Difference between user space drivers and kernel space drivers

[Sannu K]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Manu Gupta <manugupt1 at opensuse.org> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have been trying to figure out the difference between user space
> drivers and kernel space drivers. I have a few questions
> 1. What are user space drivers?
> 2. How are they beneficial and when are they usually used?
>
>
>
> --
> Regards
> Manu Gupta
>
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If an application or a library that communicates with device and
exposes the device's functionality to the OS then it may be called as
User space driver (this is just my own way of telling). These are
application in user space so they can be managed easily. If there is a
bug in the user space driver it will not crash the system (problems in
Kernel mode driver may crash the system). Printers, Scanners, some USB
devices usually have User space drivers. If the device does not have
much of a real time requirement (no Interrupt etc) then they can have
a user space driver (again this is my own way of telling). If I am
wrong in please correct.

Hope this helps,
Sannu K