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A driver wrapper is a subroutine in a software library that functions as an
adapter An adapter or adaptor is a device that converts attributes of one electrical device or system to those of an otherwise incompatible device or system. Some modify power or signal attributes, while others merely adapt the physical form of one c ...
between an
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
and a driver, such as a
device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and o ...
, that was not designed for that operating system. It can enable the use of devices for which no drivers for the particular operating system are available. In particular,
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
is the dominant family of operating systems for
IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones ...
computers, and many devices are supplied with drivers for Windows but not other operating systems.


Windows driver wrappers for Linux

Several open source software projects allow using
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
drivers under another operating system, such as
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
. Examples include network drivers for wireless cards (such as NDISwrapper for
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
or Project Evil for
FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...
) and the
NTFS New Technology File System (NTFS) is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft. Starting with Windows NT 3.1, it is the default file system of the Windows NT family. It superseded File Allocation Table (FAT) as the preferred fil ...
file system In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
(see
Captive NTFS Captive NTFS is a discontinued open-source project in the Linux programming community, started by Jan Kratochvíl. It is a driver wrapper around the original Microsoft Windows NTFS file system driver using parts of ReactOS code. By taking this app ...
). The common thread among these examples is the use of ''wrapper'' technology, which allows execution of the drivers in a foreign environment. Limitations for driver wrappers include the lack of an ability to function at real time. An example of this limitation includes latency problems as those associated with attempts to make compatible with
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
the ZoomR16 audio DAW sound recorder and control surface.


See also

*
Wrapper library Wrapper libraries (or library wrappers) consist of a thin layer of code (a "shim") which translates a library's existing interface into a compatible interface. This is done for several reasons: * To refine a poorly designed or complicated interfac ...
*
Compatibility layer In software engineering, a compatibility layer is an interface that allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With s ...


References

{{Comp-sci-stub Subroutines Device drivers System software