Notable with the staging area updates for the in-development Linux 6.16 kernel is word that the GPIB driver code may be ready to leave the staging area in the next kernel cycle (Linux v6.17) in then being promoted to the main driver area in signifying the maturity of the code and being cleaned up to meet kernel coding standards. The GPIB drivers are for the General Purpose Interface Bus that was introduced back in 1972.
While the General Purpose Interface Bus has been around since the 70’s, the Linux driver code for it was only added to staging back in 2024 for Linux 6.13. Since then the GPIB code has continued to be improved upon in follow-on kernel releases. While the General Purpose Interface Bus (also known as the HP Interface Bus – HP-IB), it’s still in use by some test equipment and thus the Linux kernel driver interest now in the 2020s.
With this week’s staging updates for the Linux 6.16 merge window, Greg Kroah-Hartman notes the GPIB code is about ready to graduate to the main area of the Linux kernel. Greg KH wrote in the staging pull request:
“gpib driver cleanups and updates. This subsystem is _almost_ ready to be merged into the main portion of the kernel tree. Hopefully should happen in the next kernel merge cycle if all goes well.”
That’s the main highlight of the staging area of the Linux 6.16 kernel and so perhaps for Linux 6.17 later in the year the driver code for supporting this five decade old interface bus will be promoted.
