are tracked and the pointers
removed from the kmemleak data structures.
An allocated block of memory is considered orphan if no pointer to its
start address or to any location inside the block can be found by
scanning the memory (including saved registers). This means that there
might be no way for the kernel to pass the address of the allocated
block to a freeing function and therefore the block is considered a
memory leak.
The scanning algorithm steps:
1. mark all objects as white (remaining white objects will later be
considered orphan)
2. scan the memory starting with the data section and stacks, checking
the values against the addresses stored in the rbtree. If
a pointer to a white object is found, the object is added to the
gray list
3. scan the gray objects for matching addresses (some white objects
can become gray and added at the end of the gray list) until the
gray set is finished
4. the remaining white objects are considered orphan and reported via
/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
Some allocated memory blocks have pointers stored in the kernel's
internal data structures and they cannot be detected as orphans. To
avoid this, kmemleak can also store the number of values pointing to an
address inside the block address range that need to be found so that the
block is not considered a leak. One example is __vmalloc().
Testing specific sections with kmemleak
---------------------------------------
Upon initial bootup your /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak output page may be
quite extensive. This can also be the case if you have very buggy code
when doing development. To work around these situations you can use the
'clear' command to clear all reported unreferenced objects from the
/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak output. By issuing a 'scan' after a 'clear'
you can find new unreferenced objects; this should help with testing
specific sections of code.
To test a critical section on demand with a clean kmemleak do::
# echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
... test your kernel or modules ...
# echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
Then as usual to get your report with::
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
Freeing kmemleak internal objects
---------------------------------
To allow access to previously found memory leaks after kmemleak has been
disabled by the user or due to an fatal error, internal kmemleak objects
won't be freed when kmemleak is disabled, and those objects may occupy
a large part of physical memory.
In this situation, you may reclaim memory with::
# echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
Kmemleak API
------------
See the include/linux/kmemleak.h header for the functions prototype.
- ``kmemleak_init`` - initialize kmemleak
- ``kmemleak_alloc`` - notify of a memory block allocation
- ``kmemleak_alloc_percpu`` - notify of a percpu memory block allocation
- ``kmemleak_free`` - notify of a memory block freeing
- ``kmemleak_free_part`` - notify of a partial memory block freeing
- ``kmemleak_free_percpu`` - notify of a percpu memory block freeing
- ``kmemleak_update_trace`` - update object allocation stack trace
- ``kmemleak_not_leak`` - mark an object as not a leak
- ``kmemleak_ignore`` - do not scan or report an object as leak
- ``kmemleak_scan_area`` - add scan areas inside a memory block
- ``kmemleak_no_scan`` - do not scan a memory block
- ``kmemleak_erase`` - erase an old value in a pointer variable
- ``kmemleak_alloc_recursive`` - as kmemleak_alloc but checks the recursiveness
- ``kmemleak_free_recursive`` - as kmemleak_free but checks the recursiveness
The following functions take a physical address as the object pointer
and only perform the corresponding action if the address has a lowmem
mapping:
- ``kmemleak_alloc_phys``
- ``kmemleak_free_part_phys``
- ``kmemleak_not_leak_phys``
- ``kmemleak_ignore_phys``
Dealing with false positives/negatives
--------------------------------------
The false negatives are real memory leaks (orphan objects) but not
reported by kmemleak because values found during the memory scanning
point to such objects. To reduce the number of false negatives, kmemleak
provides the kmemleak_ignore, kmemleak_scan_area, kmemleak_no_scan and
kmemleak_erase functions (see above). The task stacks also increase the
amount of false negatives and their scanning is not enabled by default.
The false positives are objects wrongly reported as being memory leaks
(orphan). For objects known not to be leaks, kmemleak provides the
kmemleak_not_leak function. The kmemleak_ignore could also be used if
the memory block is known not to contain other pointers and it will no
longer be scanned.
Some of the reported leaks are only transient, especially on SMP
systems, because of pointers temporarily stored in CPU registers or
stacks. Kmemleak defines MSECS_MIN_AGE (defaulting to 1000) representing
the minimum age of an object to be reported as a memory leak.
Limitations and Drawbacks
-------------------------
The main drawback is the reduced performance of memory allocation and
freeing. To avoid other penalties, the memory scanning is only performed
when the /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak file is read. Anyway, this tool is
intended for debugging purposes where the performance might not be the
most important requirement.
To keep the algorithm simple, kmemleak scans for values pointing to any
address inside a block's address range. This may lead to an increased
number of false negatives. However, it is likely that a real memory leak
will eventually become visible.
Another source of false negatives is the data stored in non-pointer
values. In a future version, kmemleak could only scan the pointer
members in the allocated structures. This feature would solve many of
the false negative cases described above.
The tool can report false positives. These are cases where an allocated
block doesn't need to be freed (some cases in the init_call functions),
the pointer is calculated by other methods than the usual container_of
macro or the pointer is stored in a location not scanned by kmemleak.
Page allocations and ioremap are not tracked.

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.. Copyright 2004 Linus Torvalds
.. Copyright 2004 Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
.. Copyright 2006 Bob Copeland <me@bobcopeland.com>
Sparse
======
Sparse is a semantic checker for C programs; it can be used to find a
number of potential problems with kernel code. See
https://lwn.net/Articles/689907/ for an overview of sparse; this document
contains some kernel-specific sparse information.
Using sparse for typechecking
-----------------------------
"__bitwise" is a type attribute, so you have to do something like this::
typedef int __bitwise pm_request_t;
enum pm_request {
PM_SUSPEND = (__force pm_request_t) 1,
PM_RESUME = (__force pm_request_t) 2
};
which makes PM_SUSPEND and PM_RESUME "bitwise" integers (the "__force" is
there because sparse will complain about casting to/from a bitwise type,
but in this case we really _do_ want to force the conversion). And because
the enum values are all the same type, now "enum pm_request" will be that
type too.
And with gcc, all the "__bitwise"/"__force stuff" goes away, and it all
ends up looking just like integers to gcc.
Quite frankly, you don't need the enum there. The above all really just
boils down to one special "int __bitwise" type.
So the simpler way is to just do::
typedef int __bitwise pm_request_t;
#define PM_SUSPEND ((__force pm_request_t) 1)
#define PM_RESUME ((__force pm_request_t) 2)
and you now have all the infrastructure needed for strict typechecking.
One small note: the constant integer "0" is special. You can use a
constant zero as a bitwise integer type without sparse ever complaining.
This is because "bitwise" (as the name implies) was designed for making
sure that bitwise types don't get mixed up (little-endian vs big-endian
vs cpu-endian vs whatever), and there the constant "0" really _is_
special.
__bitwise__ - to be used for relatively compact stuff (gfp_t, etc.) that
is mostly warning-free and is supposed to stay that way. Warnings will
be generated without __CHECK_ENDIAN__.
__bitwise - noisy stuff; in particular, __le*/__be* are that. We really
don't want to drown in noise unless we'd explicitly asked for it.
Using sparse for lock checking
------------------------------
The following macros are undefined for gcc and defined during a sparse
run to use the "context" tracking feature of sparse, applied to
locking. These annotations tell sparse when a lock is held, with
regard to the annotated function's entry and exit.
__must_hold - The specified lock is held on function entry and exit.
__acquires - The specified lock is held on function exit, but not entry.
__releases - The specified lock is held on function entry, but not exit.
If the function enters and exits without the lock held, acquiring and
releasing the lock inside the function in a balanced way, no
annotation is needed. The tree annotations above are for cases where
sparse would otherwise report a context imbalance.
Getting sparse
--------------
You can get latest released versions from the Sparse homepage at
https://sparse.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
Alternatively, you can get snapshots of the latest development version
of sparse using git to clone::
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/devel/sparse/sparse.git
DaveJ has hourly generated tarballs of the git tree available at::
http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/sparse/
Once you have it, just do::
make
make install
as a regular user, and it will install sparse in your ~/bin directory.
Using sparse
------------
Do a kernel make with "make C=1" to run sparse on all the C files that get
recompiled, or use "make C=2" to run sparse on the files whether they need to
be recompiled or not. The latter is a fast way to check the whole tree if you
have already built it.
The optional make variable CF can be used to pass arguments to sparse. The
build system passes -Wbitwise to sparse automatically. To perform endianness
checks, you may define __CHECK_ENDIAN__::
make C=2 CF="-D__CHECK_ENDIAN__"
These checks are disabled by default as they generate a host of warnings.

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================================
Development tools for the kernel
================================
This document is a collection of documents about development tools that can
be used to work on the kernel. For now, the documents have been pulled
together without any significant effot to integrate them into a coherent
whole; patches welcome!
.. class:: toc-title
Table of contents
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
coccinelle
sparse
kcov
gcov
kasan
ubsan
kmemleak
kmemcheck
gdb-kernel-debugging

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The Undefined Behavior Sanitizer - UBSAN
========================================
UBSAN is a runtime undefined behaviour checker.
UBSAN uses compile-time instrumentation to catch undefined behavior (UB).
Compiler inserts code that perform certain kinds of checks before operations
that may cause UB. If check fails (i.e. UB detected) __ubsan_handle_*
function called to print error message.
GCC has that feature since 4.9.x [1_] (see ``-fsanitize=undefined`` option and
its suboptions). GCC 5.x has more checkers implemented [2_].
Report example
--------------
::
================================================================================
UBSAN: Undefined behaviour in ../include/linux/bitops.h:110:33
shift exponent 32 is to large for 32-bit type 'unsigned int'
CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 4.4.0-rc1+ #26
0000000000000000 ffffffff82403cc8 ffffffff815e6cd6 0000000000000001
ffffffff82403cf8 ffffffff82403ce0 ffffffff8163a5ed 0000000000000020
ffffffff82403d78 ffffffff8163ac2b ffffffff815f0001 0000000000000002
Call Trace:
[<ffffffff815e6cd6>] dump_stack+0x45/0x5f
[<ffffffff8163a5ed>] ubsan_epilogue+0xd/0x40
[<ffffffff8163ac2b>] __ubsan_handle_shift_out_of_bounds+0xeb/0x130
[<ffffffff815f0001>] ? radix_tree_gang_lookup_slot+0x51/0x150
[<ffffffff8173c586>] _mix_pool_bytes+0x1e6/0x480
[<ffffffff83105653>] ? dmi_walk_early+0x48/0x5c
[<ffffffff8173c881>] add_device_randomness+0x61/0x130
[<ffffffff83105b35>] ? dmi_save_one_device+0xaa/0xaa
[<ffffffff83105653>] dmi_walk_early+0x48/0x5c
[<ffffffff831066ae>] dmi_scan_machine+0x278/0x4b4
[<ffffffff8111d58a>] ? vprintk_default+0x1a/0x20
[<ffffffff830ad120>] ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
[<ffffffff830b2240>] setup_arch+0x405/0xc2c
[<ffffffff830ad120>] ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
[<ffffffff830ae053>] start_kernel+0x83/0x49a
[<ffffffff830ad120>] ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
[<ffffffff830ad386>] x86_64_start_reservations+0x2a/0x2c
[<ffffffff830ad4f3>] x86_64_start_kernel+0x16b/0x17a
================================================================================
Usage
-----
To enable UBSAN configure kernel with::
CONFIG_UBSAN=y
and to check the entire kernel::
CONFIG_UBSAN_SANITIZE_ALL=y
To enable instrumentation for specific files or directories, add a line
similar to the following to the respective kernel Makefile:
- For a single file (e.g. main.o)::
UBSAN_SANITIZE_main.o := y
- For all files in one directory::
UBSAN_SANITIZE := y
To exclude files from being instrumented even if
``CONFIG_UBSAN_SANITIZE_ALL=y``, use::
UBSAN_SANITIZE_main.o := n
and::
UBSAN_SANITIZE := n
Detection of unaligned accesses controlled through the separate option -
CONFIG_UBSAN_ALIGNMENT. It's off by default on architectures that support
unaligned accesses (CONFIG_HAVE_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS=y). One could
still enable it in config, just note that it will produce a lot of UBSAN
reports.
References
----------
.. _1: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.9.0/gcc/Debugging-Options.html
.. _2: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Debugging-Options.html

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1: A GUIDE TO THE KERNEL DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The purpose of this document is to help developers (and their managers)
work with the development community with a minimum of frustration. It is
an attempt to document how this community works in a way which is
accessible to those who are not intimately familiar with Linux kernel
development (or, indeed, free software development in general). While
there is some technical material here, this is very much a process-oriented
discussion which does not require a deep knowledge of kernel programming to
understand.
1.1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The rest of this section covers the scope of the kernel development process
and the kinds of frustrations that developers and their employers can
encounter there. There are a great many reasons why kernel code should be
merged into the official ("mainline") kernel, including automatic
availability to users, community support in many forms, and the ability to
influence the direction of kernel development. Code contributed to the
Linux kernel must be made available under a GPL-compatible license.
Section 2 introduces the development process, the kernel release cycle, and
the mechanics of the merge window. The various phases in the patch
development, review, and merging cycle are covered. There is some
discussion of tools and mailing lists. Developers wanting to get started
with kernel development are encouraged to track down and fix bugs as an
initial exercise.
Section 3 covers early-stage project planning, with an emphasis on
involving the development community as soon as possible.
Section 4 is about the coding process; several pitfalls which have been
encountered by other developers are discussed. Some requirements for
patches are covered, and there is an introduction to some of the tools
which can help to ensure that kernel patches are correct.
Section 5 talks about the process of posting patches for review. To be
taken seriously by the development community, patches must be properly
formatted and described, and they must be sent to the right place.
Following the advice in this section should help to ensure the best
possible reception for your work.
Section 6 covers what happens after posting patches; the job is far from
done at that point. Working with reviewers is a crucial part of the
development process; this section offers a number of tips on how to avoid
problems at this important stage. Developers are cautioned against
assuming that the job is done when a patch is merged into the mainline.
Section 7 introduces a couple of "advanced" topics: managing patches with
git and reviewing patches posted by others.
Section 8 concludes the document with pointers to sources for more
information on kernel development.
1.2: WHAT THIS DOCUMENT IS ABOUT
The Linux kernel, at over 8 million lines of code and well over 1000
contributors to each release, is one of the largest and most active free
software projects in existence. Since its humble beginning in 1991, this
kernel has evolved into a best-of-breed operating system component which
runs on pocket-sized digital music players, desktop PCs, the largest
supercomputers in existence, and all types of systems in between. It is a
robust, efficient, and scalable solution for almost any situation.
With the growth of Linux has come an increase in the number of developers
(and companies) wishing to participate in its development. Hardware
vendors want to ensure that Linux supports their products well, making
those products attractive to Linux users. Embedded systems vendors, who
use Linux as a component in an integrated product, want Linux to be as
capable and well-suited to the task at hand as possible. Distributors and
other software vendors who base their products on Linux have a clear
interest in the capabilities, performance, and reliability of the Linux
kernel. And end users, too, will often wish to change Linux to make it
better suit their needs.
One of the most compelling features of Linux is that it is accessible to
these developers; anybody with the requisite skills can improve Linux and
influence the direction of its development. Proprietary products cannot
offer this kind of openness, which is a characteristic of the free software
process. But, if anything, the kernel is even more open than most other
free software projects. A typical three-month kernel development cycle can
involve over 1000 developers working for more than 100 different companies
(or for no company at all).
Working with the kernel development community is not especially hard. But,
that notwithstanding, many potential contributors have experienced
difficulties when trying to do kernel work. The kernel community has
evolved its own distinct ways of operating which allow it to function
smoothly (and produce a high-quality product) in an environment where
thousands of lines of code are being changed every day. So it is not
surprising that Linux kernel development process differs greatly from
proprietary development methods.
The kernel's development process may come across as strange and
intimidating to new developers, but there are good reasons and solid
experience behind it. A developer who does not understand the kernel
community's ways (or, worse, who tries to flout or circumvent them) will
have a frustrating experience in store. The development community, while
being helpful to those who are trying to learn, has little time for those
who will not listen or who do not care about the development process.
It is hoped that those who read this document will be able to avoid that
frustrating experience. There is a lot of material here, but the effort
involved in reading it will be repaid in short order. The development
community is always in need of developers who will help to make the kernel
better; the following text should help you - or those who work for you -
join our community.
1.3: CREDITS
This document was written by Jonathan Corbet, corbet@lwn.net. It has been
improved by comments from Johannes Berg, James Berry, Alex Chiang, Roland
Dreier, Randy Dunlap, Jake Edge, Jiri Kosina, Matt Mackall, Arthur Marsh,
Amanda McPherson, Andrew Morton, Andrew Price, Tsugikazu Shibata, and
Jochen Voß.
This work was supported by the Linux Foundation; thanks especially to
Amanda McPherson, who saw the value of this effort and made it all happen.
1.4: THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING CODE INTO THE MAINLINE
Some companies and developers occasionally wonder why they should bother
learning how to work with the kernel community and get their code into the
mainline kernel (the "mainline" being the kernel maintained by Linus
Torvalds and used as a base by Linux distributors). In the short term,
contributing code can look like an avoidable expense; it seems easier to
just keep the code separate and support users directly. The truth of the
matter is that keeping code separate ("out of tree") is a false economy.
As a way of illustrating the costs of out-of-tree code, here are a few
relevant aspects of the kernel development process; most of these will be
discussed in greater detail later in this document. Consider:
- Code which has been merged into the mainline kernel is available to all
Linux users. It will automatically be present on all distributions which
enable it. There is no need for driver disks, downloads, or the hassles
of supporting multiple versions of multiple distributions; it all just
works, for the developer and for the user. Incorporation into the
mainline solves a large number of distribution and support problems.
- While kernel developers strive to maintain a stable interface to user
space, the internal kernel API is in constant flux. The lack of a stable
internal interface is a deliberate design decision; it allows fundamental
improvements to be made at any time and results in higher-quality code.
But one result of that policy is that any out-of-tree code requires
constant upkeep if it is to work with new kernels. Maintaining
out-of-tree code requires significant amounts of work just to keep that
code working.
Code which is in the mainline, instead, does not require this work as the
result of a simple rule requiring any developer who makes an API change
to also fix any code that breaks as the result of that change. So code
which has been merged into the mainline has significantly lower
maintenance costs.
- Beyond that, code which is in the kernel will often be improved by other
developers. Surprising results can come from empowering your user
community and customers to improve your product.
- Kernel code is subjected to review, both before and after merging into
the mainline. No matter how strong the original developer's skills are,
this review process invariably finds ways in which the code can be
improved. Often review finds severe bugs and security problems. This is
especially true for code which has been developed in a closed
environment; such code benefits strongly from review by outside
developers. Out-of-tree code is lower-quality code.
- Participation in the development process is your way to influence the
direction of kernel development. Users who complain from the sidelines
are heard, but active developers have a stronger voice - and the ability
to implement changes which make the kernel work better for their needs.
- When code is maintained separately, the possibility that a third party
will contribute a different implementation of a similar feature always
exists. Should that happen, getting your code merged will become much
harder - to the point of impossibility. Then you will be faced with the
unpleasant alternatives of either (1) maintaining a nonstandard feature
out of tree indefinitely, or (2) abandoning your code and migrating your
users over to the in-tree version.
- Contribution of code is the fundamental action which makes the whole
process work. By contributing your code you can add new functionality to
the kernel and provide capabilities and examples which are of use to
other kernel developers. If you have developed code for Linux (or are
thinking about doing so), you clearly have an interest in the continued
success of this platform; contributing code is one of the best ways to
help ensure that success.
All of the reasoning above applies to any out-of-tree kernel code,
including code which is distributed in proprietary, binary-only form.
There are, however, additional factors which should be taken into account
before considering any sort of binary-only kernel code distribution. These
include:
- The legal issues around the distribution of proprietary kernel modules
are cloudy at best; quite a few kernel copyright holders believe that
most binary-only modules are derived products of the kernel and that, as
a result, their distribution is a violation of the GNU General Public
license (about which more will be said below). Your author is not a
lawyer, and nothing in this document can possibly be considered to be
legal advice. The true legal status of closed-source modules can only be
determined by the courts. But the uncertainty which haunts those modules
is there regardless.
- Binary modules greatly increase the difficulty of debugging kernel
problems, to the point that most kernel developers will not even try. So
the distribution of binary-only modules will make it harder for your
users to get support from the community.
- Support is also harder for distributors of binary-only modules, who must
provide a version of the module for every distribution and every kernel
version they wish to support. Dozens of builds of a single module can
be required to provide reasonably comprehensive coverage, and your users
will have to upgrade your module separately every time they upgrade their
kernel.
- Everything that was said above about code review applies doubly to
closed-source code. Since this code is not available at all, it cannot
have been reviewed by the community and will, beyond doubt, have serious
problems.
Makers of embedded systems, in particular, may be tempted to disregard much
of what has been said in this section in the belief that they are shipping
a self-contained product which uses a frozen kernel version and requires no
more development after its release. This argument misses the value of
widespread code review and the value of allowing your users to add
capabilities to your product. But these products, too, have a limited
commercial life, after which a new version must be released. At that
point, vendors whose code is in the mainline and well maintained will be
much better positioned to get the new product ready for market quickly.
1.5: LICENSING
Code is contributed to the Linux kernel under a number of licenses, but all
code must be compatible with version 2 of the GNU General Public License
(GPLv2), which is the license covering the kernel distribution as a whole.
In practice, that means that all code contributions are covered either by
GPLv2 (with, optionally, language allowing distribution under later
versions of the GPL) or the three-clause BSD license. Any contributions
which are not covered by a compatible license will not be accepted into the
kernel.
Copyright assignments are not required (or requested) for code contributed
to the kernel. All code merged into the mainline kernel retains its
original ownership; as a result, the kernel now has thousands of owners.
One implication of this ownership structure is that any attempt to change
the licensing of the kernel is doomed to almost certain failure. There are
few practical scenarios where the agreement of all copyright holders could
be obtained (or their code removed from the kernel). So, in particular,
there is no prospect of a migration to version 3 of the GPL in the
foreseeable future.
It is imperative that all code contributed to the kernel be legitimately
free software. For that reason, code from anonymous (or pseudonymous)
contributors will not be accepted. All contributors are required to "sign
off" on their code, stating that the code can be distributed with the
kernel under the GPL. Code which has not been licensed as free software by
its owner, or which risks creating copyright-related problems for the
kernel (such as code which derives from reverse-engineering efforts lacking
proper safeguards) cannot be contributed.
Questions about copyright-related issues are common on Linux development
mailing lists. Such questions will normally receive no shortage of
answers, but one should bear in mind that the people answering those
questions are not lawyers and cannot provide legal advice. If you have
legal questions relating to Linux source code, there is no substitute for
talking with a lawyer who understands this field. Relying on answers
obtained on technical mailing lists is a risky affair.

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Introdution
===========
Executive summary
-----------------
The rest of this section covers the scope of the kernel development process
and the kinds of frustrations that developers and their employers can
encounter there. There are a great many reasons why kernel code should be
merged into the official ("mainline") kernel, including automatic
availability to users, community support in many forms, and the ability to
influence the direction of kernel development. Code contributed to the
Linux kernel must be made available under a GPL-compatible license.
:ref:`development_process` introduces the development process, the kernel
release cycle, and the mechanics of the merge window. The various phases in
the patch development, review, and merging cycle are covered. There is some
discussion of tools and mailing lists. Developers wanting to get started
with kernel development are encouraged to track down and fix bugs as an
initial exercise.
:ref:`development_early_stage` covers early-stage project planning, with an
emphasis on involving the development community as soon as possible.
:ref:`development_coding` is about the coding process; several pitfalls which
have been encountered by other developers are discussed. Some requirements for
patches are covered, and there is an introduction to some of the tools
which can help to ensure that kernel patches are correct.
:ref:`development_posting` talks about the process of posting patches for
review. To be taken seriously by the development community, patches must be
properly formatted and described, and they must be sent to the right place.
Following the advice in this section should help to ensure the best
possible reception for your work.
:ref:`development_followthrough` covers what happens after posting patches; the
job is far from done at that point. Working with reviewers is a crucial part
of the development process; this section offers a number of tips on how to
avoid problems at this important stage. Developers are cautioned against
assuming that the job is done when a patch is merged into the mainline.
:ref:`development_advancedtopics` introduces a couple of "advanced" topics:
managing patches with git and reviewing patches posted by others.
:ref:`development_conclusion` concludes the document with pointers to sources
for more information on kernel development.
What this document is about
---------------------------
The Linux kernel, at over 8 million lines of code and well over 1000
contributors to each release, is one of the largest and most active free
software projects in existence. Since its humble beginning in 1991, this
kernel has evolved into a best-of-breed operating system component which
runs on pocket-sized digital music players, desktop PCs, the largest
supercomputers in existence, and all types of systems in between. It is a
robust, efficient, and scalable solution for almost any situation.
With the growth of Linux has come an increase in the number of developers
(and companies) wishing to participate in its development. Hardware
vendors want to ensure that Linux supports their products well, making
those products attractive to Linux users. Embedded systems vendors, who
use Linux as a component in an integrated product, want Linux to be as
capable and well-suited to the task at hand as possible. Distributors and
other software vendors who base their products on Linux have a clear
interest in the capabilities, performance, and reliability of the Linux
kernel. And end users, too, will often wish to change Linux to make it
better suit their needs.
One of the most compelling features of Linux is that it is accessible to
these developers; anybody with the requisite skills can improve Linux and
influence the direction of its development. Proprietary products cannot
offer this kind of openness, which is a characteristic of the free software
process. But, if anything, the kernel is even more open than most other
free software projects. A typical three-month kernel development cycle can
involve over 1000 developers working for more than 100 different companies
(or for no company at all).
Working with the kernel development community is not especially hard. But,
that notwithstanding, many potential contributors have experienced
difficulties when trying to do kernel work. The kernel community has
evolved its own distinct ways of operating which allow it to function
smoothly (and produce a high-quality product) in an environment where
thousands of lines of code are being changed every day. So it is not
surprising that Linux kernel development process differs greatly from
proprietary development methods.
The kernel's development process may come across as strange and
intimidating to new developers, but there are good reasons and solid
experience behind it. A developer who does not understand the kernel
community's ways (or, worse, who tries to flout or circumvent them) will
have a frustrating experience in store. The development community, while
being helpful to those who are trying to learn, has little time for those
who will not listen or who do not care about the development process.
It is hoped that those who read this document will be able to avoid that
frustrating experience. There is a lot of material here, but the effort
involved in reading it will be repaid in short order. The development
community is always in need of developers who will help to make the kernel
better; the following text should help you - or those who work for you -
join our community.
Credits
-------
This document was written by Jonathan Corbet, corbet@lwn.net. It has been
improved by comments from Johannes Berg, James Berry, Alex Chiang, Roland
Dreier, Randy Dunlap, Jake Edge, Jiri Kosina, Matt Mackall, Arthur Marsh,
Amanda McPherson, Andrew Morton, Andrew Price, Tsugikazu Shibata, and
Jochen Voß.
This work was supported by the Linux Foundation; thanks especially to
Amanda McPherson, who saw the value of this effort and made it all happen.
The importance of getting code into the mainline
------------------------------------------------
Some companies and developers occasionally wonder why they should bother
learning how to work with the kernel community and get their code into the
mainline kernel (the "mainline" being the kernel maintained by Linus
Torvalds and used as a base by Linux distributors). In the short term,
contributing code can look like an avoidable expense; it seems easier to
just keep the code separate and support users directly. The truth of the
matter is that keeping code separate ("out of tree") is a false economy.
As a way of illustrating the costs of out-of-tree code, here are a few
relevant aspects of the kernel development process; most of these will be
discussed in greater detail later in this document. Consider:
- Code which has been merged into the mainline kernel is available to all
Linux users. It will automatically be present on all distributions which
enable it. There is no need for driver disks, downloads, or the hassles
of supporting multiple versions of multiple distributions; it all just
works, for the developer and for the user. Incorporation into the
mainline solves a large number of distribution and support problems.
- While kernel developers strive to maintain a stable interface to user
space, the internal kernel API is in constant flux. The lack of a stable
internal interface is a deliberate design decision; it allows fundamental
improvements to be made at any time and results in higher-quality code.
But one result of that policy is that any out-of-tree code requires
constant upkeep if it is to work with new kernels. Maintaining
out-of-tree code requires significant amounts of work just to keep that
code working.
Code which is in the mainline, instead, does not require this work as the
result of a simple rule requiring any developer who makes an API change
to also fix any code that breaks as the result of that change. So code
which has been merged into the mainline has significantly lower
maintenance costs.
- Beyond that, code which is in the kernel will often be improved by other
developers. Surprising results can come from empowering your user
community and customers to improve your product.
- Kernel code is subjected to review, both before and after merging into
the mainline. No matter how strong the original developer's skills are,
this review process invariably finds ways in which the code can be
improved. Often review finds severe bugs and security problems. This is
especially true for code which has been developed in a closed
environment; such code benefits strongly from review by outside
developers. Out-of-tree code is lower-quality code.
- Participation in the development process is your way to influence the
direction of kernel development. Users who complain from the sidelines
are heard, but active developers have a stronger voice - and the ability
to implement changes which make the kernel work better for their needs.
- When code is maintained separately, the possibility that a third party
will contribute a different implementation of a similar feature always
exists. Should that happen, getting your code merged will become much
harder - to the point of impossibility. Then you will be faced with the
unpleasant alternatives of either (1) maintaining a nonstandard feature
out of tree indefinitely, or (2) abandoning your code and migrating your
users over to the in-tree version.
- Contribution of code is the fundamental action which makes the whole
process work. By contributing your code you can add new functionality to
the kernel and provide capabilities and examples which are of use to
other kernel developers. If you have developed code for Linux (or are
thinking about doing so), you clearly have an interest in the continued
success of this platform; contributing code is one of the best ways to
help ensure that success.
All of the reasoning above applies to any out-of-tree kernel code,
including code which is distributed in proprietary, binary-only form.
There are, however, additional factors which should be taken into account
before considering any sort of binary-only kernel code distribution. These
include:
- The legal issues around the distribution of proprietary kernel modules
are cloudy at best; quite a few kernel copyright holders believe that
most binary-only modules are derived products of the kernel and that, as
a result, their distribution is a violation of the GNU General Public
license (about which more will be said below). Your author is not a
lawyer, and nothing in this document can possibly be considered to be
legal advice. The true legal status of closed-source modules can only be
determined by the courts. But the uncertainty which haunts those modules
is there regardless.
- Binary modules greatly increase the difficulty of debugging kernel
problems, to the point that most kernel developers will not even try. So
the distribution of binary-only modules will make it harder for your
users to get support from the community.
- Support is also harder for distributors of binary-only modules, who must
provide a version of the module for every distribution and every kernel
version they wish to support. Dozens of builds of a single module can
be required to provide reasonably comprehensive coverage, and your users
will have to upgrade your module separately every time they upgrade their
kernel.
- Everything that was said above about code review applies doubly to
closed-source code. Since this code is not available at all, it cannot
have been reviewed by the community and will, beyond doubt, have serious
problems.
Makers of embedded systems, in particular, may be tempted to disregard much
of what has been said in this section in the belief that they are shipping
a self-contained product which uses a frozen kernel version and requires no
more development after its release. This argument misses the value of
widespread code review and the value of allowing your users to add
capabilities to your product. But these products, too, have a limited
commercial life, after which a new version must be released. At that
point, vendors whose code is in the mainline and well maintained will be
much better positioned to get the new product ready for market quickly.
Licensing
---------
Code is contributed to the Linux kernel under a number of licenses, but all
code must be compatible with version 2 of the GNU General Public License
(GPLv2), which is the license covering the kernel distribution as a whole.
In practice, that means that all code contributions are covered either by
GPLv2 (with, optionally, language allowing distribution under later
versions of the GPL) or the three-clause BSD license. Any contributions
which are not covered by a compatible license will not be accepted into the
kernel.
Copyright assignments are not required (or requested) for code contributed
to the kernel. All code merged into the mainline kernel retains its
original ownership; as a result, the kernel now has thousands of owners.
One implication of this ownership structure is that any attempt to change
the licensing of the kernel is doomed to almost certain failure. There are
few practical scenarios where the agreement of all copyright holders could
be obtained (or their code removed from the kernel). So, in particular,
there is no prospect of a migration to version 3 of the GPL in the
foreseeable future.
It is imperative that all code contributed to the kernel be legitimately
free software. For that reason, code from anonymous (or pseudonymous)
contributors will not be accepted. All contributors are required to "sign
off" on their code, stating that the code can be distributed with the
kernel under the GPL. Code which has not been licensed as free software by
its owner, or which risks creating copyright-related problems for the
kernel (such as code which derives from reverse-engineering efforts lacking
proper safeguards) cannot be contributed.
Questions about copyright-related issues are common on Linux development
mailing lists. Such questions will normally receive no shortage of
answers, but one should bear in mind that the people answering those
questions are not lawyers and cannot provide legal advice. If you have
legal questions relating to Linux source code, there is no substitute for
talking with a lawyer who understands this field. Relying on answers
obtained on technical mailing lists is a risky affair.

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2: HOW THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS WORKS
Linux kernel development in the early 1990's was a pretty loose affair,
with relatively small numbers of users and developers involved. With a
user base in the millions and with some 2,000 developers involved over the
course of one year, the kernel has since had to evolve a number of
processes to keep development happening smoothly. A solid understanding of
how the process works is required in order to be an effective part of it.
2.1: THE BIG PICTURE
The kernel developers use a loosely time-based release process, with a new
major kernel release happening every two or three months. The recent
release history looks like this:
2.6.38 March 14, 2011
2.6.37 January 4, 2011
2.6.36 October 20, 2010
2.6.35 August 1, 2010
2.6.34 May 15, 2010
2.6.33 February 24, 2010
Every 2.6.x release is a major kernel release with new features, internal
API changes, and more. A typical 2.6 release can contain nearly 10,000
changesets with changes to several hundred thousand lines of code. 2.6 is
thus the leading edge of Linux kernel development; the kernel uses a
rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes.
A relatively straightforward discipline is followed with regard to the
merging of patches for each release. At the beginning of each development
cycle, the "merge window" is said to be open. At that time, code which is
deemed to be sufficiently stable (and which is accepted by the development
community) is merged into the mainline kernel. The bulk of changes for a
new development cycle (and all of the major changes) will be merged during
this time, at a rate approaching 1,000 changes ("patches," or "changesets")
per day.
(As an aside, it is worth noting that the changes integrated during the
merge window do not come out of thin air; they have been collected, tested,
and staged ahead of time. How that process works will be described in
detail later on).
The merge window lasts for approximately two weeks. At the end of this
time, Linus Torvalds will declare that the window is closed and release the
first of the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be 2.6.40,
for example, the release which happens at the end of the merge window will
be called 2.6.40-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to
merge new features has passed, and that the time to stabilize the next
kernel has begun.
Over the next six to ten weeks, only patches which fix problems should be
submitted to the mainline. On occasion a more significant change will be
allowed, but such occasions are rare; developers who try to merge new
features outside of the merge window tend to get an unfriendly reception.
As a general rule, if you miss the merge window for a given feature, the
best thing to do is to wait for the next development cycle. (An occasional
exception is made for drivers for previously-unsupported hardware; if they
touch no in-tree code, they cannot cause regressions and should be safe to
add at any time).
As fixes make their way into the mainline, the patch rate will slow over
time. Linus releases new -rc kernels about once a week; a normal series
will get up to somewhere between -rc6 and -rc9 before the kernel is
considered to be sufficiently stable and the final 2.6.x release is made.
At that point the whole process starts over again.
As an example, here is how the 2.6.38 development cycle went (all dates in
2011):
January 4 2.6.37 stable release
January 18 2.6.38-rc1, merge window closes
January 21 2.6.38-rc2
February 1 2.6.38-rc3
February 7 2.6.38-rc4
February 15 2.6.38-rc5
February 21 2.6.38-rc6
March 1 2.6.38-rc7
March 7 2.6.38-rc8
March 14 2.6.38 stable release
How do the developers decide when to close the development cycle and create
the stable release? The most significant metric used is the list of
regressions from previous releases. No bugs are welcome, but those which
break systems which worked in the past are considered to be especially
serious. For this reason, patches which cause regressions are looked upon
unfavorably and are quite likely to be reverted during the stabilization
period.
The developers' goal is to fix all known regressions before the stable
release is made. In the real world, this kind of perfection is hard to
achieve; there are just too many variables in a project of this size.
There comes a point where delaying the final release just makes the problem
worse; the pile of changes waiting for the next merge window will grow
larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most 2.6.x
kernels go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none
of them are serious.
Once a stable release is made, its ongoing maintenance is passed off to the
"stable team," currently consisting of Greg Kroah-Hartman. The stable team
will release occasional updates to the stable release using the 2.6.x.y
numbering scheme. To be considered for an update release, a patch must (1)
fix a significant bug, and (2) already be merged into the mainline for the
next development kernel. Kernels will typically receive stable updates for
a little more than one development cycle past their initial release. So,
for example, the 2.6.36 kernel's history looked like:
October 10 2.6.36 stable release
November 22 2.6.36.1
December 9 2.6.36.2
January 7 2.6.36.3
February 17 2.6.36.4
2.6.36.4 was the final stable update for the 2.6.36 release.
Some kernels are designated "long term" kernels; they will receive support
for a longer period. As of this writing, the current long term kernels
and their maintainers are:
2.6.27 Willy Tarreau (Deep-frozen stable kernel)
2.6.32 Greg Kroah-Hartman
2.6.35 Andi Kleen (Embedded flag kernel)
The selection of a kernel for long-term support is purely a matter of a
maintainer having the need and the time to maintain that release. There
are no known plans for long-term support for any specific upcoming
release.
2.2: THE LIFECYCLE OF A PATCH
Patches do not go directly from the developer's keyboard into the mainline
kernel. There is, instead, a somewhat involved (if somewhat informal)
process designed to ensure that each patch is reviewed for quality and that
each patch implements a change which is desirable to have in the mainline.
This process can happen quickly for minor fixes, or, in the case of large
and controversial changes, go on for years. Much developer frustration
comes from a lack of understanding of this process or from attempts to
circumvent it.
In the hopes of reducing that frustration, this document will describe how
a patch gets into the kernel. What follows below is an introduction which
describes the process in a somewhat idealized way. A much more detailed
treatment will come in later sections.
The stages that a patch goes through are, generally:
- Design. This is where the real requirements for the patch - and the way
those requirements will be met - are laid out. Design work is often
done without involving the community, but it is better to do this work
in the open if at all possible; it can save a lot of time redesigning
things later.
- Early review. Patches are posted to the relevant mailing list, and
developers on that list reply with any comments they may have. This
process should turn up any major problems with a patch if all goes
well.
- Wider review. When the patch is getting close to ready for mainline
inclusion, it should be accepted by a relevant subsystem maintainer -
though this acceptance is not a guarantee that the patch will make it
all the way to the mainline. The patch will show up in the maintainer's
subsystem tree and into the -next trees (described below). When the
process works, this step leads to more extensive review of the patch and
the discovery of any problems resulting from the integration of this
patch with work being done by others.
- Please note that most maintainers also have day jobs, so merging
your patch may not be their highest priority. If your patch is
getting feedback about changes that are needed, you should either
make those changes or justify why they should not be made. If your
patch has no review complaints but is not being merged by its
appropriate subsystem or driver maintainer, you should be persistent
in updating the patch to the current kernel so that it applies cleanly
and keep sending it for review and merging.
- Merging into the mainline. Eventually, a successful patch will be
merged into the mainline repository managed by Linus Torvalds. More
comments and/or problems may surface at this time; it is important that
the developer be responsive to these and fix any issues which arise.
- Stable release. The number of users potentially affected by the patch
is now large, so, once again, new problems may arise.
- Long-term maintenance. While it is certainly possible for a developer
to forget about code after merging it, that sort of behavior tends to
leave a poor impression in the development community. Merging code
eliminates some of the maintenance burden, in that others will fix
problems caused by API changes. But the original developer should
continue to take responsibility for the code if it is to remain useful
in the longer term.
One of the largest mistakes made by kernel developers (or their employers)
is to try to cut the process down to a single "merging into the mainline"
step. This approach invariably leads to frustration for everybody
involved.
2.3: HOW PATCHES GET INTO THE KERNEL
There is exactly one person who can merge patches into the mainline kernel
repository: Linus Torvalds. But, of the over 9,500 patches which went
into the 2.6.38 kernel, only 112 (around 1.3%) were directly chosen by Linus
himself. The kernel project has long since grown to a size where no single
developer could possibly inspect and select every patch unassisted. The
way the kernel developers have addressed this growth is through the use of
a lieutenant system built around a chain of trust.
The kernel code base is logically broken down into a set of subsystems:
networking, specific architecture support, memory management, video
devices, etc. Most subsystems have a designated maintainer, a developer
who has overall responsibility for the code within that subsystem. These
subsystem maintainers are the gatekeepers (in a loose way) for the portion
of the kernel they manage; they are the ones who will (usually) accept a
patch for inclusion into the mainline kernel.
Subsystem maintainers each manage their own version of the kernel source
tree, usually (but certainly not always) using the git source management
tool. Tools like git (and related tools like quilt or mercurial) allow
maintainers to track a list of patches, including authorship information
and other metadata. At any given time, the maintainer can identify which
patches in his or her repository are not found in the mainline.
When the merge window opens, top-level maintainers will ask Linus to "pull"
the patches they have selected for merging from their repositories. If
Linus agrees, the stream of patches will flow up into his repository,
becoming part of the mainline kernel. The amount of attention that Linus
pays to specific patches received in a pull operation varies. It is clear
that, sometimes, he looks quite closely. But, as a general rule, Linus
trusts the subsystem maintainers to not send bad patches upstream.
Subsystem maintainers, in turn, can pull patches from other maintainers.
For example, the networking tree is built from patches which accumulated
first in trees dedicated to network device drivers, wireless networking,
etc. This chain of repositories can be arbitrarily long, though it rarely
exceeds two or three links. Since each maintainer in the chain trusts
those managing lower-level trees, this process is known as the "chain of
trust."
Clearly, in a system like this, getting patches into the kernel depends on
finding the right maintainer. Sending patches directly to Linus is not
normally the right way to go.
2.4: NEXT TREES
The chain of subsystem trees guides the flow of patches into the kernel,
but it also raises an interesting question: what if somebody wants to look
at all of the patches which are being prepared for the next merge window?
Developers will be interested in what other changes are pending to see
whether there are any conflicts to worry about; a patch which changes a
core kernel function prototype, for example, will conflict with any other
patches which use the older form of that function. Reviewers and testers
want access to the changes in their integrated form before all of those
changes land in the mainline kernel. One could pull changes from all of
the interesting subsystem trees, but that would be a big and error-prone
job.
The answer comes in the form of -next trees, where subsystem trees are
collected for testing and review. The older of these trees, maintained by
Andrew Morton, is called "-mm" (for memory management, which is how it got
started). The -mm tree integrates patches from a long list of subsystem
trees; it also has some patches aimed at helping with debugging.
Beyond that, -mm contains a significant collection of patches which have
been selected by Andrew directly. These patches may have been posted on a
mailing list, or they may apply to a part of the kernel for which there is
no designated subsystem tree. As a result, -mm operates as a sort of
subsystem tree of last resort; if there is no other obvious path for a
patch into the mainline, it is likely to end up in -mm. Miscellaneous
patches which accumulate in -mm will eventually either be forwarded on to
an appropriate subsystem tree or be sent directly to Linus. In a typical
development cycle, approximately 5-10% of the patches going into the
mainline get there via -mm.
The current -mm patch is available in the "mmotm" (-mm of the moment)
directory at:
http://www.ozlabs.org/~akpm/mmotm/
Use of the MMOTM tree is likely to be a frustrating experience, though;
there is a definite chance that it will not even compile.
The primary tree for next-cycle patch merging is linux-next, maintained by
Stephen Rothwell. The linux-next tree is, by design, a snapshot of what
the mainline is expected to look like after the next merge window closes.
Linux-next trees are announced on the linux-kernel and linux-next mailing
lists when they are assembled; they can be downloaded from:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/next/
Linux-next has become an integral part of the kernel development process;
all patches merged during a given merge window should really have found
their way into linux-next some time before the merge window opens.
2.4.1: STAGING TREES
The kernel source tree contains the drivers/staging/ directory, where
many sub-directories for drivers or filesystems that are on their way to
being added to the kernel tree live. They remain in drivers/staging while
they still need more work; once complete, they can be moved into the
kernel proper. This is a way to keep track of drivers that aren't
up to Linux kernel coding or quality standards, but people may want to use
them and track development.
Greg Kroah-Hartman currently maintains the staging tree. Drivers that
still need work are sent to him, with each driver having its own
subdirectory in drivers/staging/. Along with the driver source files, a
TODO file should be present in the directory as well. The TODO file lists
the pending work that the driver needs for acceptance into the kernel
proper, as well as a list of people that should be Cc'd for any patches to
the driver. Current rules require that drivers contributed to staging
must, at a minimum, compile properly.
Staging can be a relatively easy way to get new drivers into the mainline
where, with luck, they will come to the attention of other developers and
improve quickly. Entry into staging is not the end of the story, though;
code in staging which is not seeing regular progress will eventually be
removed. Distributors also tend to be relatively reluctant to enable
staging drivers. So staging is, at best, a stop on the way toward becoming
a proper mainline driver.
2.5: TOOLS
As can be seen from the above text, the kernel development process depends
heavily on the ability to herd collections of patches in various
directions. The whole thing would not work anywhere near as well as it
does without suitably powerful tools. Tutorials on how to use these tools
are well beyond the scope of this document, but there is space for a few
pointers.
By far the dominant source code management system used by the kernel
community is git. Git is one of a number of distributed version control
systems being developed in the free software community. It is well tuned
for kernel development, in that it performs quite well when dealing with
large repositories and large numbers of patches. It also has a reputation
for being difficult to learn and use, though it has gotten better over
time. Some sort of familiarity with git is almost a requirement for kernel
developers; even if they do not use it for their own work, they'll need git
to keep up with what other developers (and the mainline) are doing.
Git is now packaged by almost all Linux distributions. There is a home
page at:
http://git-scm.com/
That page has pointers to documentation and tutorials.
Among the kernel developers who do not use git, the most popular choice is
almost certainly Mercurial:
http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/
Mercurial shares many features with git, but it provides an interface which
many find easier to use.
The other tool worth knowing about is Quilt:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt/
Quilt is a patch management system, rather than a source code management
system. It does not track history over time; it is, instead, oriented
toward tracking a specific set of changes against an evolving code base.
Some major subsystem maintainers use quilt to manage patches intended to go
upstream. For the management of certain kinds of trees (-mm, for example),
quilt is the best tool for the job.
2.6: MAILING LISTS
A great deal of Linux kernel development work is done by way of mailing
lists. It is hard to be a fully-functioning member of the community
without joining at least one list somewhere. But Linux mailing lists also
represent a potential hazard to developers, who risk getting buried under a
load of electronic mail, running afoul of the conventions used on the Linux
lists, or both.
Most kernel mailing lists are run on vger.kernel.org; the master list can
be found at:
http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
There are lists hosted elsewhere, though; a number of them are at
lists.redhat.com.
The core mailing list for kernel development is, of course, linux-kernel.
This list is an intimidating place to be; volume can reach 500 messages per
day, the amount of noise is high, the conversation can be severely
technical, and participants are not always concerned with showing a high
degree of politeness. But there is no other place where the kernel
development community comes together as a whole; developers who avoid this
list will miss important information.
There are a few hints which can help with linux-kernel survival:
- Have the list delivered to a separate folder, rather than your main
mailbox. One must be able to ignore the stream for sustained periods of
time.
- Do not try to follow every conversation - nobody else does. It is
important to filter on both the topic of interest (though note that
long-running conversations can drift away from the original subject
without changing the email subject line) and the people who are
participating.
- Do not feed the trolls. If somebody is trying to stir up an angry
response, ignore them.
- When responding to linux-kernel email (or that on other lists) preserve
the Cc: header for all involved. In the absence of a strong reason (such
as an explicit request), you should never remove recipients. Always make
sure that the person you are responding to is in the Cc: list. This
convention also makes it unnecessary to explicitly ask to be copied on
replies to your postings.
- Search the list archives (and the net as a whole) before asking
questions. Some developers can get impatient with people who clearly
have not done their homework.
- Avoid top-posting (the practice of putting your answer above the quoted
text you are responding to). It makes your response harder to read and
makes a poor impression.
- Ask on the correct mailing list. Linux-kernel may be the general meeting
point, but it is not the best place to find developers from all
subsystems.
The last point - finding the correct mailing list - is a common place for
beginning developers to go wrong. Somebody who asks a networking-related
question on linux-kernel will almost certainly receive a polite suggestion
to ask on the netdev list instead, as that is the list frequented by most
networking developers. Other lists exist for the SCSI, video4linux, IDE,
filesystem, etc. subsystems. The best place to look for mailing lists is
in the MAINTAINERS file packaged with the kernel source.
2.7: GETTING STARTED WITH KERNEL DEVELOPMENT
Questions about how to get started with the kernel development process are
common - from both individuals and companies. Equally common are missteps
which make the beginning of the relationship harder than it has to be.
Companies often look to hire well-known developers to get a development
group started. This can, in fact, be an effective technique. But it also
tends to be expensive and does not do much to grow the pool of experienced
kernel developers. It is possible to bring in-house developers up to speed
on Linux kernel development, given the investment of a bit of time. Taking
this time can endow an employer with a group of developers who understand
the kernel and the company both, and who can help to train others as well.
Over the medium term, this is often the more profitable approach.
Individual developers are often, understandably, at a loss for a place to
start. Beginning with a large project can be intimidating; one often wants
to test the waters with something smaller first. This is the point where
some developers jump into the creation of patches fixing spelling errors or
minor coding style issues. Unfortunately, such patches create a level of
noise which is distracting for the development community as a whole, so,
increasingly, they are looked down upon. New developers wishing to
introduce themselves to the community will not get the sort of reception
they wish for by these means.
Andrew Morton gives this advice for aspiring kernel developers
The #1 project for all kernel beginners should surely be "make sure
that the kernel runs perfectly at all times on all machines which
you can lay your hands on". Usually the way to do this is to work
with others on getting things fixed up (this can require
persistence!) but that's fine - it's a part of kernel development.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/283982/).
In the absence of obvious problems to fix, developers are advised to look
at the current lists of regressions and open bugs in general. There is
never any shortage of issues in need of fixing; by addressing these issues,
developers will gain experience with the process while, at the same time,
building respect with the rest of the development community.

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.. _development_process:
How the development process works
=================================
Linux kernel development in the early 1990's was a pretty loose affair,
with relatively small numbers of users and developers involved. With a
user base in the millions and with some 2,000 developers involved over the
course of one year, the kernel has since had to evolve a number of
processes to keep development happening smoothly. A solid understanding of
how the process works is required in order to be an effective part of it.
The big picture
---------------
The kernel developers use a loosely time-based release process, with a new
major kernel release happening every two or three months. The recent
release history looks like this:
====== =================
2.6.38 March 14, 2011
2.6.37 January 4, 2011
2.6.36 October 20, 2010
2.6.35 August 1, 2010
2.6.34 May 15, 2010
2.6.33 February 24, 2010
====== =================
Every 2.6.x release is a major kernel release with new features, internal
API changes, and more. A typical 2.6 release can contain nearly 10,000
changesets with changes to several hundred thousand lines of code. 2.6 is
thus the leading edge of Linux kernel development; the kernel uses a
rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes.
A relatively straightforward discipline is followed with regard to the
merging of patches for each release. At the beginning of each development
cycle, the "merge window" is said to be open. At that time, code which is
deemed to be sufficiently stable (and which is accepted by the development
community) is merged into the mainline kernel. The bulk of changes for a
new development cycle (and all of the major changes) will be merged during
this time, at a rate approaching 1,000 changes ("patches," or "changesets")
per day.
(As an aside, it is worth noting that the changes integrated during the
merge window do not come out of thin air; they have been collected, tested,
and staged ahead of time. How that process works will be described in
detail later on).
The merge window lasts for approximately two weeks. At the end of this
time, Linus Torvalds will declare that the window is closed and release the
first of the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be 2.6.40,
for example, the release which happens at the end of the merge window will
be called 2.6.40-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to
merge new features has passed, and that the time to stabilize the next
kernel has begun.
Over the next six to ten weeks, only patches which fix problems should be
submitted to the mainline. On occasion a more significant change will be
allowed, but such occasions are rare; developers who try to merge new
features outside of the merge window tend to get an unfriendly reception.
As a general rule, if you miss the merge window for a given feature, the
best thing to do is to wait for the next development cycle. (An occasional
exception is made for drivers for previously-unsupported hardware; if they
touch no in-tree code, they cannot cause regressions and should be safe to
add at any time).
As fixes make their way into the mainline, the patch rate will slow over
time. Linus releases new -rc kernels about once a week; a normal series
will get up to somewhere between -rc6 and -rc9 before the kernel is
considered to be sufficiently stable and the final 2.6.x release is made.
At that point the whole process starts over again.
As an example, here is how the 2.6.38 development cycle went (all dates in
2011):
============== ===============================
January 4 2.6.37 stable release
January 18 2.6.38-rc1, merge window closes
January 21 2.6.38-rc2
February 1 2.6.38-rc3
February 7 2.6.38-rc4
February 15 2.6.38-rc5
February 21 2.6.38-rc6
March 1 2.6.38-rc7
March 7 2.6.38-rc8
March 14 2.6.38 stable release
============== ===============================
How do the developers decide when to close the development cycle and create
the stable release? The most significant metric used is the list of
regressions from previous releases. No bugs are welcome, but those which
break systems which worked in the past are considered to be especially
serious. For this reason, patches which cause regressions are looked upon
unfavorably and are quite likely to be reverted during the stabilization
period.
The developers' goal is to fix all known regressions before the stable
release is made. In the real world, this kind of perfection is hard to
achieve; there are just too many variables in a project of this size.
There comes a point where delaying the final release just makes the problem
worse; the pile of changes waiting for the next merge window will grow
larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most 2.6.x
kernels go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none
of them are serious.
Once a stable release is made, its ongoing maintenance is passed off to the
"stable team," currently consisting of Greg Kroah-Hartman. The stable team
will release occasional updates to the stable release using the 2.6.x.y
numbering scheme. To be considered for an update release, a patch must (1)
fix a significant bug, and (2) already be merged into the mainline for the
next development kernel. Kernels will typically receive stable updates for
a little more than one development cycle past their initial release. So,
for example, the 2.6.36 kernel's history looked like:
============== ===============================
October 10 2.6.36 stable release
November 22 2.6.36.1
December 9 2.6.36.2
January 7 2.6.36.3
February 17 2.6.36.4
============== ===============================
2.6.36.4 was the final stable update for the 2.6.36 release.
Some kernels are designated "long term" kernels; they will receive support
for a longer period. As of this writing, the current long term kernels
and their maintainers are:
====== ====================== ===========================
2.6.27 Willy Tarreau (Deep-frozen stable kernel)
2.6.32 Greg Kroah-Hartman
2.6.35 Andi Kleen (Embedded flag kernel)
====== ====================== ===========================
The selection of a kernel for long-term support is purely a matter of a
maintainer having the need and the time to maintain that release. There
are no known plans for long-term support for any specific upcoming
release.
The lifecycle of a patch
------------------------
Patches do not go directly from the developer's keyboard into the mainline
kernel. There is, instead, a somewhat involved (if somewhat informal)
process designed to ensure that each patch is reviewed for quality and that
each patch implements a change which is desirable to have in the mainline.
This process can happen quickly for minor fixes, or, in the case of large
and controversial changes, go on for years. Much developer frustration
comes from a lack of understanding of this process or from attempts to
circumvent it.
In the hopes of reducing that frustration, this document will describe how
a patch gets into the kernel. What follows below is an introduction which
describes the process in a somewhat idealized way. A much more detailed
treatment will come in later sections.
The stages that a patch goes through are, generally:
- Design. This is where the real requirements for the patch - and the way
those requirements will be met - are laid out. Design work is often
done without involving the community, but it is better to do this work
in the open if at all possible; it can save a lot of time redesigning
things later.
- Early review. Patches are posted to the relevant mailing list, and
developers on that list reply with any comments they may have. This
process should turn up any major problems with a patch if all goes
well.
- Wider review. When the patch is getting close to ready for mainline
inclusion, it should be accepted by a relevant subsystem maintainer -
though this acceptance is not a guarantee that the patch will make it
all the way to the mainline. The patch will show up in the maintainer's
subsystem tree and into the -next trees (described below). When the
process works, this step leads to more extensive review of the patch and
the discovery of any problems resulting from the integration of this
patch with work being done by others.
- Please note that most maintainers also have day jobs, so merging
your patch may not be their highest priority. If your patch is
getting feedback about changes that are needed, you should either
make those changes or justify why they should not be made. If your
patch has no review complaints but is not being merged by its
appropriate subsystem or driver maintainer, you should be persistent
in updating the patch to the current kernel so that it applies cleanly
and keep sending it for review and merging.
- Merging into the mainline. Eventually, a successful patch will be
merged into the mainline repository managed by Linus Torvalds. More
comments and/or problems may surface at this time; it is important that
the developer be responsive to these and fix any issues which arise.
- Stable release. The number of users potentially affected by the patch
is now large, so, once again, new problems may arise.
- Long-term maintenance. While it is certainly possible for a developer
to forget about code after merging it, that sort of behavior tends to
leave a poor impression in the development community. Merging code
eliminates some of the maintenance burden, in that others will fix
problems caused by API changes. But the original developer should
continue to take responsibility for the code if it is to remain useful
in the longer term.
One of the largest mistakes made by kernel developers (or their employers)
is to try to cut the process down to a single "merging into the mainline"
step. This approach invariably leads to frustration for everybody
involved.
How patches get into the Kernel
-------------------------------
There is exactly one person who can merge patches into the mainline kernel
repository: Linus Torvalds. But, of the over 9,500 patches which went
into the 2.6.38 kernel, only 112 (around 1.3%) were directly chosen by Linus
himself. The kernel project has long since grown to a size where no single
developer could possibly inspect and select every patch unassisted. The
way the kernel developers have addressed this growth is through the use of
a lieutenant system built around a chain of trust.
The kernel code base is logically broken down into a set of subsystems:
networking, specific architecture support, memory management, video
devices, etc. Most subsystems have a designated maintainer, a developer
who has overall responsibility for the code within that subsystem. These
subsystem maintainers are the gatekeepers (in a loose way) for the portion
of the kernel they manage; they are the ones who will (usually) accept a
patch for inclusion into the mainline kernel.
Subsystem maintainers each manage their own version of the kernel source
tree, usually (but certainly not always) using the git source management
tool. Tools like git (and related tools like quilt or mercurial) allow
maintainers to track a list of patches, including authorship information
and other metadata. At any given time, the maintainer can identify which
patches in his or her repository are not found in the mainline.
When the merge window opens, top-level maintainers will ask Linus to "pull"
the patches they have selected for merging from their repositories. If
Linus agrees, the stream of patches will flow up into his repository,
becoming part of the mainline kernel. The amount of attention that Linus
pays to specific patches received in a pull operation varies. It is clear
that, sometimes, he looks quite closely. But, as a general rule, Linus
trusts the subsystem maintainers to not send bad patches upstream.
Subsystem maintainers, in turn, can pull patches from other maintainers.
For example, the networking tree is built from patches which accumulated
first in trees dedicated to network device drivers, wireless networking,
etc. This chain of repositories can be arbitrarily long, though it rarely
exceeds two or three links. Since each maintainer in the chain trusts
those managing lower-level trees, this process is known as the "chain of
trust."
Clearly, in a system like this, getting patches into the kernel depends on
finding the right maintainer. Sending patches directly to Linus is not
normally the right way to go.
Next trees
----------
The chain of subsystem trees guides the flow of patches into the kernel,
but it also raises an interesting question: what if somebody wants to look
at all of the patches which are being prepared for the next merge window?
Developers will be interested in what other changes are pending to see
whether there are any conflicts to worry about; a patch which changes a
core kernel function prototype, for example, will conflict with any other
patches which use the older form of that function. Reviewers and testers
want access to the changes in their integrated form before all of those
changes land in the mainline kernel. One could pull changes from all of
the interesting subsystem trees, but that would be a big and error-prone
job.
The answer comes in the form of -next trees, where subsystem trees are
collected for testing and review. The older of these trees, maintained by
Andrew Morton, is called "-mm" (for memory management, which is how it got
started). The -mm tree integrates patches from a long list of subsystem
trees; it also has some patches aimed at helping with debugging.
Beyond that, -mm contains a significant collection of patches which have
been selected by Andrew directly. These patches may have been posted on a
mailing list, or they may apply to a part of the kernel for which there is
no designated subsystem tree. As a result, -mm operates as a sort of
subsystem tree of last resort; if there is no other obvious path for a
patch into the mainline, it is likely to end up in -mm. Miscellaneous
patches which accumulate in -mm will eventually either be forwarded on to
an appropriate subsystem tree or be sent directly to Linus. In a typical
development cycle, approximately 5-10% of the patches going into the
mainline get there via -mm.
The current -mm patch is available in the "mmotm" (-mm of the moment)
directory at:
http://www.ozlabs.org/~akpm/mmotm/
Use of the MMOTM tree is likely to be a frustrating experience, though;
there is a definite chance that it will not even compile.
The primary tree for next-cycle patch merging is linux-next, maintained by
Stephen Rothwell. The linux-next tree is, by design, a snapshot of what
the mainline is expected to look like after the next merge window closes.
Linux-next trees are announced on the linux-kernel and linux-next mailing
lists when they are assembled; they can be downloaded from:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/next/
Linux-next has become an integral part of the kernel development process;
all patches merged during a given merge window should really have found
their way into linux-next some time before the merge window opens.
Staging trees
-------------
The kernel source tree contains the drivers/staging/ directory, where
many sub-directories for drivers or filesystems that are on their way to
being added to the kernel tree live. They remain in drivers/staging while
they still need more work; once complete, they can be moved into the
kernel proper. This is a way to keep track of drivers that aren't
up to Linux kernel coding or quality standards, but people may want to use
them and track development.
Greg Kroah-Hartman currently maintains the staging tree. Drivers that
still need work are sent to him, with each driver having its own
subdirectory in drivers/staging/. Along with the driver source files, a
TODO file should be present in the directory as well. The TODO file lists
the pending work that the driver needs for acceptance into the kernel
proper, as well as a list of people that should be Cc'd for any patches to
the driver. Current rules require that drivers contributed to staging
must, at a minimum, compile properly.
Staging can be a relatively easy way to get new drivers into the mainline
where, with luck, they will come to the attention of other developers and
improve quickly. Entry into staging is not the end of the story, though;
code in staging which is not seeing regular progress will eventually be
removed. Distributors also tend to be relatively reluctant to enable
staging drivers. So staging is, at best, a stop on the way toward becoming
a proper mainline driver.
Tools
-----
As can be seen from the above text, the kernel development process depends
heavily on the ability to herd collections of patches in various
directions. The whole thing would not work anywhere near as well as it
does without suitably powerful tools. Tutorials on how to use these tools
are well beyond the scope of this document, but there is space for a few
pointers.
By far the dominant source code management system used by the kernel
community is git. Git is one of a number of distributed version control
systems being developed in the free software community. It is well tuned
for kernel development, in that it performs quite well when dealing with
large repositories and large numbers of patches. It also has a reputation
for being difficult to learn and use, though it has gotten better over
time. Some sort of familiarity with git is almost a requirement for kernel
developers; even if they do not use it for their own work, they'll need git
to keep up with what other developers (and the mainline) are doing.
Git is now packaged by almost all Linux distributions. There is a home
page at:
http://git-scm.com/
That page has pointers to documentation and tutorials.
Among the kernel developers who do not use git, the most popular choice is
almost certainly Mercurial:
http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/
Mercurial shares many features with git, but it provides an interface which
many find easier to use.
The other tool worth knowing about is Quilt:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt/
Quilt is a patch management system, rather than a source code management
system. It does not track history over time; it is, instead, oriented
toward tracking a specific set of changes against an evolving code base.
Some major subsystem maintainers use quilt to manage patches intended to go
upstream. For the management of certain kinds of trees (-mm, for example),
quilt is the best tool for the job.
Mailing lists
-------------
A great deal of Linux kernel development work is done by way of mailing
lists. It is hard to be a fully-functioning member of the community
without joining at least one list somewhere. But Linux mailing lists also
represent a potential hazard to developers, who risk getting buried under a
load of electronic mail, running afoul of the conventions used on the Linux
lists, or both.
Most kernel mailing lists are run on vger.kernel.org; the master list can
be found at:
http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
There are lists hosted elsewhere, though; a number of them are at
lists.redhat.com.
The core mailing list for kernel development is, of course, linux-kernel.
This list is an intimidating place to be; volume can reach 500 messages per
day, the amount of noise is high, the conversation can be severely
technical, and participants are not always concerned with showing a high
degree of politeness. But there is no other place where the kernel
development community comes together as a whole; developers who avoid this
list will miss important information.
There are a few hints which can help with linux-kernel survival:
- Have the list delivered to a separate folder, rather than your main
mailbox. One must be able to ignore the stream for sustained periods of
time.
- Do not try to follow every conversation - nobody else does. It is
important to filter on both the topic of interest (though note that
long-running conversations can drift away from the original subject
without changing the email subject line) and the people who are
participating.
- Do not feed the trolls. If somebody is trying to stir up an angry
response, ignore them.
- When responding to linux-kernel email (or that on other lists) preserve
the Cc: header for all involved. In the absence of a strong reason (such
as an explicit request), you should never remove recipients. Always make
sure that the person you are responding to is in the Cc: list. This
convention also makes it unnecessary to explicitly ask to be copied on
replies to your postings.
- Search the list archives (and the net as a whole) before asking
questions. Some developers can get impatient with people who clearly
have not done their homework.
- Avoid top-posting (the practice of putting your answer above the quoted
text you are responding to). It makes your response harder to read and
makes a poor impression.
- Ask on the correct mailing list. Linux-kernel may be the general meeting
point, but it is not the best place to find developers from all
subsystems.
The last point - finding the correct mailing list - is a common place for
beginning developers to go wrong. Somebody who asks a networking-related
question on linux-kernel will almost certainly receive a polite suggestion
to ask on the netdev list instead, as that is the list frequented by most
networking developers. Other lists exist for the SCSI, video4linux, IDE,
filesystem, etc. subsystems. The best place to look for mailing lists is
in the MAINTAINERS file packaged with the kernel source.
Getting started with Kernel development
---------------------------------------
Questions about how to get started with the kernel development process are
common - from both individuals and companies. Equally common are missteps
which make the beginning of the relationship harder than it has to be.
Companies often look to hire well-known developers to get a development
group started. This can, in fact, be an effective technique. But it also
tends to be expensive and does not do much to grow the pool of experienced
kernel developers. It is possible to bring in-house developers up to speed
on Linux kernel development, given the investment of a bit of time. Taking
this time can endow an employer with a group of developers who understand
the kernel and the company both, and who can help to train others as well.
Over the medium term, this is often the more profitable approach.
Individual developers are often, understandably, at a loss for a place to
start. Beginning with a large project can be intimidating; one often wants
to test the waters with something smaller first. This is the point where
some developers jump into the creation of patches fixing spelling errors or
minor coding style issues. Unfortunately, such patches create a level of
noise which is distracting for the development community as a whole, so,
increasingly, they are looked down upon. New developers wishing to
introduce themselves to the community will not get the sort of reception
they wish for by these means.
Andrew Morton gives this advice for aspiring kernel developers
::
The #1 project for all kernel beginners should surely be "make sure
that the kernel runs perfectly at all times on all machines which
you can lay your hands on". Usually the way to do this is to work
with others on getting things fixed up (this can require
persistence!) but that's fine - it's a part of kernel development.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/283982/).
In the absence of obvious problems to fix, developers are advised to look
at the current lists of regressions and open bugs in general. There is
never any shortage of issues in need of fixing; by addressing these issues,
developers will gain experience with the process while, at the same time,
building respect with the rest of the development community.

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3: EARLY-STAGE PLANNING
When contemplating a Linux kernel development project, it can be tempting
to jump right in and start coding. As with any significant project,
though, much of the groundwork for success is best laid before the first
line of code is written. Some time spent in early planning and
communication can save far more time later on.
3.1: SPECIFYING THE PROBLEM
Like any engineering project, a successful kernel enhancement starts with a
clear description of the problem to be solved. In some cases, this step is
easy: when a driver is needed for a specific piece of hardware, for
example. In others, though, it is tempting to confuse the real problem
with the proposed solution, and that can lead to difficulties.
Consider an example: some years ago, developers working with Linux audio
sought a way to run applications without dropouts or other artifacts caused
by excessive latency in the system. The solution they arrived at was a
kernel module intended to hook into the Linux Security Module (LSM)
framework; this module could be configured to give specific applications
access to the realtime scheduler. This module was implemented and sent to
the linux-kernel mailing list, where it immediately ran into problems.
To the audio developers, this security module was sufficient to solve their
immediate problem. To the wider kernel community, though, it was seen as a
misuse of the LSM framework (which is not intended to confer privileges
onto processes which they would not otherwise have) and a risk to system
stability. Their preferred solutions involved realtime scheduling access
via the rlimit mechanism for the short term, and ongoing latency reduction
work in the long term.
The audio community, however, could not see past the particular solution
they had implemented; they were unwilling to accept alternatives. The
resulting disagreement left those developers feeling disillusioned with the
entire kernel development process; one of them went back to an audio list
and posted this:
There are a number of very good Linux kernel developers, but they
tend to get outshouted by a large crowd of arrogant fools. Trying
to communicate user requirements to these people is a waste of
time. They are much too "intelligent" to listen to lesser mortals.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/131776/).
The reality of the situation was different; the kernel developers were far
more concerned about system stability, long-term maintenance, and finding
the right solution to the problem than they were with a specific module.
The moral of the story is to focus on the problem - not a specific solution
- and to discuss it with the development community before investing in the
creation of a body of code.
So, when contemplating a kernel development project, one should obtain
answers to a short set of questions:
- What, exactly, is the problem which needs to be solved?
- Who are the users affected by this problem? Which use cases should the
solution address?
- How does the kernel fall short in addressing that problem now?
Only then does it make sense to start considering possible solutions.
3.2: EARLY DISCUSSION
When planning a kernel development project, it makes great sense to hold
discussions with the community before launching into implementation. Early
communication can save time and trouble in a number of ways:
- It may well be that the problem is addressed by the kernel in ways which
you have not understood. The Linux kernel is large and has a number of
features and capabilities which are not immediately obvious. Not all
kernel capabilities are documented as well as one might like, and it is
easy to miss things. Your author has seen the posting of a complete
driver which duplicated an existing driver that the new author had been
unaware of. Code which reinvents existing wheels is not only wasteful;
it will also not be accepted into the mainline kernel.
- There may be elements of the proposed solution which will not be
acceptable for mainline merging. It is better to find out about
problems like this before writing the code.
- It's entirely possible that other developers have thought about the
problem; they may have ideas for a better solution, and may be willing
to help in the creation of that solution.
Years of experience with the kernel development community have taught a
clear lesson: kernel code which is designed and developed behind closed
doors invariably has problems which are only revealed when the code is
released into the community. Sometimes these problems are severe,
requiring months or years of effort before the code can be brought up to
the kernel community's standards. Some examples include:
- The Devicescape network stack was designed and implemented for
single-processor systems. It could not be merged into the mainline
until it was made suitable for multiprocessor systems. Retrofitting
locking and such into code is a difficult task; as a result, the merging
of this code (now called mac80211) was delayed for over a year.
- The Reiser4 filesystem included a number of capabilities which, in the
core kernel developers' opinion, should have been implemented in the
virtual filesystem layer instead. It also included features which could
not easily be implemented without exposing the system to user-caused
deadlocks. The late revelation of these problems - and refusal to
address some of them - has caused Reiser4 to stay out of the mainline
kernel.
- The AppArmor security module made use of internal virtual filesystem
data structures in ways which were considered to be unsafe and
unreliable. This concern (among others) kept AppArmor out of the
mainline for years.
In each of these cases, a great deal of pain and extra work could have been
avoided with some early discussion with the kernel developers.
3.3: WHO DO YOU TALK TO?
When developers decide to take their plans public, the next question will
be: where do we start? The answer is to find the right mailing list(s) and
the right maintainer. For mailing lists, the best approach is to look in
the MAINTAINERS file for a relevant place to post. If there is a suitable
subsystem list, posting there is often preferable to posting on
linux-kernel; you are more likely to reach developers with expertise in the
relevant subsystem and the environment may be more supportive.
Finding maintainers can be a bit harder. Again, the MAINTAINERS file is
the place to start. That file tends to not always be up to date, though,
and not all subsystems are represented there. The person listed in the
MAINTAINERS file may, in fact, not be the person who is actually acting in
that role currently. So, when there is doubt about who to contact, a
useful trick is to use git (and "git log" in particular) to see who is
currently active within the subsystem of interest. Look at who is writing
patches, and who, if anybody, is attaching Signed-off-by lines to those
patches. Those are the people who will be best placed to help with a new
development project.
The task of finding the right maintainer is sometimes challenging enough
that the kernel developers have added a script to ease the process:
.../scripts/get_maintainer.pl
This script will return the current maintainer(s) for a given file or
directory when given the "-f" option. If passed a patch on the
command line, it will list the maintainers who should probably receive
copies of the patch. There are a number of options regulating how hard
get_maintainer.pl will search for maintainers; please be careful about
using the more aggressive options as you may end up including developers
who have no real interest in the code you are modifying.
If all else fails, talking to Andrew Morton can be an effective way to
track down a maintainer for a specific piece of code.
3.4: WHEN TO POST?
If possible, posting your plans during the early stages can only be
helpful. Describe the problem being solved and any plans that have been
made on how the implementation will be done. Any information you can
provide can help the development community provide useful input on the
project.
One discouraging thing which can happen at this stage is not a hostile
reaction, but, instead, little or no reaction at all. The sad truth of the
matter is (1) kernel developers tend to be busy, (2) there is no shortage
of people with grand plans and little code (or even prospect of code) to
back them up, and (3) nobody is obligated to review or comment on ideas
posted by others. Beyond that, high-level designs often hide problems
which are only reviewed when somebody actually tries to implement those
designs; for that reason, kernel developers would rather see the code.
If a request-for-comments posting yields little in the way of comments, do
not assume that it means there is no interest in the project.
Unfortunately, you also cannot assume that there are no problems with your
idea. The best thing to do in this situation is to proceed, keeping the
community informed as you go.
3.5: GETTING OFFICIAL BUY-IN
If your work is being done in a corporate environment - as most Linux
kernel work is - you must, obviously, have permission from suitably
empowered managers before you can post your company's plans or code to a
public mailing list. The posting of code which has not been cleared for
release under a GPL-compatible license can be especially problematic; the
sooner that a company's management and legal staff can agree on the posting
of a kernel development project, the better off everybody involved will be.
Some readers may be thinking at this point that their kernel work is
intended to support a product which does not yet have an officially
acknowledged existence. Revealing their employer's plans on a public
mailing list may not be a viable option. In cases like this, it is worth
considering whether the secrecy is really necessary; there is often no real
need to keep development plans behind closed doors.
That said, there are also cases where a company legitimately cannot
disclose its plans early in the development process. Companies with
experienced kernel developers may choose to proceed in an open-loop manner
on the assumption that they will be able to avoid serious integration
problems later. For companies without that sort of in-house expertise, the
best option is often to hire an outside developer to review the plans under
a non-disclosure agreement. The Linux Foundation operates an NDA program
designed to help with this sort of situation; more information can be found
at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/NDA_program
This kind of review is often enough to avoid serious problems later on
without requiring public disclosure of the project.

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.. _development_early_stage:
Early-stage planning
====================
When contemplating a Linux kernel development project, it can be tempting
to jump right in and start coding. As with any significant project,
though, much of the groundwork for success is best laid before the first
line of code is written. Some time spent in early planning and
communication can save far more time later on.
Specifying the problem
----------------------
Like any engineering project, a successful kernel enhancement starts with a
clear description of the problem to be solved. In some cases, this step is
easy: when a driver is needed for a specific piece of hardware, for
example. In others, though, it is tempting to confuse the real problem
with the proposed solution, and that can lead to difficulties.
Consider an example: some years ago, developers working with Linux audio
sought a way to run applications without dropouts or other artifacts caused
by excessive latency in the system. The solution they arrived at was a
kernel module intended to hook into the Linux Security Module (LSM)
framework; this module could be configured to give specific applications
access to the realtime scheduler. This module was implemented and sent to
the linux-kernel mailing list, where it immediately ran into problems.
To the audio developers, this security module was sufficient to solve their
immediate problem. To the wider kernel community, though, it was seen as a
misuse of the LSM framework (which is not intended to confer privileges
onto processes which they would not otherwise have) and a risk to system
stability. Their preferred solutions involved realtime scheduling access
via the rlimit mechanism for the short term, and ongoing latency reduction
work in the long term.
The audio community, however, could not see past the particular solution
they had implemented; they were unwilling to accept alternatives. The
resulting disagreement left those developers feeling disillusioned with the
entire kernel development process; one of them went back to an audio list
and posted this:
There are a number of very good Linux kernel developers, but they
tend to get outshouted by a large crowd of arrogant fools. Trying
to communicate user requirements to these people is a waste of
time. They are much too "intelligent" to listen to lesser mortals.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/131776/).
The reality of the situation was different; the kernel developers were far
more concerned about system stability, long-term maintenance, and finding
the right solution to the problem than they were with a specific module.
The moral of the story is to focus on the problem - not a specific solution
- and to discuss it with the development community before investing in the
creation of a body of code.
So, when contemplating a kernel development project, one should obtain
answers to a short set of questions:
- What, exactly, is the problem which needs to be solved?
- Who are the users affected by this problem? Which use cases should the
solution address?
- How does the kernel fall short in addressing that problem now?
Only then does it make sense to start considering possible solutions.
Early discussion
----------------
When planning a kernel development project, it makes great sense to hold
discussions with the community before launching into implementation. Early
communication can save time and trouble in a number of ways:
- It may well be that the problem is addressed by the kernel in ways which
you have not understood. The Linux kernel is large and has a number of
features and capabilities which are not immediately obvious. Not all
kernel capabilities are documented as well as one might like, and it is
easy to miss things. Your author has seen the posting of a complete
driver which duplicated an existing driver that the new author had been
unaware of. Code which reinvents existing wheels is not only wasteful;
it will also not be accepted into the mainline kernel.
- There may be elements of the proposed solution which will not be
acceptable for mainline merging. It is better to find out about
problems like this before writing the code.
- It's entirely possible that other developers have thought about the
problem; they may have ideas for a better solution, and may be willing
to help in the creation of that solution.
Years of experience with the kernel development community have taught a
clear lesson: kernel code which is designed and developed behind closed
doors invariably has problems which are only revealed when the code is
released into the community. Sometimes these problems are severe,
requiring months or years of effort before the code can be brought up to
the kernel community's standards. Some examples include:
- The Devicescape network stack was designed and implemented for
single-processor systems. It could not be merged into the mainline
until it was made suitable for multiprocessor systems. Retrofitting
locking and such into code is a difficult task; as a result, the merging
of this code (now called mac80211) was delayed for over a year.
- The Reiser4 filesystem included a number of capabilities which, in the
core kernel developers' opinion, should have been implemented in the
virtual filesystem layer instead. It also included features which could
not easily be implemented without exposing the system to user-caused
deadlocks. The late revelation of these problems - and refusal to
address some of them - has caused Reiser4 to stay out of the mainline
kernel.
- The AppArmor security module made use of internal virtual filesystem
data structures in ways which were considered to be unsafe and
unreliable. This concern (among others) kept AppArmor out of the
mainline for years.
In each of these cases, a great deal of pain and extra work could have been
avoided with some early discussion with the kernel developers.
Who do you talk to?
-------------------
When developers decide to take their plans public, the next question will
be: where do we start? The answer is to find the right mailing list(s) and
the right maintainer. For mailing lists, the best approach is to look in
the MAINTAINERS file for a relevant place to post. If there is a suitable
subsystem list, posting there is often preferable to posting on
linux-kernel; you are more likely to reach developers with expertise in the
relevant subsystem and the environment may be more supportive.
Finding maintainers can be a bit harder. Again, the MAINTAINERS file is
the place to start. That file tends to not always be up to date, though,
and not all subsystems are represented there. The person listed in the
MAINTAINERS file may, in fact, not be the person who is actually acting in
that role currently. So, when there is doubt about who to contact, a
useful trick is to use git (and "git log" in particular) to see who is
currently active within the subsystem of interest. Look at who is writing
patches, and who, if anybody, is attaching Signed-off-by lines to those
patches. Those are the people who will be best placed to help with a new
development project.
The task of finding the right maintainer is sometimes challenging enough
that the kernel developers have added a script to ease the process:
::
.../scripts/get_maintainer.pl
This script will return the current maintainer(s) for a given file or
directory when given the "-f" option. If passed a patch on the
command line, it will list the maintainers who should probably receive
copies of the patch. There are a number of options regulating how hard
get_maintainer.pl will search for maintainers; please be careful about
using the more aggressive options as you may end up including developers
who have no real interest in the code you are modifying.
If all else fails, talking to Andrew Morton can be an effective way to
track down a maintainer for a specific piece of code.
When to post?
-------------
If possible, posting your plans during the early stages can only be
helpful. Describe the problem being solved and any plans that have been
made on how the implementation will be done. Any information you can
provide can help the development community provide useful input on the
project.
One discouraging thing which can happen at this stage is not a hostile
reaction, but, instead, little or no reaction at all. The sad truth of the
matter is (1) kernel developers tend to be busy, (2) there is no shortage
of people with grand plans and little code (or even prospect of code) to
back them up, and (3) nobody is obligated to review or comment on ideas
posted by others. Beyond that, high-level designs often hide problems
which are only reviewed when somebody actually tries to implement those
designs; for that reason, kernel developers would rather see the code.
If a request-for-comments posting yields little in the way of comments, do
not assume that it means there is no interest in the project.
Unfortunately, you also cannot assume that there are no problems with your
idea. The best thing to do in this situation is to proceed, keeping the
community informed as you go.
Getting official buy-in
-----------------------
If your work is being done in a corporate environment - as most Linux
kernel work is - you must, obviously, have permission from suitably
empowered managers before you can post your company's plans or code to a
public mailing list. The posting of code which has not been cleared for
release under a GPL-compatible license can be especially problematic; the
sooner that a company's management and legal staff can agree on the posting
of a kernel development project, the better off everybody involved will be.
Some readers may be thinking at this point that their kernel work is
intended to support a product which does not yet have an officially
acknowledged existence. Revealing their employer's plans on a public
mailing list may not be a viable option. In cases like this, it is worth
considering whether the secrecy is really necessary; there is often no real
need to keep development plans behind closed doors.
That said, there are also cases where a company legitimately cannot
disclose its plans early in the development process. Companies with
experienced kernel developers may choose to proceed in an open-loop manner
on the assumption that they will be able to avoid serious integration
problems later. For companies without that sort of in-house expertise, the
best option is often to hire an outside developer to review the plans under
a non-disclosure agreement. The Linux Foundation operates an NDA program
designed to help with this sort of situation; more information can be found
at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/NDA_program
This kind of review is often enough to avoid serious problems later on
without requiring public disclosure of the project.

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4: GETTING THE CODE RIGHT
While there is much to be said for a solid and community-oriented design
process, the proof of any kernel development project is in the resulting
code. It is the code which will be examined by other developers and merged
(or not) into the mainline tree. So it is the quality of this code which
will determine the ultimate success of the project.
This section will examine the coding process. We'll start with a look at a
number of ways in which kernel developers can go wrong. Then the focus
will shift toward doing things right and the tools which can help in that
quest.
4.1: PITFALLS
* Coding style
The kernel has long had a standard coding style, described in
Documentation/CodingStyle. For much of that time, the policies described
in that file were taken as being, at most, advisory. As a result, there is
a substantial amount of code in the kernel which does not meet the coding
style guidelines. The presence of that code leads to two independent
hazards for kernel developers.
The first of these is to believe that the kernel coding standards do not
matter and are not enforced. The truth of the matter is that adding new
code to the kernel is very difficult if that code is not coded according to
the standard; many developers will request that the code be reformatted
before they will even review it. A code base as large as the kernel
requires some uniformity of code to make it possible for developers to
quickly understand any part of it. So there is no longer room for
strangely-formatted code.
Occasionally, the kernel's coding style will run into conflict with an
employer's mandated style. In such cases, the kernel's style will have to
win before the code can be merged. Putting code into the kernel means
giving up a degree of control in a number of ways - including control over
how the code is formatted.
The other trap is to assume that code which is already in the kernel is
urgently in need of coding style fixes. Developers may start to generate
reformatting patches as a way of gaining familiarity with the process, or
as a way of getting their name into the kernel changelogs - or both. But
pure coding style fixes are seen as noise by the development community;
they tend to get a chilly reception. So this type of patch is best
avoided. It is natural to fix the style of a piece of code while working
on it for other reasons, but coding style changes should not be made for
their own sake.
The coding style document also should not be read as an absolute law which
can never be transgressed. If there is a good reason to go against the
style (a line which becomes far less readable if split to fit within the
80-column limit, for example), just do it.
* Abstraction layers
Computer Science professors teach students to make extensive use of
abstraction layers in the name of flexibility and information hiding.
Certainly the kernel makes extensive use of abstraction; no project
involving several million lines of code could do otherwise and survive.
But experience has shown that excessive or premature abstraction can be
just as harmful as premature optimization. Abstraction should be used to
the level required and no further.
At a simple level, consider a function which has an argument which is
always passed as zero by all callers. One could retain that argument just
in case somebody eventually needs to use the extra flexibility that it
provides. By that time, though, chances are good that the code which
implements this extra argument has been broken in some subtle way which was
never noticed - because it has never been used. Or, when the need for
extra flexibility arises, it does not do so in a way which matches the
programmer's early expectation. Kernel developers will routinely submit
patches to remove unused arguments; they should, in general, not be added
in the first place.
Abstraction layers which hide access to hardware - often to allow the bulk
of a driver to be used with multiple operating systems - are especially
frowned upon. Such layers obscure the code and may impose a performance
penalty; they do not belong in the Linux kernel.
On the other hand, if you find yourself copying significant amounts of code
from another kernel subsystem, it is time to ask whether it would, in fact,
make sense to pull out some of that code into a separate library or to
implement that functionality at a higher level. There is no value in
replicating the same code throughout the kernel.
* #ifdef and preprocessor use in general
The C preprocessor seems to present a powerful temptation to some C
programmers, who see it as a way to efficiently encode a great deal of
flexibility into a source file. But the preprocessor is not C, and heavy
use of it results in code which is much harder for others to read and
harder for the compiler to check for correctness. Heavy preprocessor use
is almost always a sign of code which needs some cleanup work.
Conditional compilation with #ifdef is, indeed, a powerful feature, and it
is used within the kernel. But there is little desire to see code which is
sprinkled liberally with #ifdef blocks. As a general rule, #ifdef use
should be confined to header files whenever possible.
Conditionally-compiled code can be confined to functions which, if the code
is not to be present, simply become empty. The compiler will then quietly
optimize out the call to the empty function. The result is far cleaner
code which is easier to follow.
C preprocessor macros present a number of hazards, including possible
multiple evaluation of expressions with side effects and no type safety.
If you are tempted to define a macro, consider creating an inline function
instead. The code which results will be the same, but inline functions are
easier to read, do not evaluate their arguments multiple times, and allow
the compiler to perform type checking on the arguments and return value.
* Inline functions
Inline functions present a hazard of their own, though. Programmers can
become enamored of the perceived efficiency inherent in avoiding a function
call and fill a source file with inline functions. Those functions,
however, can actually reduce performance. Since their code is replicated
at each call site, they end up bloating the size of the compiled kernel.
That, in turn, creates pressure on the processor's memory caches, which can
slow execution dramatically. Inline functions, as a rule, should be quite
small and relatively rare. The cost of a function call, after all, is not
that high; the creation of large numbers of inline functions is a classic
example of premature optimization.
In general, kernel programmers ignore cache effects at their peril. The
classic time/space tradeoff taught in beginning data structures classes
often does not apply to contemporary hardware. Space *is* time, in that a
larger program will run slower than one which is more compact.
More recent compilers take an increasingly active role in deciding whether
a given function should actually be inlined or not. So the liberal
placement of "inline" keywords may not just be excessive; it could also be
irrelevant.
* Locking
In May, 2006, the "Devicescape" networking stack was, with great
fanfare, released under the GPL and made available for inclusion in the
mainline kernel. This donation was welcome news; support for wireless
networking in Linux was considered substandard at best, and the Devicescape
stack offered the promise of fixing that situation. Yet, this code did not
actually make it into the mainline until June, 2007 (2.6.22). What
happened?
This code showed a number of signs of having been developed behind
corporate doors. But one large problem in particular was that it was not
designed to work on multiprocessor systems. Before this networking stack
(now called mac80211) could be merged, a locking scheme needed to be
retrofitted onto it.
Once upon a time, Linux kernel code could be developed without thinking
about the concurrency issues presented by multiprocessor systems. Now,
however, this document is being written on a dual-core laptop. Even on
single-processor systems, work being done to improve responsiveness will
raise the level of concurrency within the kernel. The days when kernel
code could be written without thinking about locking are long past.
Any resource (data structures, hardware registers, etc.) which could be
accessed concurrently by more than one thread must be protected by a lock.
New code should be written with this requirement in mind; retrofitting
locking after the fact is a rather more difficult task. Kernel developers
should take the time to understand the available locking primitives well
enough to pick the right tool for the job. Code which shows a lack of
attention to concurrency will have a difficult path into the mainline.
* Regressions
One final hazard worth mentioning is this: it can be tempting to make a
change (which may bring big improvements) which causes something to break
for existing users. This kind of change is called a "regression," and
regressions have become most unwelcome in the mainline kernel. With few
exceptions, changes which cause regressions will be backed out if the
regression cannot be fixed in a timely manner. Far better to avoid the
regression in the first place.
It is often argued that a regression can be justified if it causes things
to work for more people than it creates problems for. Why not make a
change if it brings new functionality to ten systems for each one it
breaks? The best answer to this question was expressed by Linus in July,
2007:
So we don't fix bugs by introducing new problems. That way lies
madness, and nobody ever knows if you actually make any real
progress at all. Is it two steps forwards, one step back, or one
step forward and two steps back?
(http://lwn.net/Articles/243460/).
An especially unwelcome type of regression is any sort of change to the
user-space ABI. Once an interface has been exported to user space, it must
be supported indefinitely. This fact makes the creation of user-space
interfaces particularly challenging: since they cannot be changed in
incompatible ways, they must be done right the first time. For this
reason, a great deal of thought, clear documentation, and wide review for
user-space interfaces is always required.
4.2: CODE CHECKING TOOLS
For now, at least, the writing of error-free code remains an ideal that few
of us can reach. What we can hope to do, though, is to catch and fix as
many of those errors as possible before our code goes into the mainline
kernel. To that end, the kernel developers have put together an impressive
array of tools which can catch a wide variety of obscure problems in an
automated way. Any problem caught by the computer is a problem which will
not afflict a user later on, so it stands to reason that the automated
tools should be used whenever possible.
The first step is simply to heed the warnings produced by the compiler.
Contemporary versions of gcc can detect (and warn about) a large number of
potential errors. Quite often, these warnings point to real problems.
Code submitted for review should, as a rule, not produce any compiler
warnings. When silencing warnings, take care to understand the real cause
and try to avoid "fixes" which make the warning go away without addressing
its cause.
Note that not all compiler warnings are enabled by default. Build the
kernel with "make EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W" to get the full set.
The kernel provides several configuration options which turn on debugging
features; most of these are found in the "kernel hacking" submenu. Several
of these options should be turned on for any kernel used for development or
testing purposes. In particular, you should turn on:
- ENABLE_WARN_DEPRECATED, ENABLE_MUST_CHECK, and FRAME_WARN to get an
extra set of warnings for problems like the use of deprecated interfaces
or ignoring an important return value from a function. The output
generated by these warnings can be verbose, but one need not worry about
warnings from other parts of the kernel.
- DEBUG_OBJECTS will add code to track the lifetime of various objects
created by the kernel and warn when things are done out of order. If
you are adding a subsystem which creates (and exports) complex objects
of its own, consider adding support for the object debugging
infrastructure.
- DEBUG_SLAB can find a variety of memory allocation and use errors; it
should be used on most development kernels.
- DEBUG_SPINLOCK, DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP, and DEBUG_MUTEXES will find a
number of common locking errors.
There are quite a few other debugging options, some of which will be
discussed below. Some of them have a significant performance impact and
should not be used all of the time. But some time spent learning the
available options will likely be paid back many times over in short order.
One of the heavier debugging tools is the locking checker, or "lockdep."
This tool will track the acquisition and release of every lock (spinlock or
mutex) in the system, the order in which locks are acquired relative to
each other, the current interrupt environment, and more. It can then
ensure that locks are always acquired in the same order, that the same
interrupt assumptions apply in all situations, and so on. In other words,
lockdep can find a number of scenarios in which the system could, on rare
occasion, deadlock. This kind of problem can be painful (for both
developers and users) in a deployed system; lockdep allows them to be found
in an automated manner ahead of time. Code with any sort of non-trivial
locking should be run with lockdep enabled before being submitted for
inclusion.
As a diligent kernel programmer, you will, beyond doubt, check the return
status of any operation (such as a memory allocation) which can fail. The
fact of the matter, though, is that the resulting failure recovery paths
are, probably, completely untested. Untested code tends to be broken code;
you could be much more confident of your code if all those error-handling
paths had been exercised a few times.
The kernel provides a fault injection framework which can do exactly that,
especially where memory allocations are involved. With fault injection
enabled, a configurable percentage of memory allocations will be made to
fail; these failures can be restricted to a specific range of code.
Running with fault injection enabled allows the programmer to see how the
code responds when things go badly. See
Documentation/fault-injection/fault-injection.txt for more information on
how to use this facility.
Other kinds of errors can be found with the "sparse" static analysis tool.
With sparse, the programmer can be warned about confusion between
user-space and kernel-space addresses, mixture of big-endian and
small-endian quantities, the passing of integer values where a set of bit
flags is expected, and so on. Sparse must be installed separately (it can
be found at https://sparse.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page if your
distributor does not package it); it can then be run on the code by adding
"C=1" to your make command.
The "Coccinelle" tool (http://coccinelle.lip6.fr/) is able to find a wide
variety of potential coding problems; it can also propose fixes for those
problems. Quite a few "semantic patches" for the kernel have been packaged
under the scripts/coccinelle directory; running "make coccicheck" will run
through those semantic patches and report on any problems found. See
Documentation/coccinelle.txt for more information.
Other kinds of portability errors are best found by compiling your code for
other architectures. If you do not happen to have an S/390 system or a
Blackfin development board handy, you can still perform the compilation
step. A large set of cross compilers for x86 systems can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/
Some time spent installing and using these compilers will help avoid
embarrassment later.
4.3: DOCUMENTATION
Documentation has often been more the exception than the rule with kernel
development. Even so, adequate documentation will help to ease the merging
of new code into the kernel, make life easier for other developers, and
will be helpful for your users. In many cases, the addition of
documentation has become essentially mandatory.
The first piece of documentation for any patch is its associated
changelog. Log entries should describe the problem being solved, the form
of the solution, the people who worked on the patch, any relevant
effects on performance, and anything else that might be needed to
understand the patch. Be sure that the changelog says *why* the patch is
worth applying; a surprising number of developers fail to provide that
information.
Any code which adds a new user-space interface - including new sysfs or
/proc files - should include documentation of that interface which enables
user-space developers to know what they are working with. See
Documentation/ABI/README for a description of how this documentation should
be formatted and what information needs to be provided.
The file Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt describes all of the kernel's
boot-time parameters. Any patch which adds new parameters should add the
appropriate entries to this file.
Any new configuration options must be accompanied by help text which
clearly explains the options and when the user might want to select them.
Internal API information for many subsystems is documented by way of
specially-formatted comments; these comments can be extracted and formatted
in a number of ways by the "kernel-doc" script. If you are working within
a subsystem which has kerneldoc comments, you should maintain them and add
them, as appropriate, for externally-available functions. Even in areas
which have not been so documented, there is no harm in adding kerneldoc
comments for the future; indeed, this can be a useful activity for
beginning kernel developers. The format of these comments, along with some
information on how to create kerneldoc templates can be found in the file
Documentation/kernel-documentation.rst.
Anybody who reads through a significant amount of existing kernel code will
note that, often, comments are most notable by their absence. Once again,
the expectations for new code are higher than they were in the past;
merging uncommented code will be harder. That said, there is little desire
for verbosely-commented code. The code should, itself, be readable, with
comments explaining the more subtle aspects.
Certain things should always be commented. Uses of memory barriers should
be accompanied by a line explaining why the barrier is necessary. The
locking rules for data structures generally need to be explained somewhere.
Major data structures need comprehensive documentation in general.
Non-obvious dependencies between separate bits of code should be pointed
out. Anything which might tempt a code janitor to make an incorrect
"cleanup" needs a comment saying why it is done the way it is. And so on.
4.4: INTERNAL API CHANGES
The binary interface provided by the kernel to user space cannot be broken
except under the most severe circumstances. The kernel's internal
programming interfaces, instead, are highly fluid and can be changed when
the need arises. If you find yourself having to work around a kernel API,
or simply not using a specific functionality because it does not meet your
needs, that may be a sign that the API needs to change. As a kernel
developer, you are empowered to make such changes.
There are, of course, some catches. API changes can be made, but they need
to be well justified. So any patch making an internal API change should be
accompanied by a description of what the change is and why it is
necessary. This kind of change should also be broken out into a separate
patch, rather than buried within a larger patch.
The other catch is that a developer who changes an internal API is
generally charged with the task of fixing any code within the kernel tree
which is broken by the change. For a widely-used function, this duty can
lead to literally hundreds or thousands of changes - many of which are
likely to conflict with work being done by other developers. Needless to
say, this can be a large job, so it is best to be sure that the
justification is solid. Note that the Coccinelle tool can help with
wide-ranging API changes.
When making an incompatible API change, one should, whenever possible,
ensure that code which has not been updated is caught by the compiler.
This will help you to be sure that you have found all in-tree uses of that
interface. It will also alert developers of out-of-tree code that there is
a change that they need to respond to. Supporting out-of-tree code is not
something that kernel developers need to be worried about, but we also do
not have to make life harder for out-of-tree developers than it needs to
be.

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.. _development_coding:
Getting the code right
======================
While there is much to be said for a solid and community-oriented design
process, the proof of any kernel development project is in the resulting
code. It is the code which will be examined by other developers and merged
(or not) into the mainline tree. So it is the quality of this code which
will determine the ultimate success of the project.
This section will examine the coding process. We'll start with a look at a
number of ways in which kernel developers can go wrong. Then the focus
will shift toward doing things right and the tools which can help in that
quest.
Pitfalls
---------
Coding style
************
The kernel has long had a standard coding style, described in
Documentation/CodingStyle. For much of that time, the policies described
in that file were taken as being, at most, advisory. As a result, there is
a substantial amount of code in the kernel which does not meet the coding
style guidelines. The presence of that code leads to two independent
hazards for kernel developers.
The first of these is to believe that the kernel coding standards do not
matter and are not enforced. The truth of the matter is that adding new
code to the kernel is very difficult if that code is not coded according to
the standard; many developers will request that the code be reformatted
before they will even review it. A code base as large as the kernel
requires some uniformity of code to make it possible for developers to
quickly understand any part of it. So there is no longer room for
strangely-formatted code.
Occasionally, the kernel's coding style will run into conflict with an
employer's mandated style. In such cases, the kernel's style will have to
win before the code can be merged. Putting code into the kernel means
giving up a degree of control in a number of ways - including control over
how the code is formatted.
The other trap is to assume that code which is already in the kernel is
urgently in need of coding style fixes. Developers may start to generate
reformatting patches as a way of gaining familiarity with the process, or
as a way of getting their name into the kernel changelogs - or both. But
pure coding style fixes are seen as noise by the development community;
they tend to get a chilly reception. So this type of patch is best
avoided. It is natural to fix the style of a piece of code while working
on it for other reasons, but coding style changes should not be made for
their own sake.
The coding style document also should not be read as an absolute law which
can never be transgressed. If there is a good reason to go against the
style (a line which becomes far less readable if split to fit within the
80-column limit, for example), just do it.
Abstraction layers
******************
Computer Science professors teach students to make extensive use of
abstraction layers in the name of flexibility and information hiding.
Certainly the kernel makes extensive use of abstraction; no project
involving several million lines of code could do otherwise and survive.
But experience has shown that excessive or premature abstraction can be
just as harmful as premature optimization. Abstraction should be used to
the level required and no further.
At a simple level, consider a function which has an argument which is
always passed as zero by all callers. One could retain that argument just
in case somebody eventually needs to use the extra flexibility that it
provides. By that time, though, chances are good that the code which
implements this extra argument has been broken in some subtle way which was
never noticed - because it has never been used. Or, when the need for
extra flexibility arises, it does not do so in a way which matches the
programmer's early expectation. Kernel developers will routinely submit
patches to remove unused arguments; they should, in general, not be added
in the first place.
Abstraction layers which hide access to hardware - often to allow the bulk
of a driver to be used with multiple operating systems - are especially
frowned upon. Such layers obscure the code and may impose a performance
penalty; they do not belong in the Linux kernel.
On the other hand, if you find yourself copying significant amounts of code
from another kernel subsystem, it is time to ask whether it would, in fact,
make sense to pull out some of that code into a separate library or to
implement that functionality at a higher level. There is no value in
replicating the same code throughout the kernel.
#ifdef and preprocessor use in general
**************************************
The C preprocessor seems to present a powerful temptation to some C
programmers, who see it as a way to efficiently encode a great deal of
flexibility into a source file. But the preprocessor is not C, and heavy
use of it results in code which is much harder for others to read and
harder for the compiler to check for correctness. Heavy preprocessor use
is almost always a sign of code which needs some cleanup work.
Conditional compilation with #ifdef is, indeed, a powerful feature, and it
is used within the kernel. But there is little desire to see code which is
sprinkled liberally with #ifdef blocks. As a general rule, #ifdef use
should be confined to header files whenever possible.
Conditionally-compiled code can be confined to functions which, if the code
is not to be present, simply become empty. The compiler will then quietly
optimize out the call to the empty function. The result is far cleaner
code which is easier to follow.
C preprocessor macros present a number of hazards, including possible
multiple evaluation of expressions with side effects and no type safety.
If you are tempted to define a macro, consider creating an inline function
instead. The code which results will be the same, but inline functions are
easier to read, do not evaluate their arguments multiple times, and allow
the compiler to perform type checking on the arguments and return value.
Inline functions
****************
Inline functions present a hazard of their own, though. Programmers can
become enamored of the perceived efficiency inherent in avoiding a function
call and fill a source file with inline functions. Those functions,
however, can actually reduce performance. Since their code is replicated
at each call site, they end up bloating the size of the compiled kernel.
That, in turn, creates pressure on the processor's memory caches, which can
slow execution dramatically. Inline functions, as a rule, should be quite
small and relatively rare. The cost of a function call, after all, is not
that high; the creation of large numbers of inline functions is a classic
example of premature optimization.
In general, kernel programmers ignore cache effects at their peril. The
classic time/space tradeoff taught in beginning data structures classes
often does not apply to contemporary hardware. Space *is* time, in that a
larger program will run slower than one which is more compact.
More recent compilers take an increasingly active role in deciding whether
a given function should actually be inlined or not. So the liberal
placement of "inline" keywords may not just be excessive; it could also be
irrelevant.
Locking
*******
In May, 2006, the "Devicescape" networking stack was, with great
fanfare, released under the GPL and made available for inclusion in the
mainline kernel. This donation was welcome news; support for wireless
networking in Linux was considered substandard at best, and the Devicescape
stack offered the promise of fixing that situation. Yet, this code did not
actually make it into the mainline until June, 2007 (2.6.22). What
happened?
This code showed a number of signs of having been developed behind
corporate doors. But one large problem in particular was that it was not
designed to work on multiprocessor systems. Before this networking stack
(now called mac80211) could be merged, a locking scheme needed to be
retrofitted onto it.
Once upon a time, Linux kernel code could be developed without thinking
about the concurrency issues presented by multiprocessor systems. Now,
however, this document is being written on a dual-core laptop. Even on
single-processor systems, work being done to improve responsiveness will
raise the level of concurrency within the kernel. The days when kernel
code could be written without thinking about locking are long past.
Any resource (data structures, hardware registers, etc.) which could be
accessed concurrently by more than one thread must be protected by a lock.
New code should be written with this requirement in mind; retrofitting
locking after the fact is a rather more difficult task. Kernel developers
should take the time to understand the available locking primitives well
enough to pick the right tool for the job. Code which shows a lack of
attention to concurrency will have a difficult path into the mainline.
Regressions
***********
One final hazard worth mentioning is this: it can be tempting to make a
change (which may bring big improvements) which causes something to break
for existing users. This kind of change is called a "regression," and
regressions have become most unwelcome in the mainline kernel. With few
exceptions, changes which cause regressions will be backed out if the
regression cannot be fixed in a timely manner. Far better to avoid the
regression in the first place.
It is often argued that a regression can be justified if it causes things
to work for more people than it creates problems for. Why not make a
change if it brings new functionality to ten systems for each one it
breaks? The best answer to this question was expressed by Linus in July,
2007:
::
So we don't fix bugs by introducing new problems. That way lies
madness, and nobody ever knows if you actually make any real
progress at all. Is it two steps forwards, one step back, or one
step forward and two steps back?
(http://lwn.net/Articles/243460/).
An especially unwelcome type of regression is any sort of change to the
user-space ABI. Once an interface has been exported to user space, it must
be supported indefinitely. This fact makes the creation of user-space
interfaces particularly challenging: since they cannot be changed in
incompatible ways, they must be done right the first time. For this
reason, a great deal of thought, clear documentation, and wide review for
user-space interfaces is always required.
Code checking tools
-------------------
For now, at least, the writing of error-free code remains an ideal that few
of us can reach. What we can hope to do, though, is to catch and fix as
many of those errors as possible before our code goes into the mainline
kernel. To that end, the kernel developers have put together an impressive
array of tools which can catch a wide variety of obscure problems in an
automated way. Any problem caught by the computer is a problem which will
not afflict a user later on, so it stands to reason that the automated
tools should be used whenever possible.
The first step is simply to heed the warnings produced by the compiler.
Contemporary versions of gcc can detect (and warn about) a large number of
potential errors. Quite often, these warnings point to real problems.
Code submitted for review should, as a rule, not produce any compiler
warnings. When silencing warnings, take care to understand the real cause
and try to avoid "fixes" which make the warning go away without addressing
its cause.
Note that not all compiler warnings are enabled by default. Build the
kernel with "make EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W" to get the full set.
The kernel provides several configuration options which turn on debugging
features; most of these are found in the "kernel hacking" submenu. Several
of these options should be turned on for any kernel used for development or
testing purposes. In particular, you should turn on:
- ENABLE_WARN_DEPRECATED, ENABLE_MUST_CHECK, and FRAME_WARN to get an
extra set of warnings for problems like the use of deprecated interfaces
or ignoring an important return value from a function. The output
generated by these warnings can be verbose, but one need not worry about
warnings from other parts of the kernel.
- DEBUG_OBJECTS will add code to track the lifetime of various objects
created by the kernel and warn when things are done out of order. If
you are adding a subsystem which creates (and exports) complex objects
of its own, consider adding support for the object debugging
infrastructure.
- DEBUG_SLAB can find a variety of memory allocation and use errors; it
should be used on most development kernels.
- DEBUG_SPINLOCK, DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP, and DEBUG_MUTEXES will find a
number of common locking errors.
There are quite a few other debugging options, some of which will be
discussed below. Some of them have a significant performance impact and
should not be used all of the time. But some time spent learning the
available options will likely be paid back many times over in short order.
One of the heavier debugging tools is the locking checker, or "lockdep."
This tool will track the acquisition and release of every lock (spinlock or
mutex) in the system, the order in which locks are acquired relative to
each other, the current interrupt environment, and more. It can then
ensure that locks are always acquired in the same order, that the same
interrupt assumptions apply in all situations, and so on. In other words,
lockdep can find a number of scenarios in which the system could, on rare
occasion, deadlock. This kind of problem can be painful (for both
developers and users) in a deployed system; lockdep allows them to be found
in an automated manner ahead of time. Code with any sort of non-trivial
locking should be run with lockdep enabled before being submitted for
inclusion.
As a diligent kernel programmer, you will, beyond doubt, check the return
status of any operation (such as a memory allocation) which can fail. The
fact of the matter, though, is that the resulting failure recovery paths
are, probably, completely untested. Untested code tends to be broken code;
you could be much more confident of your code if all those error-handling
paths had been exercised a few times.
The kernel provides a fault injection framework which can do exactly that,
especially where memory allocations are involved. With fault injection
enabled, a configurable percentage of memory allocations will be made to
fail; these failures can be restricted to a specific range of code.
Running with fault injection enabled allows the programmer to see how the
code responds when things go badly. See
Documentation/fault-injection/fault-injection.txt for more information on
how to use this facility.
Other kinds of errors can be found with the "sparse" static analysis tool.
With sparse, the programmer can be warned about confusion between
user-space and kernel-space addresses, mixture of big-endian and
small-endian quantities, the passing of integer values where a set of bit
flags is expected, and so on. Sparse must be installed separately (it can
be found at https://sparse.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page if your
distributor does not package it); it can then be run on the code by adding
"C=1" to your make command.
The "Coccinelle" tool (http://coccinelle.lip6.fr/) is able to find a wide
variety of potential coding problems; it can also propose fixes for those
problems. Quite a few "semantic patches" for the kernel have been packaged
under the scripts/coccinelle directory; running "make coccicheck" will run
through those semantic patches and report on any problems found. See
Documentation/coccinelle.txt for more information.
Other kinds of portability errors are best found by compiling your code for
other architectures. If you do not happen to have an S/390 system or a
Blackfin development board handy, you can still perform the compilation
step. A large set of cross compilers for x86 systems can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/
Some time spent installing and using these compilers will help avoid
embarrassment later.
Documentation
-------------
Documentation has often been more the exception than the rule with kernel
development. Even so, adequate documentation will help to ease the merging
of new code into the kernel, make life easier for other developers, and
will be helpful for your users. In many cases, the addition of
documentation has become essentially mandatory.
The first piece of documentation for any patch is its associated
changelog. Log entries should describe the problem being solved, the form
of the solution, the people who worked on the patch, any relevant
effects on performance, and anything else that might be needed to
understand the patch. Be sure that the changelog says *why* the patch is
worth applying; a surprising number of developers fail to provide that
information.
Any code which adds a new user-space interface - including new sysfs or
/proc files - should include documentation of that interface which enables
user-space developers to know what they are working with. See
Documentation/ABI/README for a description of how this documentation should
be formatted and what information needs to be provided.
The file Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt describes all of the kernel's
boot-time parameters. Any patch which adds new parameters should add the
appropriate entries to this file.
Any new configuration options must be accompanied by help text which
clearly explains the options and when the user might want to select them.
Internal API information for many subsystems is documented by way of
specially-formatted comments; these comments can be extracted and formatted
in a number of ways by the "kernel-doc" script. If you are working within
a subsystem which has kerneldoc comments, you should maintain them and add
them, as appropriate, for externally-available functions. Even in areas
which have not been so documented, there is no harm in adding kerneldoc
comments for the future; indeed, this can be a useful activity for
beginning kernel developers. The format of these comments, along with some
information on how to create kerneldoc templates can be found in the file
Documentation/kernel-documentation.rst.
Anybody who reads through a significant amount of existing kernel code will
note that, often, comments are most notable by their absence. Once again,
the expectations for new code are higher than they were in the past;
merging uncommented code will be harder. That said, there is little desire
for verbosely-commented code. The code should, itself, be readable, with
comments explaining the more subtle aspects.
Certain things should always be commented. Uses of memory barriers should
be accompanied by a line explaining why the barrier is necessary. The
locking rules for data structures generally need to be explained somewhere.
Major data structures need comprehensive documentation in general.
Non-obvious dependencies between separate bits of code should be pointed
out. Anything which might tempt a code janitor to make an incorrect
"cleanup" needs a comment saying why it is done the way it is. And so on.
Internal API changes
--------------------
The binary interface provided by the kernel to user space cannot be broken
except under the most severe circumstances. The kernel's internal
programming interfaces, instead, are highly fluid and can be changed when
the need arises. If you find yourself having to work around a kernel API,
or simply not using a specific functionality because it does not meet your
needs, that may be a sign that the API needs to change. As a kernel
developer, you are empowered to make such changes.
There are, of course, some catches. API changes can be made, but they need
to be well justified. So any patch making an internal API change should be
accompanied by a description of what the change is and why it is
necessary. This kind of change should also be broken out into a separate
patch, rather than buried within a larger patch.
The other catch is that a developer who changes an internal API is
generally charged with the task of fixing any code within the kernel tree
which is broken by the change. For a widely-used function, this duty can
lead to literally hundreds or thousands of changes - many of which are
likely to conflict with work being done by other developers. Needless to
say, this can be a large job, so it is best to be sure that the
justification is solid. Note that the Coccinelle tool can help with
wide-ranging API changes.
When making an incompatible API change, one should, whenever possible,
ensure that code which has not been updated is caught by the compiler.
This will help you to be sure that you have found all in-tree uses of that
interface. It will also alert developers of out-of-tree code that there is
a change that they need to respond to. Supporting out-of-tree code is not
something that kernel developers need to be worried about, but we also do
not have to make life harder for out-of-tree developers than it needs to
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5: POSTING PATCHES
Sooner or later, the time comes when your work is ready to be presented to
the community for review and, eventually, inclusion into the mainline
kernel. Unsurprisingly, the kernel development community has evolved a set
of conventions and procedures which are used in the posting of patches;
following them will make life much easier for everybody involved. This
document will attempt to cover these expectations in reasonable detail;
more information can also be found in the files SubmittingPatches,
SubmittingDrivers, and SubmitChecklist in the kernel documentation
directory.
5.1: WHEN TO POST
There is a constant temptation to avoid posting patches before they are
completely "ready." For simple patches, that is not a problem. If the
work being done is complex, though, there is a lot to be gained by getting
feedback from the community before the work is complete. So you should
consider posting in-progress work, or even making a git tree available so
that interested developers can catch up with your work at any time.
When posting code which is not yet considered ready for inclusion, it is a
good idea to say so in the posting itself. Also mention any major work
which remains to be done and any known problems. Fewer people will look at
patches which are known to be half-baked, but those who do will come in
with the idea that they can help you drive the work in the right direction.
5.2: BEFORE CREATING PATCHES
There are a number of things which should be done before you consider
sending patches to the development community. These include:
- Test the code to the extent that you can. Make use of the kernel's
debugging tools, ensure that the kernel will build with all reasonable
combinations of configuration options, use cross-compilers to build for
different architectures, etc.
- Make sure your code is compliant with the kernel coding style
guidelines.
- Does your change have performance implications? If so, you should run
benchmarks showing what the impact (or benefit) of your change is; a
summary of the results should be included with the patch.
- Be sure that you have the right to post the code. If this work was done
for an employer, the employer likely has a right to the work and must be
agreeable with its release under the GPL.
As a general rule, putting in some extra thought before posting code almost
always pays back the effort in short order.
5.3: PATCH PREPARATION
The preparation of patches for posting can be a surprising amount of work,
but, once again, attempting to save time here is not generally advisable
even in the short term.
Patches must be prepared against a specific version of the kernel. As a
general rule, a patch should be based on the current mainline as found in
Linus's git tree. When basing on mainline, start with a well-known release
point - a stable or -rc release - rather than branching off the mainline at
an arbitrary spot.
It may become necessary to make versions against -mm, linux-next, or a
subsystem tree, though, to facilitate wider testing and review. Depending
on the area of your patch and what is going on elsewhere, basing a patch
against these other trees can require a significant amount of work
resolving conflicts and dealing with API changes.
Only the most simple changes should be formatted as a single patch;
everything else should be made as a logical series of changes. Splitting
up patches is a bit of an art; some developers spend a long time figuring
out how to do it in the way that the community expects. There are a few
rules of thumb, however, which can help considerably:
- The patch series you post will almost certainly not be the series of
changes found in your working revision control system. Instead, the
changes you have made need to be considered in their final form, then
split apart in ways which make sense. The developers are interested in
discrete, self-contained changes, not the path you took to get to those
changes.
- Each logically independent change should be formatted as a separate
patch. These changes can be small ("add a field to this structure") or
large (adding a significant new driver, for example), but they should be
conceptually small and amenable to a one-line description. Each patch
should make a specific change which can be reviewed on its own and
verified to do what it says it does.
- As a way of restating the guideline above: do not mix different types of
changes in the same patch. If a single patch fixes a critical security
bug, rearranges a few structures, and reformats the code, there is a
good chance that it will be passed over and the important fix will be
lost.
- Each patch should yield a kernel which builds and runs properly; if your
patch series is interrupted in the middle, the result should still be a
working kernel. Partial application of a patch series is a common
scenario when the "git bisect" tool is used to find regressions; if the
result is a broken kernel, you will make life harder for developers and
users who are engaging in the noble work of tracking down problems.
- Do not overdo it, though. One developer once posted a set of edits
to a single file as 500 separate patches - an act which did not make him
the most popular person on the kernel mailing list. A single patch can
be reasonably large as long as it still contains a single *logical*
change.
- It can be tempting to add a whole new infrastructure with a series of
patches, but to leave that infrastructure unused until the final patch
in the series enables the whole thing. This temptation should be
avoided if possible; if that series adds regressions, bisection will
finger the last patch as the one which caused the problem, even though
the real bug is elsewhere. Whenever possible, a patch which adds new
code should make that code active immediately.
Working to create the perfect patch series can be a frustrating process
which takes quite a bit of time and thought after the "real work" has been
done. When done properly, though, it is time well spent.
5.4: PATCH FORMATTING AND CHANGELOGS
So now you have a perfect series of patches for posting, but the work is
not done quite yet. Each patch needs to be formatted into a message which
quickly and clearly communicates its purpose to the rest of the world. To
that end, each patch will be composed of the following:
- An optional "From" line naming the author of the patch. This line is
only necessary if you are passing on somebody else's patch via email,
but it never hurts to add it when in doubt.
- A one-line description of what the patch does. This message should be
enough for a reader who sees it with no other context to figure out the
scope of the patch; it is the line that will show up in the "short form"
changelogs. This message is usually formatted with the relevant
subsystem name first, followed by the purpose of the patch. For
example:
gpio: fix build on CONFIG_GPIO_SYSFS=n
- A blank line followed by a detailed description of the contents of the
patch. This description can be as long as is required; it should say
what the patch does and why it should be applied to the kernel.
- One or more tag lines, with, at a minimum, one Signed-off-by: line from
the author of the patch. Tags will be described in more detail below.
The items above, together, form the changelog for the patch. Writing good
changelogs is a crucial but often-neglected art; it's worth spending
another moment discussing this issue. When writing a changelog, you should
bear in mind that a number of different people will be reading your words.
These include subsystem maintainers and reviewers who need to decide
whether the patch should be included, distributors and other maintainers
trying to decide whether a patch should be backported to other kernels, bug
hunters wondering whether the patch is responsible for a problem they are
chasing, users who want to know how the kernel has changed, and more. A
good changelog conveys the needed information to all of these people in the
most direct and concise way possible.
To that end, the summary line should describe the effects of and motivation
for the change as well as possible given the one-line constraint. The
detailed description can then amplify on those topics and provide any
needed additional information. If the patch fixes a bug, cite the commit
which introduced the bug if possible (and please provide both the commit ID
and the title when citing commits). If a problem is associated with
specific log or compiler output, include that output to help others
searching for a solution to the same problem. If the change is meant to
support other changes coming in later patch, say so. If internal APIs are
changed, detail those changes and how other developers should respond. In
general, the more you can put yourself into the shoes of everybody who will
be reading your changelog, the better that changelog (and the kernel as a
whole) will be.
Needless to say, the changelog should be the text used when committing the
change to a revision control system. It will be followed by:
- The patch itself, in the unified ("-u") patch format. Using the "-p"
option to diff will associate function names with changes, making the
resulting patch easier for others to read.
You should avoid including changes to irrelevant files (those generated by
the build process, for example, or editor backup files) in the patch. The
file "dontdiff" in the Documentation directory can help in this regard;
pass it to diff with the "-X" option.
The tags mentioned above are used to describe how various developers have
been associated with the development of this patch. They are described in
detail in the SubmittingPatches document; what follows here is a brief
summary. Each of these lines has the format:
tag: Full Name <email address> optional-other-stuff
The tags in common use are:
- Signed-off-by: this is a developer's certification that he or she has
the right to submit the patch for inclusion into the kernel. It is an
agreement to the Developer's Certificate of Origin, the full text of
which can be found in Documentation/SubmittingPatches. Code without a
proper signoff cannot be merged into the mainline.
- Acked-by: indicates an agreement by another developer (often a
maintainer of the relevant code) that the patch is appropriate for
inclusion into the kernel.
- Tested-by: states that the named person has tested the patch and found
it to work.
- Reviewed-by: the named developer has reviewed the patch for correctness;
see the reviewer's statement in Documentation/SubmittingPatches for more
detail.
- Reported-by: names a user who reported a problem which is fixed by this
patch; this tag is used to give credit to the (often underappreciated)
people who test our code and let us know when things do not work
correctly.
- Cc: the named person received a copy of the patch and had the
opportunity to comment on it.
Be careful in the addition of tags to your patches: only Cc: is appropriate
for addition without the explicit permission of the person named.
5.5: SENDING THE PATCH
Before you mail your patches, there are a couple of other things you should
take care of:
- Are you sure that your mailer will not corrupt the patches? Patches
which have had gratuitous white-space changes or line wrapping performed
by the mail client will not apply at the other end, and often will not
be examined in any detail. If there is any doubt at all, mail the patch
to yourself and convince yourself that it shows up intact.
Documentation/email-clients.txt has some helpful hints on making
specific mail clients work for sending patches.
- Are you sure your patch is free of silly mistakes? You should always
run patches through scripts/checkpatch.pl and address the complaints it
comes up with. Please bear in mind that checkpatch.pl, while being the
embodiment of a fair amount of thought about what kernel patches should
look like, is not smarter than you. If fixing a checkpatch.pl complaint
would make the code worse, don't do it.
Patches should always be sent as plain text. Please do not send them as
attachments; that makes it much harder for reviewers to quote sections of
the patch in their replies. Instead, just put the patch directly into your
message.
When mailing patches, it is important to send copies to anybody who might
be interested in it. Unlike some other projects, the kernel encourages
people to err on the side of sending too many copies; don't assume that the
relevant people will see your posting on the mailing lists. In particular,
copies should go to:
- The maintainer(s) of the affected subsystem(s). As described earlier,
the MAINTAINERS file is the first place to look for these people.
- Other developers who have been working in the same area - especially
those who might be working there now. Using git to see who else has
modified the files you are working on can be helpful.
- If you are responding to a bug report or a feature request, copy the
original poster as well.
- Send a copy to the relevant mailing list, or, if nothing else applies,
the linux-kernel list.
- If you are fixing a bug, think about whether the fix should go into the
next stable update. If so, stable@vger.kernel.org should get a copy of
the patch. Also add a "Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org" to the tags within
the patch itself; that will cause the stable team to get a notification
when your fix goes into the mainline.
When selecting recipients for a patch, it is good to have an idea of who
you think will eventually accept the patch and get it merged. While it
is possible to send patches directly to Linus Torvalds and have him merge
them, things are not normally done that way. Linus is busy, and there are
subsystem maintainers who watch over specific parts of the kernel. Usually
you will be wanting that maintainer to merge your patches. If there is no
obvious maintainer, Andrew Morton is often the patch target of last resort.
Patches need good subject lines. The canonical format for a patch line is
something like:
[PATCH nn/mm] subsys: one-line description of the patch
where "nn" is the ordinal number of the patch, "mm" is the total number of
patches in the series, and "subsys" is the name of the affected subsystem.
Clearly, nn/mm can be omitted for a single, standalone patch.
If you have a significant series of patches, it is customary to send an
introductory description as part zero. This convention is not universally
followed though; if you use it, remember that information in the
introduction does not make it into the kernel changelogs. So please ensure
that the patches, themselves, have complete changelog information.
In general, the second and following parts of a multi-part patch should be
sent as a reply to the first part so that they all thread together at the
receiving end. Tools like git and quilt have commands to mail out a set of
patches with the proper threading. If you have a long series, though, and
are using git, please stay away from the --chain-reply-to option to avoid
creating exceptionally deep nesting.

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.. _development_posting:
Posting patches
===============
Sooner or later, the time comes when your work is ready to be presented to
the community for review and, eventually, inclusion into the mainline
kernel. Unsurprisingly, the kernel development community has evolved a set
of conventions and procedures which are used in the posting of patches;
following them will make life much easier for everybody involved. This
document will attempt to cover these expectations in reasonable detail;
more information can also be found in the files SubmittingPatches,
SubmittingDrivers, and SubmitChecklist in the kernel documentation
directory.
When to post
------------
There is a constant temptation to avoid posting patches before they are
completely "ready." For simple patches, that is not a problem. If the
work being done is complex, though, there is a lot to be gained by getting
feedback from the community before the work is complete. So you should
consider posting in-progress work, or even making a git tree available so
that interested developers can catch up with your work at any time.
When posting code which is not yet considered ready for inclusion, it is a
good idea to say so in the posting itself. Also mention any major work
which remains to be done and any known problems. Fewer people will look at
patches which are known to be half-baked, but those who do will come in
with the idea that they can help you drive the work in the right direction.
Before creating patches
-----------------------
There are a number of things which should be done before you consider
sending patches to the development community. These include:
- Test the code to the extent that you can. Make use of the kernel's
debugging tools, ensure that the kernel will build with all reasonable
combinations of configuration options, use cross-compilers to build for
different architectures, etc.
- Make sure your code is compliant with the kernel coding style
guidelines.
- Does your change have performance implications? If so, you should run
benchmarks showing what the impact (or benefit) of your change is; a
summary of the results should be included with the patch.
- Be sure that you have the right to post the code. If this work was done
for an employer, the employer likely has a right to the work and must be
agreeable with its release under the GPL.
As a general rule, putting in some extra thought before posting code almost
always pays back the effort in short order.
Patch preparation
-----------------
The preparation of patches for posting can be a surprising amount of work,
but, once again, attempting to save time here is not generally advisable
even in the short term.
Patches must be prepared against a specific version of the kernel. As a
general rule, a patch should be based on the current mainline as found in
Linus's git tree. When basing on mainline, start with a well-known release
point - a stable or -rc release - rather than branching off the mainline at
an arbitrary spot.
It may become necessary to make versions against -mm, linux-next, or a
subsystem tree, though, to facilitate wider testing and review. Depending
on the area of your patch and what is going on elsewhere, basing a patch
against these other trees can require a significant amount of work
resolving conflicts and dealing with API changes.
Only the most simple changes should be formatted as a single patch;
everything else should be made as a logical series of changes. Splitting
up patches is a bit of an art; some developers spend a long time figuring
out how to do it in the way that the community expects. There are a few
rules of thumb, however, which can help considerably:
- The patch series you post will almost certainly not be the series of
changes found in your working revision control system. Instead, the
changes you have made need to be considered in their final form, then
split apart in ways which make sense. The developers are interested in
discrete, self-contained changes, not the path you took to get to those
changes.
- Each logically independent change should be formatted as a separate
patch. These changes can be small ("add a field to this structure") or
large (adding a significant new driver, for example), but they should be
conceptually small and amenable to a one-line description. Each patch
should make a specific change which can be reviewed on its own and
verified to do what it says it does.
- As a way of restating the guideline above: do not mix different types of
changes in the same patch. If a single patch fixes a critical security
bug, rearranges a few structures, and reformats the code, there is a
good chance that it will be passed over and the important fix will be
lost.
- Each patch should yield a kernel which builds and runs properly; if your
patch series is interrupted in the middle, the result should still be a
working kernel. Partial application of a patch series is a common
scenario when the "git bisect" tool is used to find regressions; if the
result is a broken kernel, you will make life harder for developers and
users who are engaging in the noble work of tracking down problems.
- Do not overdo it, though. One developer once posted a set of edits
to a single file as 500 separate patches - an act which did not make him
the most popular person on the kernel mailing list. A single patch can
be reasonably large as long as it still contains a single *logical*
change.
- It can be tempting to add a whole new infrastructure with a series of
patches, but to leave that infrastructure unused until the final patch
in the series enables the whole thing. This temptation should be
avoided if possible; if that series adds regressions, bisection will
finger the last patch as the one which caused the problem, even though
the real bug is elsewhere. Whenever possible, a patch which adds new
code should make that code active immediately.
Working to create the perfect patch series can be a frustrating process
which takes quite a bit of time and thought after the "real work" has been
done. When done properly, though, it is time well spent.
Patch formatting and changelogs
-------------------------------
So now you have a perfect series of patches for posting, but the work is
not done quite yet. Each patch needs to be formatted into a message which
quickly and clearly communicates its purpose to the rest of the world. To
that end, each patch will be composed of the following:
- An optional "From" line naming the author of the patch. This line is
only necessary if you are passing on somebody else's patch via email,
but it never hurts to add it when in doubt.
- A one-line description of what the patch does. This message should be
enough for a reader who sees it with no other context to figure out the
scope of the patch; it is the line that will show up in the "short form"
changelogs. This message is usually formatted with the relevant
subsystem name first, followed by the purpose of the patch. For
example:
::
gpio: fix build on CONFIG_GPIO_SYSFS=n
- A blank line followed by a detailed description of the contents of the
patch. This description can be as long as is required; it should say
what the patch does and why it should be applied to the kernel.
- One or more tag lines, with, at a minimum, one Signed-off-by: line from
the author of the patch. Tags will be described in more detail below.
The items above, together, form the changelog for the patch. Writing good
changelogs is a crucial but often-neglected art; it's worth spending
another moment discussing this issue. When writing a changelog, you should
bear in mind that a number of different people will be reading your words.
These include subsystem maintainers and reviewers who need to decide
whether the patch should be included, distributors and other maintainers
trying to decide whether a patch should be backported to other kernels, bug
hunters wondering whether the patch is responsible for a problem they are
chasing, users who want to know how the kernel has changed, and more. A
good changelog conveys the needed information to all of these people in the
most direct and concise way possible.
To that end, the summary line should describe the effects of and motivation
for the change as well as possible given the one-line constraint. The
detailed description can then amplify on those topics and provide any
needed additional information. If the patch fixes a bug, cite the commit
which introduced the bug if possible (and please provide both the commit ID
and the title when citing commits). If a problem is associated with
specific log or compiler output, include that output to help others
searching for a solution to the same problem. If the change is meant to
support other changes coming in later patch, say so. If internal APIs are
changed, detail those changes and how other developers should respond. In
general, the more you can put yourself into the shoes of everybody who will
be reading your changelog, the better that changelog (and the kernel as a
whole) will be.
Needless to say, the changelog should be the text used when committing the
change to a revision control system. It will be followed by:
- The patch itself, in the unified ("-u") patch format. Using the "-p"
option to diff will associate function names with changes, making the
resulting patch easier for others to read.
You should avoid including changes to irrelevant files (those generated by
the build process, for example, or editor backup files) in the patch. The
file "dontdiff" in the Documentation directory can help in this regard;
pass it to diff with the "-X" option.
The tags mentioned above are used to describe how various developers have
been associated with the development of this patch. They are described in
detail in the SubmittingPatches document; what follows here is a brief
summary. Each of these lines has the format:
::
tag: Full Name <email address> optional-other-stuff
The tags in common use are:
- Signed-off-by: this is a developer's certification that he or she has
the right to submit the patch for inclusion into the kernel. It is an
agreement to the Developer's Certificate of Origin, the full text of
which can be found in Documentation/SubmittingPatches. Code without a
proper signoff cannot be merged into the mainline.
- Acked-by: indicates an agreement by another developer (often a
maintainer of the relevant code) that the patch is appropriate for
inclusion into the kernel.
- Tested-by: states that the named person has tested the patch and found
it to work.
- Reviewed-by: the named developer has reviewed the patch for correctness;
see the reviewer's statement in Documentation/SubmittingPatches for more
detail.
- Reported-by: names a user who reported a problem which is fixed by this
patch; this tag is used to give credit to the (often underappreciated)
people who test our code and let us know when things do not work
correctly.
- Cc: the named person received a copy of the patch and had the
opportunity to comment on it.
Be careful in the addition of tags to your patches: only Cc: is appropriate
for addition without the explicit permission of the person named.
Sending the patch
-----------------
Before you mail your patches, there are a couple of other things you should
take care of:
- Are you sure that your mailer will not corrupt the patches? Patches
which have had gratuitous white-space changes or line wrapping performed
by the mail client will not apply at the other end, and often will not
be examined in any detail. If there is any doubt at all, mail the patch
to yourself and convince yourself that it shows up intact.
Documentation/email-clients.txt has some helpful hints on making
specific mail clients work for sending patches.
- Are you sure your patch is free of silly mistakes? You should always
run patches through scripts/checkpatch.pl and address the complaints it
comes up with. Please bear in mind that checkpatch.pl, while being the
embodiment of a fair amount of thought about what kernel patches should
look like, is not smarter than you. If fixing a checkpatch.pl complaint
would make the code worse, don't do it.
Patches should always be sent as plain text. Please do not send them as
attachments; that makes it much harder for reviewers to quote sections of
the patch in their replies. Instead, just put the patch directly into your
message.
When mailing patches, it is important to send copies to anybody who might
be interested in it. Unlike some other projects, the kernel encourages
people to err on the side of sending too many copies; don't assume that the
relevant people will see your posting on the mailing lists. In particular,
copies should go to:
- The maintainer(s) of the affected subsystem(s). As described earlier,
the MAINTAINERS file is the first place to look for these people.
- Other developers who have been working in the same area - especially
those who might be working there now. Using git to see who else has
modified the files you are working on can be helpful.
- If you are responding to a bug report or a feature request, copy the
original poster as well.
- Send a copy to the relevant mailing list, or, if nothing else applies,
the linux-kernel list.
- If you are fixing a bug, think about whether the fix should go into the
next stable update. If so, stable@vger.kernel.org should get a copy of
the patch. Also add a "Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org" to the tags within
the patch itself; that will cause the stable team to get a notification
when your fix goes into the mainline.
When selecting recipients for a patch, it is good to have an idea of who
you think will eventually accept the patch and get it merged. While it
is possible to send patches directly to Linus Torvalds and have him merge
them, things are not normally done that way. Linus is busy, and there are
subsystem maintainers who watch over specific parts of the kernel. Usually
you will be wanting that maintainer to merge your patches. If there is no
obvious maintainer, Andrew Morton is often the patch target of last resort.
Patches need good subject lines. The canonical format for a patch line is
something like:
::
[PATCH nn/mm] subsys: one-line description of the patch
where "nn" is the ordinal number of the patch, "mm" is the total number of
patches in the series, and "subsys" is the name of the affected subsystem.
Clearly, nn/mm can be omitted for a single, standalone patch.
If you have a significant series of patches, it is customary to send an
introductory description as part zero. This convention is not universally
followed though; if you use it, remember that information in the
introduction does not make it into the kernel changelogs. So please ensure
that the patches, themselves, have complete changelog information.
In general, the second and following parts of a multi-part patch should be
sent as a reply to the first part so that they all thread together at the
receiving end. Tools like git and quilt have commands to mail out a set of
patches with the proper threading. If you have a long series, though, and
are using git, please stay away from the --chain-reply-to option to avoid
creating exceptionally deep nesting.

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6: FOLLOWTHROUGH
At this point, you have followed the guidelines given so far and, with the
addition of your own engineering skills, have posted a perfect series of
patches. One of the biggest mistakes that even experienced kernel
developers can make is to conclude that their work is now done. In truth,
posting patches indicates a transition into the next stage of the process,
with, possibly, quite a bit of work yet to be done.
It is a rare patch which is so good at its first posting that there is no
room for improvement. The kernel development process recognizes this fact,
and, as a result, is heavily oriented toward the improvement of posted
code. You, as the author of that code, will be expected to work with the
kernel community to ensure that your code is up to the kernel's quality
standards. A failure to participate in this process is quite likely to
prevent the inclusion of your patches into the mainline.
6.1: WORKING WITH REVIEWERS
A patch of any significance will result in a number of comments from other
developers as they review the code. Working with reviewers can be, for
many developers, the most intimidating part of the kernel development
process. Life can be made much easier, though, if you keep a few things in
mind:
- If you have explained your patch well, reviewers will understand its
value and why you went to the trouble of writing it. But that value
will not keep them from asking a fundamental question: what will it be
like to maintain a kernel with this code in it five or ten years later?
Many of the changes you may be asked to make - from coding style tweaks
to substantial rewrites - come from the understanding that Linux will
still be around and under development a decade from now.
- Code review is hard work, and it is a relatively thankless occupation;
people remember who wrote kernel code, but there is little lasting fame
for those who reviewed it. So reviewers can get grumpy, especially when
they see the same mistakes being made over and over again. If you get a
review which seems angry, insulting, or outright offensive, resist the
impulse to respond in kind. Code review is about the code, not about
the people, and code reviewers are not attacking you personally.
- Similarly, code reviewers are not trying to promote their employers'
agendas at the expense of your own. Kernel developers often expect to
be working on the kernel years from now, but they understand that their
employer could change. They truly are, almost without exception,
working toward the creation of the best kernel they can; they are not
trying to create discomfort for their employers' competitors.
What all of this comes down to is that, when reviewers send you comments,
you need to pay attention to the technical observations that they are
making. Do not let their form of expression or your own pride keep that
from happening. When you get review comments on a patch, take the time to
understand what the reviewer is trying to say. If possible, fix the things
that the reviewer is asking you to fix. And respond back to the reviewer:
thank them, and describe how you will answer their questions.
Note that you do not have to agree with every change suggested by
reviewers. If you believe that the reviewer has misunderstood your code,
explain what is really going on. If you have a technical objection to a
suggested change, describe it and justify your solution to the problem. If
your explanations make sense, the reviewer will accept them. Should your
explanation not prove persuasive, though, especially if others start to
agree with the reviewer, take some time to think things over again. It can
be easy to become blinded by your own solution to a problem to the point
that you don't realize that something is fundamentally wrong or, perhaps,
you're not even solving the right problem.
Andrew Morton has suggested that every review comment which does not result
in a code change should result in an additional code comment instead; that
can help future reviewers avoid the questions which came up the first time
around.
One fatal mistake is to ignore review comments in the hope that they will
go away. They will not go away. If you repost code without having
responded to the comments you got the time before, you're likely to find
that your patches go nowhere.
Speaking of reposting code: please bear in mind that reviewers are not
going to remember all the details of the code you posted the last time
around. So it is always a good idea to remind reviewers of previously
raised issues and how you dealt with them; the patch changelog is a good
place for this kind of information. Reviewers should not have to search
through list archives to familiarize themselves with what was said last
time; if you help them get a running start, they will be in a better mood
when they revisit your code.
What if you've tried to do everything right and things still aren't going
anywhere? Most technical disagreements can be resolved through discussion,
but there are times when somebody simply has to make a decision. If you
honestly believe that this decision is going against you wrongly, you can
always try appealing to a higher power. As of this writing, that higher
power tends to be Andrew Morton. Andrew has a great deal of respect in the
kernel development community; he can often unjam a situation which seems to
be hopelessly blocked. Appealing to Andrew should not be done lightly,
though, and not before all other alternatives have been explored. And bear
in mind, of course, that he may not agree with you either.
6.2: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
If a patch is considered to be a good thing to add to the kernel, and once
most of the review issues have been resolved, the next step is usually
entry into a subsystem maintainer's tree. How that works varies from one
subsystem to the next; each maintainer has his or her own way of doing
things. In particular, there may be more than one tree - one, perhaps,
dedicated to patches planned for the next merge window, and another for
longer-term work.
For patches applying to areas for which there is no obvious subsystem tree
(memory management patches, for example), the default tree often ends up
being -mm. Patches which affect multiple subsystems can also end up going
through the -mm tree.
Inclusion into a subsystem tree can bring a higher level of visibility to a
patch. Now other developers working with that tree will get the patch by
default. Subsystem trees typically feed linux-next as well, making their
contents visible to the development community as a whole. At this point,
there's a good chance that you will get more comments from a new set of
reviewers; these comments need to be answered as in the previous round.
What may also happen at this point, depending on the nature of your patch,
is that conflicts with work being done by others turn up. In the worst
case, heavy patch conflicts can result in some work being put on the back
burner so that the remaining patches can be worked into shape and merged.
Other times, conflict resolution will involve working with the other
developers and, possibly, moving some patches between trees to ensure that
everything applies cleanly. This work can be a pain, but count your
blessings: before the advent of the linux-next tree, these conflicts often
only turned up during the merge window and had to be addressed in a hurry.
Now they can be resolved at leisure, before the merge window opens.
Some day, if all goes well, you'll log on and see that your patch has been
merged into the mainline kernel. Congratulations! Once the celebration is
complete (and you have added yourself to the MAINTAINERS file), though, it
is worth remembering an important little fact: the job still is not done.
Merging into the mainline brings its own challenges.
To begin with, the visibility of your patch has increased yet again. There
may be a new round of comments from developers who had not been aware of
the patch before. It may be tempting to ignore them, since there is no
longer any question of your code being merged. Resist that temptation,
though; you still need to be responsive to developers who have questions or
suggestions.
More importantly, though: inclusion into the mainline puts your code into
the hands of a much larger group of testers. Even if you have contributed
a driver for hardware which is not yet available, you will be surprised by
how many people will build your code into their kernels. And, of course,
where there are testers, there will be bug reports.
The worst sort of bug reports are regressions. If your patch causes a
regression, you'll find an uncomfortable number of eyes upon you;
regressions need to be fixed as soon as possible. If you are unwilling or
unable to fix the regression (and nobody else does it for you), your patch
will almost certainly be removed during the stabilization period. Beyond
negating all of the work you have done to get your patch into the mainline,
having a patch pulled as the result of a failure to fix a regression could
well make it harder for you to get work merged in the future.
After any regressions have been dealt with, there may be other, ordinary
bugs to deal with. The stabilization period is your best opportunity to
fix these bugs and ensure that your code's debut in a mainline kernel
release is as solid as possible. So, please, answer bug reports, and fix
the problems if at all possible. That's what the stabilization period is
for; you can start creating cool new patches once any problems with the old
ones have been taken care of.
And don't forget that there are other milestones which may also create bug
reports: the next mainline stable release, when prominent distributors pick
up a version of the kernel containing your patch, etc. Continuing to
respond to these reports is a matter of basic pride in your work. If that
is insufficient motivation, though, it's also worth considering that the
development community remembers developers who lose interest in their code
after it's merged. The next time you post a patch, they will be evaluating
it with the assumption that you will not be around to maintain it
afterward.
6.3: OTHER THINGS THAT CAN HAPPEN
One day, you may open your mail client and see that somebody has mailed you
a patch to your code. That is one of the advantages of having your code
out there in the open, after all. If you agree with the patch, you can
either forward it on to the subsystem maintainer (be sure to include a
proper From: line so that the attribution is correct, and add a signoff of
your own), or send an Acked-by: response back and let the original poster
send it upward.
If you disagree with the patch, send a polite response explaining why. If
possible, tell the author what changes need to be made to make the patch
acceptable to you. There is a certain resistance to merging patches which
are opposed by the author and maintainer of the code, but it only goes so
far. If you are seen as needlessly blocking good work, those patches will
eventually flow around you and get into the mainline anyway. In the Linux
kernel, nobody has absolute veto power over any code. Except maybe Linus.
On very rare occasion, you may see something completely different: another
developer posts a different solution to your problem. At that point,
chances are that one of the two patches will not be merged, and "mine was
here first" is not considered to be a compelling technical argument. If
somebody else's patch displaces yours and gets into the mainline, there is
really only one way to respond: be pleased that your problem got solved and
get on with your work. Having one's work shoved aside in this manner can
be hurtful and discouraging, but the community will remember your reaction
long after they have forgotten whose patch actually got merged.

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.. _development_followthrough:
Followthrough
=============
At this point, you have followed the guidelines given so far and, with the
addition of your own engineering skills, have posted a perfect series of
patches. One of the biggest mistakes that even experienced kernel
developers can make is to conclude that their work is now done. In truth,
posting patches indicates a transition into the next stage of the process,
with, possibly, quite a bit of work yet to be done.
It is a rare patch which is so good at its first posting that there is no
room for improvement. The kernel development process recognizes this fact,
and, as a result, is heavily oriented toward the improvement of posted
code. You, as the author of that code, will be expected to work with the
kernel community to ensure that your code is up to the kernel's quality
standards. A failure to participate in this process is quite likely to
prevent the inclusion of your patches into the mainline.
Working with reviewers
----------------------
A patch of any significance will result in a number of comments from other
developers as they review the code. Working with reviewers can be, for
many developers, the most intimidating part of the kernel development
process. Life can be made much easier, though, if you keep a few things in
mind:
- If you have explained your patch well, reviewers will understand its
value and why you went to the trouble of writing it. But that value
will not keep them from asking a fundamental question: what will it be
like to maintain a kernel with this code in it five or ten years later?
Many of the changes you may be asked to make - from coding style tweaks
to substantial rewrites - come from the understanding that Linux will
still be around and under development a decade from now.
- Code review is hard work, and it is a relatively thankless occupation;
people remember who wrote kernel code, but there is little lasting fame
for those who reviewed it. So reviewers can get grumpy, especially when
they see the same mistakes being made over and over again. If you get a
review which seems angry, insulting, or outright offensive, resist the
impulse to respond in kind. Code review is about the code, not about
the people, and code reviewers are not attacking you personally.
- Similarly, code reviewers are not trying to promote their employers'
agendas at the expense of your own. Kernel developers often expect to
be working on the kernel years from now, but they understand that their
employer could change. They truly are, almost without exception,
working toward the creation of the best kernel they can; they are not
trying to create discomfort for their employers' competitors.
What all of this comes down to is that, when reviewers send you comments,
you need to pay attention to the technical observations that they are
making. Do not let their form of expression or your own pride keep that
from happening. When you get review comments on a patch, take the time to
understand what the reviewer is trying to say. If possible, fix the things
that the reviewer is asking you to fix. And respond back to the reviewer:
thank them, and describe how you will answer their questions.
Note that you do not have to agree with every change suggested by
reviewers. If you believe that the reviewer has misunderstood your code,
explain what is really going on. If you have a technical objection to a
suggested change, describe it and justify your solution to the problem. If
your explanations make sense, the reviewer will accept them. Should your
explanation not prove persuasive, though, especially if others start to
agree with the reviewer, take some time to think things over again. It can
be easy to become blinded by your own solution to a problem to the point
that you don't realize that something is fundamentally wrong or, perhaps,
you're not even solving the right problem.
Andrew Morton has suggested that every review comment which does not result
in a code change should result in an additional code comment instead; that
can help future reviewers avoid the questions which came up the first time
around.
One fatal mistake is to ignore review comments in the hope that they will
go away. They will not go away. If you repost code without having
responded to the comments you got the time before, you're likely to find
that your patches go nowhere.
Speaking of reposting code: please bear in mind that reviewers are not
going to remember all the details of the code you posted the last time
around. So it is always a good idea to remind reviewers of previously
raised issues and how you dealt with them; the patch changelog is a good
place for this kind of information. Reviewers should not have to search
through list archives to familiarize themselves with what was said last
time; if you help them get a running start, they will be in a better mood
when they revisit your code.
What if you've tried to do everything right and things still aren't going
anywhere? Most technical disagreements can be resolved through discussion,
but there are times when somebody simply has to make a decision. If you
honestly believe that this decision is going against you wrongly, you can
always try appealing to a higher power. As of this writing, that higher
power tends to be Andrew Morton. Andrew has a great deal of respect in the
kernel development community; he can often unjam a situation which seems to
be hopelessly blocked. Appealing to Andrew should not be done lightly,
though, and not before all other alternatives have been explored. And bear
in mind, of course, that he may not agree with you either.
What happens next
-----------------
If a patch is considered to be a good thing to add to the kernel, and once
most of the review issues have been resolved, the next step is usually
entry into a subsystem maintainer's tree. How that works varies from one
subsystem to the next; each maintainer has his or her own way of doing
things. In particular, there may be more than one tree - one, perhaps,
dedicated to patches planned for the next merge window, and another for
longer-term work.
For patches applying to areas for which there is no obvious subsystem tree
(memory management patches, for example), the default tree often ends up
being -mm. Patches which affect multiple subsystems can also end up going
through the -mm tree.
Inclusion into a subsystem tree can bring a higher level of visibility to a
patch. Now other developers working with that tree will get the patch by
default. Subsystem trees typically feed linux-next as well, making their
contents visible to the development community as a whole. At this point,
there's a good chance that you will get more comments from a new set of
reviewers; these comments need to be answered as in the previous round.
What may also happen at this point, depending on the nature of your patch,
is that conflicts with work being done by others turn up. In the worst
case, heavy patch conflicts can result in some work being put on the back
burner so that the remaining patches can be worked into shape and merged.
Other times, conflict resolution will involve working with the other
developers and, possibly, moving some patches between trees to ensure that
everything applies cleanly. This work can be a pain, but count your
blessings: before the advent of the linux-next tree, these conflicts often
only turned up during the merge window and had to be addressed in a hurry.
Now they can be resolved at leisure, before the merge window opens.
Some day, if all goes well, you'll log on and see that your patch has been
merged into the mainline kernel. Congratulations! Once the celebration is
complete (and you have added yourself to the MAINTAINERS file), though, it
is worth remembering an important little fact: the job still is not done.
Merging into the mainline brings its own challenges.
To begin with, the visibility of your patch has increased yet again. There
may be a new round of comments from developers who had not been aware of
the patch before. It may be tempting to ignore them, since there is no
longer any question of your code being merged. Resist that temptation,
though; you still need to be responsive to developers who have questions or
suggestions.
More importantly, though: inclusion into the mainline puts your code into
the hands of a much larger group of testers. Even if you have contributed
a driver for hardware which is not yet available, you will be surprised by
how many people will build your code into their kernels. And, of course,
where there are testers, there will be bug reports.
The worst sort of bug reports are regressions. If your patch causes a
regression, you'll find an uncomfortable number of eyes upon you;
regressions need to be fixed as soon as possible. If you are unwilling or
unable to fix the regression (and nobody else does it for you), your patch
will almost certainly be removed during the stabilization period. Beyond
negating all of the work you have done to get your patch into the mainline,
having a patch pulled as the result of a failure to fix a regression could
well make it harder for you to get work merged in the future.
After any regressions have been dealt with, there may be other, ordinary
bugs to deal with. The stabilization period is your best opportunity to
fix these bugs and ensure that your code's debut in a mainline kernel
release is as solid as possible. So, please, answer bug reports, and fix
the problems if at all possible. That's what the stabilization period is
for; you can start creating cool new patches once any problems with the old
ones have been taken care of.
And don't forget that there are other milestones which may also create bug
reports: the next mainline stable release, when prominent distributors pick
up a version of the kernel containing your patch, etc. Continuing to
respond to these reports is a matter of basic pride in your work. If that
is insufficient motivation, though, it's also worth considering that the
development community remembers developers who lose interest in their code
after it's merged. The next time you post a patch, they will be evaluating
it with the assumption that you will not be around to maintain it
afterward.
Other things that can happen
-----------------------------
One day, you may open your mail client and see that somebody has mailed you
a patch to your code. That is one of the advantages of having your code
out there in the open, after all. If you agree with the patch, you can
either forward it on to the subsystem maintainer (be sure to include a
proper From: line so that the attribution is correct, and add a signoff of
your own), or send an Acked-by: response back and let the original poster
send it upward.
If you disagree with the patch, send a polite response explaining why. If
possible, tell the author what changes need to be made to make the patch
acceptable to you. There is a certain resistance to merging patches which
are opposed by the author and maintainer of the code, but it only goes so
far. If you are seen as needlessly blocking good work, those patches will
eventually flow around you and get into the mainline anyway. In the Linux
kernel, nobody has absolute veto power over any code. Except maybe Linus.
On very rare occasion, you may see something completely different: another
developer posts a different solution to your problem. At that point,
chances are that one of the two patches will not be merged, and "mine was
here first" is not considered to be a compelling technical argument. If
somebody else's patch displaces yours and gets into the mainline, there is
really only one way to respond: be pleased that your problem got solved and
get on with your work. Having one's work shoved aside in this manner can
be hurtful and discouraging, but the community will remember your reaction
long after they have forgotten whose patch actually got merged.

173
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View File

@ -1,173 +0,0 @@
7: ADVANCED TOPICS
At this point, hopefully, you have a handle on how the development process
works. There is still more to learn, however! This section will cover a
number of topics which can be helpful for developers wanting to become a
regular part of the Linux kernel development process.
7.1: MANAGING PATCHES WITH GIT
The use of distributed version control for the kernel began in early 2002,
when Linus first started playing with the proprietary BitKeeper
application. While BitKeeper was controversial, the approach to software
version management it embodied most certainly was not. Distributed version
control enabled an immediate acceleration of the kernel development
project. In current times, there are several free alternatives to
BitKeeper. For better or for worse, the kernel project has settled on git
as its tool of choice.
Managing patches with git can make life much easier for the developer,
especially as the volume of those patches grows. Git also has its rough
edges and poses certain hazards; it is a young and powerful tool which is
still being civilized by its developers. This document will not attempt to
teach the reader how to use git; that would be sufficient material for a
long document in its own right. Instead, the focus here will be on how git
fits into the kernel development process in particular. Developers who
wish to come up to speed with git will find more information at:
http://git-scm.com/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
and on various tutorials found on the web.
The first order of business is to read the above sites and get a solid
understanding of how git works before trying to use it to make patches
available to others. A git-using developer should be able to obtain a copy
of the mainline repository, explore the revision history, commit changes to
the tree, use branches, etc. An understanding of git's tools for the
rewriting of history (such as rebase) is also useful. Git comes with its
own terminology and concepts; a new user of git should know about refs,
remote branches, the index, fast-forward merges, pushes and pulls, detached
heads, etc. It can all be a little intimidating at the outset, but the
concepts are not that hard to grasp with a bit of study.
Using git to generate patches for submission by email can be a good
exercise while coming up to speed.
When you are ready to start putting up git trees for others to look at, you
will, of course, need a server that can be pulled from. Setting up such a
server with git-daemon is relatively straightforward if you have a system
which is accessible to the Internet. Otherwise, free, public hosting sites
(Github, for example) are starting to appear on the net. Established
developers can get an account on kernel.org, but those are not easy to come
by; see http://kernel.org/faq/ for more information.
The normal git workflow involves the use of a lot of branches. Each line
of development can be separated into a separate "topic branch" and
maintained independently. Branches in git are cheap, there is no reason to
not make free use of them. And, in any case, you should not do your
development in any branch which you intend to ask others to pull from.
Publicly-available branches should be created with care; merge in patches
from development branches when they are in complete form and ready to go -
not before.
Git provides some powerful tools which can allow you to rewrite your
development history. An inconvenient patch (one which breaks bisection,
say, or which has some other sort of obvious bug) can be fixed in place or
made to disappear from the history entirely. A patch series can be
rewritten as if it had been written on top of today's mainline, even though
you have been working on it for months. Changes can be transparently
shifted from one branch to another. And so on. Judicious use of git's
ability to revise history can help in the creation of clean patch sets with
fewer problems.
Excessive use of this capability can lead to other problems, though, beyond
a simple obsession for the creation of the perfect project history.
Rewriting history will rewrite the changes contained in that history,
turning a tested (hopefully) kernel tree into an untested one. But, beyond
that, developers cannot easily collaborate if they do not have a shared
view of the project history; if you rewrite history which other developers
have pulled into their repositories, you will make life much more difficult
for those developers. So a simple rule of thumb applies here: history
which has been exported to others should generally be seen as immutable
thereafter.
So, once you push a set of changes to your publicly-available server, those
changes should not be rewritten. Git will attempt to enforce this rule if
you try to push changes which do not result in a fast-forward merge
(i.e. changes which do not share the same history). It is possible to
override this check, and there may be times when it is necessary to rewrite
an exported tree. Moving changesets between trees to avoid conflicts in
linux-next is one example. But such actions should be rare. This is one
of the reasons why development should be done in private branches (which
can be rewritten if necessary) and only moved into public branches when
it's in a reasonably advanced state.
As the mainline (or other tree upon which a set of changes is based)
advances, it is tempting to merge with that tree to stay on the leading
edge. For a private branch, rebasing can be an easy way to keep up with
another tree, but rebasing is not an option once a tree is exported to the
world. Once that happens, a full merge must be done. Merging occasionally
makes good sense, but overly frequent merges can clutter the history
needlessly. Suggested technique in this case is to merge infrequently, and
generally only at specific release points (such as a mainline -rc
release). If you are nervous about specific changes, you can always
perform test merges in a private branch. The git "rerere" tool can be
useful in such situations; it remembers how merge conflicts were resolved
so that you don't have to do the same work twice.
One of the biggest recurring complaints about tools like git is this: the
mass movement of patches from one repository to another makes it easy to
slip in ill-advised changes which go into the mainline below the review
radar. Kernel developers tend to get unhappy when they see that kind of
thing happening; putting up a git tree with unreviewed or off-topic patches
can affect your ability to get trees pulled in the future. Quoting Linus:
You can send me patches, but for me to pull a git patch from you, I
need to know that you know what you're doing, and I need to be able
to trust things *without* then having to go and check every
individual change by hand.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/224135/).
To avoid this kind of situation, ensure that all patches within a given
branch stick closely to the associated topic; a "driver fixes" branch
should not be making changes to the core memory management code. And, most
importantly, do not use a git tree to bypass the review process. Post an
occasional summary of the tree to the relevant list, and, when the time is
right, request that the tree be included in linux-next.
If and when others start to send patches for inclusion into your tree,
don't forget to review them. Also ensure that you maintain the correct
authorship information; the git "am" tool does its best in this regard, but
you may have to add a "From:" line to the patch if it has been relayed to
you via a third party.
When requesting a pull, be sure to give all the relevant information: where
your tree is, what branch to pull, and what changes will result from the
pull. The git request-pull command can be helpful in this regard; it will
format the request as other developers expect, and will also check to be
sure that you have remembered to push those changes to the public server.
7.2: REVIEWING PATCHES
Some readers will certainly object to putting this section with "advanced
topics" on the grounds that even beginning kernel developers should be
reviewing patches. It is certainly true that there is no better way to
learn how to program in the kernel environment than by looking at code
posted by others. In addition, reviewers are forever in short supply; by
looking at code you can make a significant contribution to the process as a
whole.
Reviewing code can be an intimidating prospect, especially for a new kernel
developer who may well feel nervous about questioning code - in public -
which has been posted by those with more experience. Even code written by
the most experienced developers can be improved, though. Perhaps the best
piece of advice for reviewers (all reviewers) is this: phrase review
comments as questions rather than criticisms. Asking "how does the lock
get released in this path?" will always work better than stating "the
locking here is wrong."
Different developers will review code from different points of view. Some
are mostly concerned with coding style and whether code lines have trailing
white space. Others will focus primarily on whether the change implemented
by the patch as a whole is a good thing for the kernel or not. Yet others
will check for problematic locking, excessive stack usage, possible
security issues, duplication of code found elsewhere, adequate
documentation, adverse effects on performance, user-space ABI changes, etc.
All types of review, if they lead to better code going into the kernel, are
welcome and worthwhile.

180
Documentation/development-process/7.AdvancedTopics.rst Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
.. _development_advancedtopics:
Advanced topics
===============
At this point, hopefully, you have a handle on how the development process
works. There is still more to learn, however! This section will cover a
number of topics which can be helpful for developers wanting to become a
regular part of the Linux kernel development process.
Managing patches with git
-------------------------
The use of distributed version control for the kernel began in early 2002,
when Linus first started playing with the proprietary BitKeeper
application. While BitKeeper was controversial, the approach to software
version management it embodied most certainly was not. Distributed version
control enabled an immediate acceleration of the kernel development
project. In current times, there are several free alternatives to
BitKeeper. For better or for worse, the kernel project has settled on git
as its tool of choice.
Managing patches with git can make life much easier for the developer,
especially as the volume of those patches grows. Git also has its rough
edges and poses certain hazards; it is a young and powerful tool which is
still being civilized by its developers. This document will not attempt to
teach the reader how to use git; that would be sufficient material for a
long document in its own right. Instead, the focus here will be on how git
fits into the kernel development process in particular. Developers who
wish to come up to speed with git will find more information at:
http://git-scm.com/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
and on various tutorials found on the web.
The first order of business is to read the above sites and get a solid
understanding of how git works before trying to use it to make patches
available to others. A git-using developer should be able to obtain a copy
of the mainline repository, explore the revision history, commit changes to
the tree, use branches, etc. An understanding of git's tools for the
rewriting of history (such as rebase) is also useful. Git comes with its
own terminology and concepts; a new user of git should know about refs,
remote branches, the index, fast-forward merges, pushes and pulls, detached
heads, etc. It can all be a little intimidating at the outset, but the
concepts are not that hard to grasp with a bit of study.
Using git to generate patches for submission by email can be a good
exercise while coming up to speed.
When you are ready to start putting up git trees for others to look at, you
will, of course, need a server that can be pulled from. Setting up such a
server with git-daemon is relatively straightforward if you have a system
which is accessible to the Internet. Otherwise, free, public hosting sites
(Github, for example) are starting to appear on the net. Established
developers can get an account on kernel.org, but those are not easy to come
by; see http://kernel.org/faq/ for more information.
The normal git workflow involves the use of a lot of branches. Each line
of development can be separated into a separate "topic branch" and
maintained independently. Branches in git are cheap, there is no reason to
not make free use of them. And, in any case, you should not do your
development in any branch which you intend to ask others to pull from.
Publicly-available branches should be created with care; merge in patches
from development branches when they are in complete form and ready to go -
not before.
Git provides some powerful tools which can allow you to rewrite your
development history. An inconvenient patch (one which breaks bisection,
say, or which has some other sort of obvious bug) can be fixed in place or
made to disappear from the history entirely. A patch series can be
rewritten as if it had been written on top of today's mainline, even though
you have been working on it for months. Changes can be transparently
shifted from one branch to another. And so on. Judicious use of git's
ability to revise history can help in the creation of clean patch sets with
fewer problems.
Excessive use of this capability can lead to other problems, though, beyond
a simple obsession for the creation of the perfect project history.
Rewriting history will rewrite the changes contained in that history,
turning a tested (hopefully) kernel tree into an untested one. But, beyond
that, developers cannot easily collaborate if they do not have a shared
view of the project history; if you rewrite history which other developers
have pulled into their repositories, you will make life much more difficult
for those developers. So a simple rule of thumb applies here: history
which has been exported to others should generally be seen as immutable
thereafter.
So, once you push a set of changes to your publicly-available server, those
changes should not be rewritten. Git will attempt to enforce this rule if
you try to push changes which do not result in a fast-forward merge
(i.e. changes which do not share the same history). It is possible to
override this check, and there may be times when it is necessary to rewrite
an exported tree. Moving changesets between trees to avoid conflicts in
linux-next is one example. But such actions should be rare. This is one
of the reasons why development should be done in private branches (which
can be rewritten if necessary) and only moved into public branches when
it's in a reasonably advanced state.
As the mainline (or other tree upon which a set of changes is based)
advances, it is tempting to merge with that tree to stay on the leading
edge. For a private branch, rebasing can be an easy way to keep up with
another tree, but rebasing is not an option once a tree is exported to the
world. Once that happens, a full merge must be done. Merging occasionally
makes good sense, but overly frequent merges can clutter the history
needlessly. Suggested technique in this case is to merge infrequently, and
generally only at specific release points (such as a mainline -rc
release). If you are nervous about specific changes, you can always
perform test merges in a private branch. The git "rerere" tool can be
useful in such situations; it remembers how merge conflicts were resolved
so that you don't have to do the same work twice.
One of the biggest recurring complaints about tools like git is this: the
mass movement of patches from one repository to another makes it easy to
slip in ill-advised changes which go into the mainline below the review
radar. Kernel developers tend to get unhappy when they see that kind of
thing happening; putting up a git tree with unreviewed or off-topic patches
can affect your ability to get trees pulled in the future. Quoting Linus:
::
You can send me patches, but for me to pull a git patch from you, I
need to know that you know what you're doing, and I need to be able
to trust things *without* then having to go and check every
individual change by hand.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/224135/).
To avoid this kind of situation, ensure that all patches within a given
branch stick closely to the associated topic; a "driver fixes" branch
should not be making changes to the core memory management code. And, most
importantly, do not use a git tree to bypass the review process. Post an
occasional summary of the tree to the relevant list, and, when the time is
right, request that the tree be included in linux-next.
If and when others start to send patches for inclusion into your tree,
don't forget to review them. Also ensure that you maintain the correct
authorship information; the git "am" tool does its best in this regard, but
you may have to add a "From:" line to the patch if it has been relayed to
you via a third party.
When requesting a pull, be sure to give all the relevant information: where
your tree is, what branch to pull, and what changes will result from the
pull. The git request-pull command can be helpful in this regard; it will
format the request as other developers expect, and will also check to be
sure that you have remembered to push those changes to the public server.
Reviewing patches
-----------------
Some readers will certainly object to putting this section with "advanced
topics" on the grounds that even beginning kernel developers should be
reviewing patches. It is certainly true that there is no better way to
learn how to program in the kernel environment than by looking at code
posted by others. In addition, reviewers are forever in short supply; by
looking at code you can make a significant contribution to the process as a
whole.
Reviewing code can be an intimidating prospect, especially for a new kernel
developer who may well feel nervous about questioning code - in public -
which has been posted by those with more experience. Even code written by
the most experienced developers can be improved, though. Perhaps the best
piece of advice for reviewers (all reviewers) is this: phrase review
comments as questions rather than criticisms. Asking "how does the lock
get released in this path?" will always work better than stating "the
locking here is wrong."
Different developers will review code from different points of view. Some
are mostly concerned with coding style and whether code lines have trailing
white space. Others will focus primarily on whether the change implemented
by the patch as a whole is a good thing for the kernel or not. Yet others
will check for problematic locking, excessive stack usage, possible
security issues, duplication of code found elsewhere, adequate
documentation, adverse effects on performance, user-space ABI changes, etc.
All types of review, if they lead to better code going into the kernel, are
welcome and worthwhile.

70
Documentation/development-process/8.Conclusion
View File

@ -1,70 +0,0 @@
8: FOR MORE INFORMATION
There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation
directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level HOWTO
file is an important starting point; SubmittingPatches and
SubmittingDrivers are also something which all kernel developers should
read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc
mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those
documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some
distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents
properly).
Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your
author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source;
information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
index at:
http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
http://kernelnewbies.org/
And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive
location for kernel release information.
There are a number of books on kernel development:
Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good
information to be found there.
Documentation for git can be found at:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
9: CONCLUSION
Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software
project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The
Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be
done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There
is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other
participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where
everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
more than welcome.

74
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View File

@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
.. _development_conclusion:
For more information
====================
There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation
directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level HOWTO
file is an important starting point; SubmittingPatches and
SubmittingDrivers are also something which all kernel developers should
read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc
mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those
documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some
distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents
properly).
Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your
author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source;
information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
index at:
http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
http://kernelnewbies.org/
And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive
location for kernel release information.
There are a number of books on kernel development:
Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good
information to be found there.
Documentation for git can be found at:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
Conclusion
==========
Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software
project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The
Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be
done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There
is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other
participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where
everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
more than welcome.

10
Documentation/development-process/conf.py Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
# -*- coding: utf-8; mode: python -*-
project = 'Linux Kernel Development Documentation'
tags.add("subproject")
latex_documents = [
('index', 'development-process.tex', 'Linux Kernel Development Documentation',
'The kernel development community', 'manual'),
]

29
Documentation/development-process/development-process.rst Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
.. _development_process_main:
A guide to the Kernel Development Process
=========================================
Contents:
.. toctree::
:numbered:
:maxdepth: 2
1.Intro
2.Process
3.Early-stage
4.Coding
5.Posting
6.Followthrough
7.AdvancedTopics
8.Conclusion
The purpose of this document is to help developers (and their managers)
work with the development community with a minimum of frustration. It is
an attempt to document how this community works in a way which is
accessible to those who are not intimately familiar with Linux kernel
development (or, indeed, free software development in general). While
there is some technical material here, this is very much a process-oriented
discussion which does not require a deep knowledge of kernel programming to
understand.

9
Documentation/development-process/index.rst Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
Linux Kernel Development Documentation
======================================
Contents:
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
development-process

98
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/altera/socfpga-eccmgr.txt
View File

@ -90,6 +90,47 @@ Required Properties:
- interrupts : Should be single bit error interrupt, then double bit error
interrupt, in this order.
NAND FIFO ECC
Required Properties:
- compatible : Should be "altr,socfpga-nand-ecc"
- reg : Address and size for ECC block registers.
- altr,ecc-parent : phandle to parent NAND node.
- interrupts : Should be single bit error interrupt, then double bit error
interrupt, in this order.
DMA FIFO ECC
Required Properties:
- compatible : Should be "altr,socfpga-dma-ecc"
- reg : Address and size for ECC block registers.
- altr,ecc-parent : phandle to parent DMA node.
- interrupts : Should be single bit error interrupt, then double bit error
interrupt, in this order.
USB FIFO ECC
Required Properties:
- compatible : Should be "altr,socfpga-usb-ecc"
- reg : Address and size for ECC block registers.
- altr,ecc-parent : phandle to parent USB node.
- interrupts : Should be single bit error interrupt, then double bit error
interrupt, in this order.
QSPI FIFO ECC
Required Properties:
- compatible : Should be "altr,socfpga-qspi-ecc"
- reg : Address and size for ECC block registers.
- altr,ecc-parent : phandle to parent QSPI node.
- interrupts : Should be single bit error interrupt, then double bit error
interrupt, in this order.
SDMMC FIFO ECC
Required Properties:
- compatible : Should be "altr,socfpga-sdmmc-ecc"
- reg : Address and size for ECC block registers.
- altr,ecc-parent : phandle to parent SD/MMC node.
- interrupts : Should be single bit error interrupt, then double bit error
interrupt, in this order for port A, and then single bit error interrupt,
then double bit error interrupt in this order for port B.
Example:
eccmgr: eccmgr@ffd06000 {
@ -132,4 +173,61 @@ Example:
interrupts = <5 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<37 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
nand-buf-ecc@ff8c2000 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-nand-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c2000 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&nand>;
interrupts = <11 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<43 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
nand-rd-ecc@ff8c2400 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-nand-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c2400 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&nand>;
interrupts = <13 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<45 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
nand-wr-ecc@ff8c2800 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-nand-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c2800 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&nand>;
interrupts = <12 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<44 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
dma-ecc@ff8c8000 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-dma-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c8000 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&pdma>;
interrupts = <10 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<42 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
usb0-ecc@ff8c8800 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-usb-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c8800 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&usb0>;
interrupts = <2 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<34 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
qspi-ecc@ff8c8400 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-qspi-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c8400 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&qspi>;
interrupts = <14 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<46 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
sdmmc-ecc@ff8c2c00 {
compatible = "altr,socfpga-sdmmc-ecc";
reg = <0xff8c2c00 0x400>;
altr,ecc-parent = <&mmc>;
interrupts = <15 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<47 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<16 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
<48 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
};
};

6
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/arch_timer.txt
View File

@ -25,6 +25,12 @@ to deliver its interrupts via SPIs.
- always-on : a boolean property. If present, the timer is powered through an
always-on power domain, therefore it never loses context.
- fsl,erratum-a008585 : A boolean property. Indicates the presence of
QorIQ erratum A-008585, which says that reading the counter is
unreliable unless the same value is returned by back-to-back reads.
This also affects writes to the tval register, due to the implicit
counter read.
** Optional properties:
- arm,cpu-registers-not-fw-configured : Firmware does not initialize

4
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/bcm/brcm,bcm2835.txt
View File

@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ Raspberry Pi Compute Module
Required root node properties:
compatible = "raspberrypi,compute-module", "brcm,bcm2835";
Raspberry Pi Zero
Required root node properties:
compatible = "raspberrypi,model-zero", "brcm,bcm2835";
Generic BCM2835 board
Required root node properties:
compatible = "brcm,bcm2835";

4
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/davinci.txt
View File

@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ DA850/OMAP-L138/AM18x Evaluation Module (EVM) board
Required root node properties:
- compatible = "ti,da850-evm", "ti,da850";
DA850/OMAP-L138/AM18x L138/C6748 Development Kit (LCDK) board
Required root node properties:
- compatible = "ti,da850-lcdk", "ti,da850";
EnBW AM1808 based CMC board
Required root node properties:
- compatible = "enbw,cmc", "ti,da850;

39
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/hisilicon/hisilicon.txt
View File

@ -175,38 +175,55 @@ Example:
};
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hisilicon HiP05 PCIe-SAS system controller
Hisilicon HiP05/HiP06 PCIe-SAS sub system controller
Required properties:
- compatible : "hisilicon,pcie-sas-subctrl", "syscon";
- reg : Register address and size
The HiP05 PCIe-SAS system controller is shared by PCIe and SAS controllers in
HiP05 Soc to implement some basic configurations.
The PCIe-SAS sub system controller is shared by PCIe and SAS controllers in
HiP05 or HiP06 Soc to implement some basic configurations.
Example:
/* for HiP05 PCIe-SAS system */
pcie_sas: system_controller@0xb0000000 {
/* for HiP05 PCIe-SAS sub system */
pcie_sas: system_controller@b0000000 {
compatible = "hisilicon,pcie-sas-subctrl", "syscon";
reg = <0xb0000000 0x10000>;
};
Hisilicon HiP05 PERISUB system controller
Hisilicon HiP05/HiP06 PERI sub system controller
Required properties:
- compatible : "hisilicon,hip05-perisubc", "syscon";
- compatible : "hisilicon,peri-subctrl", "syscon";
- reg : Register address and size
The HiP05 PERISUB system controller is shared by peripheral controllers in
HiP05 Soc to implement some basic configurations. The peripheral
The PERI sub system controller is shared by peripheral controllers in
HiP05 or HiP06 Soc to implement some basic configurations. The peripheral
controllers include mdio, ddr, iic, uart, timer and so on.
Example:
/* for HiP05 perisub-ctrl-c system */
/* for HiP05 sub peri system */
peri_c_subctrl: syscon@80000000 {
compatible = "hisilicon,hip05-perisubc", "syscon";
compatible = "hisilicon,peri-subctrl", "syscon";
reg = <0x0 0x80000000 0x0 0x10000>;
};
Hisilicon HiP05/HiP06 DSA sub system controller
Required properties:
- compatible : "hisilicon,dsa-subctrl", "syscon";
- reg : Register address and size
The DSA sub system controller is shared by peripheral controllers in
HiP05 or HiP06 Soc to implement some basic configurations.
Example:
/* for HiP05 dsa sub system */
pcie_sas: system_controller@a0000000 {
compatible = "hisilicon,dsa-subctrl", "syscon";
reg = <0xa0000000 0x10000>;
};
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hisilicon CPU controller

15
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/marvell/armada-39x.txt
View File

@ -8,8 +8,19 @@ Required root node property:
- compatible: must contain "marvell,armada390"
In addition, boards using the Marvell Armada 398 SoC shall have the
following property before the previous one:
In addition, boards using the Marvell Armada 395 SoC shall have the
following property before the common "marvell,armada390" one:
Required root node property:
compatible: must contain "marvell,armada395"
Example:
compatible = "marvell,a395-gp", "marvell,armada395", "marvell,armada390";
Boards using the Marvell Armada 398 SoC shall have the following
property before the common "marvell,armada390" one:
Required root node property:

25
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/marvell/marvell,orion5x.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
Marvell Orion SoC Family Device Tree Bindings
---------------------------------------------
Boards with a SoC of the Marvell Orion family, eg 88f5181
* Required root node properties:
compatible: must contain "marvell,orion5x"
In addition, the above compatible shall be extended with the specific
SoC. Currently known SoC compatibles are:
"marvell,orion5x-88f5181"
"marvell,orion5x-88f5182"
And in addition, the compatible shall be extended with the specific
board. Currently known boards are:
"buffalo,lsgl"
"buffalo,lswsgl"
"buffalo,lswtgl"
"lacie,ethernet-disk-mini-v2"
"lacie,d2-network"
"marvell,rd-88f5182-nas"
"maxtor,shared-storage-2"
"netgear,wnr854t"

3
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/mediatek/mediatek,apmixedsys.txt
View File

@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ The Mediatek apmixedsys controller provides the PLLs to the system.
Required Properties:
- compatible: Should be:
- compatible: Should be one of:
- "mediatek,mt2701-apmixedsys"
- "mediatek,mt8135-apmixedsys"
- "mediatek,mt8173-apmixedsys"
- #clock-cells: Must be 1

22
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/mediatek/mediatek,bdpsys.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
Mediatek bdpsys controller
============================
The Mediatek bdpsys controller provides various clocks to the system.
Required Properties:
- compatible: Should be:
- "mediatek,mt2701-bdpsys", "syscon"
- #clock-cells: Must be 1
The bdpsys controller uses the common clk binding from
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/clock/clock-bindings.txt
The available clocks are defined in dt-bindings/clock/mt*-clk.h.
Example:
bdpsys: clock-controller@1c000000 {
compatible = "mediatek,mt2701-bdpsys", "syscon";
reg = <0 0x1c000000 0 0x1000>;
#clock-cells = <1>;
};

22
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/mediatek/mediatek,ethsys.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
Mediatek ethsys controller
============================
The Mediatek ethsys controller provides various clocks to the system.
Required Properties:
- compatible: Should be:
- "mediatek,mt2701-ethsys", "syscon"
- #clock-cells: Must be 1
The ethsys controller uses the common clk binding from
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/clock/clock-bindings.txt
The available clocks are defined in dt-bindings/clock/mt*-clk.h.
Example:
ethsys: clock-controller@1b000000 {
compatible = "mediatek,mt2701-ethsys", "syscon";
reg = <0 0x1b000000 0 0x1000>;
#clock-cells = <1>;
};

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