Which kernel APIs can be used in non-gpl kernel module?

Question

Hi All,

Company is producing the embedded network equipment.and we need to protect some private feature in the kernel module from GPL violation and I remember some kernel API can be used without GPL violation. Such as, libc, skb, dev.

But does anyone know the exact kernel API list which can be used in non-GPL kernel module?

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Sailor

Answer 1

The exported interfaces are marked with either EXPORT_SYMBOL and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL, where the latter is restricted to only GPL (compatible) code. See also this article which has a summary and extract from various lkml posts from a related thread:

A recent post to the lkml began, "I'm writing a module under a proprietary license." The debate as to whether or not a kernel module is a derivative work of the Linux kernel itself and thus must also be released under the GPL has come up many times.