X-Git-Url: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=elogind.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=f85637068547d681c6b79686e9add05abf1d44ca;hp=773bc5508d3bdf513b29e622b9067789abf36b06;hb=e5fd444fee244a3a15fc4ab59f662a341e985565;hpb=67c89548d112e3d00ccdbad399720458b8289117 diff --git a/README b/README index 773bc5508..f85637068 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,57 +1,104 @@ -udev - userspace device management +udev - Linux userspace device management -For more information see the files in the docs/ directory. +Integrating udev in the system has complex dependencies and may differ from +distribution to distribution. A system may not be able to boot up or work +reliably without a properly installed udev version. The upstream udev project +does not recommend replacing a distro's udev installation with the upstream +version. -Important Note: - Integrating udev in the system has complex dependencies and differs from distro - to distro. All major distros depend on udev these days and the system may not - work without a properly installed version. The upstream udev project does not - recommend to replace a distro's udev installation with the upstream version. +The upstream udev project's set of default rules may require a most recent +kernel release to work properly. This is currently version 2.6.32. + +Tools and rules shipped by udev are not public API and may change at any time. +Never call any private tool in /lib/udev from any external application; it might +just go away in the next release. Access to udev information is only offered +by udevadm and libudev. Tools and rules in /lib/udev and the entire contents of +the /dev/.udev directory are private to udev and do change whenever needed. Requirements: - - Version 2.6.22 of the Linux kernel for reliable operation of this release of - udev. The kernel must not use the CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED* option. + - Version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel with sysfs, procfs, signalfd, inotify, + unix domain sockets, networking and hotplug enabled + + - Some architectures might need a later kernel, that supports accept4(), + or need to backport the accept4() syscall wiring in the kernel. + + - These options are needed: + CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y + CONFIG_UEVENT_HELPER_PATH="" + CONFIG_NET=y + CONFIG_UNIX=y + CONFIG_SYSFS=y + CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED*=n + CONFIG_PROC_FS=y + CONFIG_INOTIFY_USER=y + CONFIG_SIGNALFD=y + + - These options might be needed: + CONFIG_TMPFS=y + CONFIG_TMPFS_POSIX_ACL=y (user ACLs for device nodes) + CONFIG_BLK_DEV_BSG=y (SCSI devices) + + - Udev does not work with the CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED* option. + + - Unix domain sockets (CONFIG_UNIX) as a loadable kernel module may work, + but it is not supported. - - The kernel must have sysfs, unix domain sockets and networking enabled. - Unix domain sockets (CONFIG_UNIX) as a loadable kernel module is not - supported. + - The deprecated hotplug helper /sbin/hotplug should be disabled in the + kernel configuration, it is not needed today, and may render the system + unusable because the kernel may create too many processes in parallel + so that the system runs out-of-memory. - - The proc filesystem must be mounted on /proc/, the sysfs filesystem must - be mounted at /sys/. No other locations are supported by udev. + - The proc filesystem must be mounted on /proc, and the sysfs filesystem must + be mounted at /sys. No other locations are supported by a standard + udev installation. - - The system must have the following group names resolvable at udev startup: - disk, cdrom, floppy, tape, audio, video, lp, tty, dialout, kmem. - Especially in LDAP setups, it is required, that getgrnam() is able to resolve - these group names with only the rootfs mounted, and while no network is + - The default rule sset requires the following group names resolvable at udev startup: + disk, cdrom, floppy, tape, audio, video, lp, tty, dialout, and kmem. + Especially in LDAP setups, it is required that getgrnam() be able to resolve + these group names with only the rootfs mounted and while no network is available. -Operation: - Udev creates and removes device nodes in /dev/, based on events the kernel - sends out on device discovery or removal. + - Some udev extras have external dependencies like: + libacl, libglib2, libusb, usbutils, pciutils, and gperf. + All these extras can be disabled with configure options. - - Very early in the boot process, the /dev/ directory should get a 'tmpfs' - filesystem mounted, which is populated from scratch by udev. Created nodes - or changed permissions will not survive a reboot, which is intentional. +Setup: + - At bootup, the /dev directory should get the 'devtmpfs' filesystem + mounted. Udev manages the permissions and ownership of the kernel-created + device nodes, and udev possibly creates additional symlinks. If needed, udev also + works on an empty 'tmpfs' filesystem, but some static device nodes like + /dev/null, /dev/console, /dev/kmsg are needed to be able to start udev itself. - - The content of /lib/udev/devices/ directory which contains the nodes, - symlinks and directories, which are always expected to be in /dev, should - be copied over to the tmpfs mounted /dev, to provide the required nodes - to initialize udev and continue booting. + - The udev daemon should be started to handle device events sent by the kernel. + During bootup, the kernel can be asked to send events for all already existing + devices so that they too can be configured by udev. This is usually done by: + /sbin/udevadm trigger --type=subsystems + /sbin/udevadm trigger --type=devices - - The old hotplug helper /sbin/hotplug should be disabled on bootup, before - actions like loading kernel modules are taken, which may cause a lot of - events. + - Restarting the daemon never applies any rules to existing devices. - - The udevd daemon must be started on bootup to receive netlink uevents - from the kernel driver core. + - New/changed rule files are picked up automatically; there is no daemon + restart or signal needed. - - All kernel events are matched against a set of specified rules in - /lib/udev/rules.d/ which make it possible to hook into the event - processing to load required kernel modules and setup devices. For all - devices the kernel exports a major/minor number, udev will create a - device node with the default kernel name, or the one specified by a - matching udev rule. +Operation: + - Based on events the kernel sends out on device creation/removal, udev + creates/removes device nodes in the /dev directory. -Please direct any comment/question/concern to the linux-hotplug mailing list at: - linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org + - All kernel events are matched against a set of specified rules, which + possibly hook into the event processing and load required kernel + modules to set up devices. For all devices, the kernel exports a major/minor + number; if needed, udev creates a device node with the default kernel + name. If specified, udev applies permissions/ownership to the device + node, creates additional symlinks pointing to the node, and executes + programs to handle the device. + - The events udev handles, and the information udev merges into its device + database, can be accessed with libudev: + http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/libudev/ + http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/gudev/ + +For more details about udev and udev rules, see the udev man pages: + http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev/ + +Please direct any comment/question to the linux-hotplug mailing list at: + linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org