BUS1: A New Linux Kernel IPC Bus Being Made By Systemd Developers

While KDBUS has yet to be mainlined as it was sent back to the drawing board, at least some of the systemd developers are working on a new kernel bus implementation called BUS1.

A Phoronix reader pointed out to us the new bus1 project that has been unheard of until now without making any news rounds. BUS1 consists of a libbus1 library, bus1 kernel module, UEFI components, and some system initialization tools.

BUS1 isn't being developed by just some unknown individuals, but systemd developer David Herrmann and Kay Sievers seem to be the lead (and only) developers working on it thus far. Both developers are employed by Red Hat and there is Red Hat's copyright on some of this code, making it look like it could be an official project in the works. BUS1 is licensed under the LGPLv2.1.

BUS1 is being designed to be a low-level IPC technology that will also provide a high-level interface for applications. Compared to KDBUS, BUS1 doesn't seem to be at least heavily based on D-Bus.

Those wanting to get an idea for the early, in-development interface for BUS1 can see some of the sample tests and more from the libbus1.

More details on BUS1 as they become available... Don't look for any major announcements soon as the project still appears to be very young. As I haven't seen BUS1 mentioned yet on the systemd or LKML mailing lists, no idea the official stance yet and if the developers are hoping for this to take the steam from KDBUS.