illiliti
85 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
85 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# libudev-zero
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Drop-in replacement for `libudev` intended to work with any device manager
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## Why?
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Because `udev` sucks, it is bloated and overengineered. `udev` is just
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like `systemd`, it locks you into using non-portable crap that you can't
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avoid because multiple programs depend on it. Look, even FreeBSD was forced
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to rewrite[0] this crappy library because `libinput` hard-depends on `udev`.
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Without `libinput` you can't use `wayland` and many other cool stuff.
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Michael Forney (author of `cproc`, `samurai`, Oasis Linux, ...) decided to
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fork[1] `libinput` and remove the hard dependency on `udev`. However, this
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fork has a drawback that requires patching applications to use `libinput_netlink`
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instead of the `libinput_udev` API in order to use the automatic detection of
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input devices and hotplugging. Static configuration is also required for anything
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other than input devices (e.g drm devices).
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Thankfully `udev` has stable API and hopefully no changes will be made to it
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the future. On this basis I decided to create this clean-room implementation
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of `libudev` which can be used with any or without a device manager.
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[0] https://github.com/FreeBSDDesktop/libudev-devd
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[1] https://github.com/oasislinux/libinput
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## What Works
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* [x] xorg-server
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* [ ] dosfstools - need to implement udev_enumerate_add_match_parent()
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* [x] libinput
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* [x] usbutils
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* [x] wlroots
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* [x] weston
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* [x] libusb
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* [x] kwin
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* [ ] ???
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## Dependencies
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* C99 compiler (build time)
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* POSIX make (build time)
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* POSIX & XSI libc
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* Linux >= 2.6.39
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## Installation
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```sh
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make
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make PREFIX=/usr install
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```
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## Hotplugging
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Note that hotplugging support is fully optional. You can skip
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this step if you don't have a need for the hotplugging capability.
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If you're using mdev-like device manager, refer to [mdev.conf](contrib/mdev.conf)
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for config example.
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If you're using other device manager, you need to configure it to rebroadcast
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kernel uevents. You can do this by either patching(see below) device manager
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or simply executing [helper.c](contrib/helper.c) for each uevent.
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If you're developing your own device manager, you need to rebroadcast kernel
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uevents to `0x4` netlink group of `NETLINK_KOBJECT_UEVENT`. This is required
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because libudev-zero can't simply listen to kernel uevents due to potential
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race conditions. Refer(but don't copy blindly) to [helper.c](contrib/helper.c)
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for example how it could be implemented in C.
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Don't hesitate to ask me everything you don't understand. I'm usually hanging
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around in #kisslinux at libera.chat, but you can also email me or open an issue here.
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## Future directions
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1. Write a better cross-platform(*nix, maybe macos and windows) device enumeration library.
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2. Convince mainstream apps(libinput, wlroots, ...) to use new library instead of libudev.
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3. Declare libudev as obsolete library and archive this project.
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## Donate
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You can send a donation to `BTC: 1BwrcsgtWZeLVvNeEQSg4A28a3yrGN3FpK`
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Thank you very much!
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