X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=elogind.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=38459c6b226141408e3b7d2d33c32324dd42c822;hp=3f4f947f79255816665dd63777da2eee64ec374a;hb=912541b0246ef315d4d851237483b98c9dd3f992;hpb=f054627f500450a7aadeaf8a9930354fb268718e diff --git a/README b/README index 3f4f947f7..38459c6b2 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,68 +1,101 @@ -udev - userspace device management - -For more information see the files in the docs/ directory. - -Important Note: - Integrating udev in the system is a whole lot of work, has complex dependencies - and differs a lot from distro to distro. All reasonable distros use udev these - days, the major ones make it mandatory and the system will not work without it. - - The upstream udev project does not support or recomend to replace a distro's udev - installation with the upstream version. The installation of a unmodified upstream - version may render your system unusable! There is no "default" setup or a set - of "default" rules provided by the upstream udev version. - -udev requires: - - 2.6 version of the Linux kernel - - - the kernel must have sysfs, netlink, and hotplug enabled - - - proc must be mounted on /proc - - - sysfs must be mounted at /sys, no other location is supported - - - udev creates and removes device nodes in /dev based on events - the kernel sends out on device discovery or removal - - - during bootup /dev usually gets a tmpfs mounted which is populated scratch - by udev (created nodes don't survive a reboot, it always starts from scratch) - - - udev replaces the hotplug event management invoked from /sbin/hotplug - by the udevd daemon, which receives the kernel events over netlink - - - all kernel events are matched against a set of specified rules which - make it posible to hook into the event processing - - - there is a copy of the rules files for all major distros in the etc/udev - directory (you may look there how others distros are doing it) - -Setting which are used for building udev: - prefix - set this to the default root that you want to use - Only override this if you really know what you are doing - DESTDIR - prefix for install target for package building - USE_LOG - if set to 'true', udev will emit messages to the syslog when - it creates or removes device nodes. This is helpful to see - what udev is doing. This is enabled by default. - DEBUG - if set to 'true', verbose debugging messages will be compiled into - the udev binaries. Default value is 'false'. - USE_SELINUX - if set to 'true', udev will be built with SELinux support - enabled. This is disabled by default. - USE_KLIBC - if set to 'true', udev is built and linked against klibc. - Default value is 'false'. KLCC specifies the klibc compiler - wrapper, usually in /usr/bin/klcc - EXTRAS - if set, will build the "extra" helper programs as specified - as listed (see below for an example.) - -if you want to build the udev helper program cdrom_id and scsi_id: - make EXTRAS="extras/cdrom_id extras/scsi_id" - -Please direct any comment/question/concern to the linux-hotplug-devel mailing list at: - linux-hotplug-devel@lists.sourceforge.net - +udev - Linux userspace device management + +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. + +The upstream udev project's set of default rules may require a most recent +kernel release to work properly. + +Tools and rules shipped by udev are not public API and may change at any time. +Never call any private tool in /usr/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 /usr/lib/udev and the entire contents +of the /run/udev directory are private to udev and do change whenever needed. + +Requirements: + - Version 2.6.34 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 required: + CONFIG_DEVTMPFS=y + CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y + CONFIG_INOTIFY_USER=y + CONFIG_NET=y + CONFIG_PROC_FS=y + CONFIG_SIGNALFD=y + CONFIG_SYSFS=y + CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED*=n + CONFIG_UEVENT_HELPER_PATH="" + + - These options might be needed: + CONFIG_BLK_DEV_BSG=y (SCSI devices) + CONFIG_TMPFS_POSIX_ACL=y (user ACLs for device nodes) + + - The /dev directory needs the 'devtmpfs' filesystem mounted. + Udev only manages the permissions and ownership of the + kernel-provided device nodes, and possibly creates additional symlinks. + + - Udev requires /run to be writable, which is usually done by mounting a + 'tmpfs' filesystem. + + - This version of udev does not work properly with the CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED* + option enabled. + + - 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, and the sysfs filesystem must + be mounted at /sys. No other locations are supported by a standard + udev installation. + + - 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. + + - Some udev extras have external dependencies like: + libglib2, usbutils, pciutils, and gperf. + All these extras can be disabled with configure options. + +Setup: + - The udev daemon should be started to handle device events sent by the kernel. + During bootup, the events for already existing devices can be replayed, so + that they are configured by udev. The systemd service files contain the + needed commands to start the udev daemon and the coldplug sequence. + + - Restarting the daemon never applies any rules to existing devices. + + - New/changed rule files are picked up automatically; there is usually no + daemon restart or signal needed. + +Operation: + - Based on events the kernel sends out on device creation/removal, udev + creates/removes device nodes and symlinks in the /dev directory. + + - 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 + device 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