What's the diference between kernel-modules, kernel-drivers, drivers and modules?

Question

I was verifying how UL used tags for something and discovered these tags. Ok, I know that Xorg uses the term "drivers" to refer to the software that runs stuff, so kernel-drivers may be a differentiation, but the four tags seems to me like trying to convey the same information, and in fact the two that has excerpts does. Which tag should be used and for what purpose?

Answer 1

My first impression is that kernel-drivers should be merged into drivers, and module was created by someone who typed kernel module as separate words and grew from there. This is to be confirmed by browsing through the questions list which I haven't done yet.

Only 16 questions are tagged module but not kernel-modules or kernel. 8 of these are about Linux kernel modules all the same. This leaves 8 questions where module doesn't mean kernel module:

• Apache module: 1 2 3 4 Given that we don't have that many advanced Apache questions, I think these four questions can live without a tag indicating that they're about Apache modules. If you disagree, feel free to retag these questions to apache-module, but please go and look for other questions that should have the tag (this might warrant a separate meta discussion).
• Python module: 1 2 3 “Module” is Python for “library”, I retagged these questions to libraries.
• Some Sharepoint thing? 1 a question that should be closed anyway.

The remaining module questions are about kernel modules, so my recommendation is that a moderator now:

1. merges module into kernel-modules;
2. removes the module synonym, which will kill that tag.

drivers and kernel-modules are different things. Many kernel modules are drivers, and many drivers are kernel modules, but some kernel modules aren't exactly drivers but more like support libraries for drivers, and conversely some software that mediates access to peripherals can be built into the main kernel image or might not run in the kernel at all. kernel-modules is for questions like “how do I load this module on boot?” or “how do I build this module?” while drivers is for questions like “how do I interact with this piece of hardware”. Of course many questions like “how should I load this module so that it recognizes my hardware” warrant both tags.