KDBUS Is Taking A Lot Of Heat, Might Be Delayed From Mainline Linux Kernel

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 15 April 2015 at 12:49 PM EDT. 68 Comments
LINUX KERNEL
Earlier this week I wrote about how it looked like KDBUS would be included in the Linux 4.1 kernel given the pull request sent to Linus Torvalds by Greg Kroah-Hartman. However, since that pull request, KDBUS is taking a lot of heat and there's calls for it to be postponed from mainlining.

KDBUS is the D-Bus inspired IPC implementation for the Linux kernel that's designed to deliver better performance, greater security, and other opportunities than just sticking to D-Bus in user-space. KDBUS has been worked on for years, has the backing of systemd developers, and looked like it was ready for the mainline kernel.

As you can see from the many thread responses on the kernel mailing list since Greg Kroah-Hartman sent in that pull request, there's still a fair amount of criticism over the KDBUS design and whether it's really suitable in its current state.

KDBUS isn't drawing criticism just from end-users wishing to flame about it or mixing in their systemd hatred, but points are being drawn from upstream kernel developers like Al Viro, Borislav Petkov, Jiri Kosina, and others. Greg KH hasn't yet thrown in the towel on his KDBUS pull request for Linux 4.1 but at the same time it has not been pulled by Torvalds.

Within the thread there's been some suggestion to delay the merge until those objecting to KDBUS can properly debate their concerns in person at the Linux Plumbers Conference or Linux Kernel Summit later this year. With the kernel not being allowed to break its interfaces with user-space, there's much interest in making sure the KDBUS design is right before its cemented within the kernel as a core feature. This kernel mailing list thread is still very active today so stay tuned for updates.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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