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Shuah Khan
Headshot of Khan, who wears glasses, in an indoor setting
Khan in 2018
OccupationSoftware Engineer
EmployerLinux Foundation
Websitewww.gonehiking.org/ShuahLinuxBlogs/

Shuah Khan is an American software engineer recognized for her contributions to the Linux kernel. In 2019, she became the first female Linux Foundation Fellow, joining notable figures such as Linus Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman as the third fellow at the time.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

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Born in India,[1] Khan obtained a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering and a master's degree in computer science from Colorado State University.[3] After completing her education, she worked at Bell Labs, followed by 13 years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and 5 years at Samsung.[1][4]

Linux kernel contributions

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Khan made her first contribution to the Linux kernel in 2011,[1] by adding a new device driver for the LED sub-system as part of the Android Driver Mainlining effort.[5] Khan has served on the Linux Technical Advisory Board (TAB)[6][1][5] and as chair of the ELISA Project Technical Steering Committee.[7] As of October 2024, she maintains the Kernel Selftest (kselftest) framework, the USB over IP driver, the CPU power monitoring subsystem, and the Virtual Media Controller driver.[8] She has significantly contributed to kselftest, a regression testing suite for the Linux kernel.[9][4]

In the early stages, testing in the kernel was mostly limited to build and boot tests. Khan introduced a more comprehensive testing framework to detect regressions earlier, before they could impact users. Her efforts resulted in "kselftest", which enables developers to run sanity tests and ensure the stability of their changes.[9] This framework is now integrated into KernelCI and the 0-day test service.[10] Describing herself as a generalist, she has also worked on the media subsystem by solving shared device resource management problems impacting components of the Media Controller Device Allocator API.[11]

In 2020, Khan provided a "Signed-off-by" tag for a patch recommending inclusive terminology in the Linux kernel.[12] This change was approved and merged by Linus Torvalds.[13][14] The patch advised developers to avoid terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist", and "whitelist".[12][15] Alternatives such as primary/secondary, denylist/allowlist, and blocklist/passlist are suggested.[13]

Khan has presented several times at the annual Linux Kernel Developers Summit.[9][10][16]

Community involvement

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Khan also leads the Community Bridge Program, which aims to empower open-source developers by providing tools for funding, improving security, and promoting diversity.[1] She advocates for increasing the participation of women in the kernel community.[11]

Publications

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  • Khan S. "White Paper: Advancing Open Source Safety-Critical Systems" (PDF). The Enabling Linux In Safety Applications (ELISA) project. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 7, 2024.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Vaughan-Nichols S (March 13, 2019). "Shuah Khan becomes the third Linux Foundation Fellow". ZDNET. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  2. ^ "Leadership: Fellows". The Linux Foundation. October 7, 2024. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Bhartiya S (March 14, 2019). "Meet The First Female Linux Foundation Fellow: Shuah Khan". TFiR.io. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Daily SE (March 14, 2019). "Linux Kernel Development with Shuah Khan". Software Engineering Daily. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Challenging, Rewarding, and Fulfilling: A Q&A With Shuah Khan on Linux Kernel Development". The Linux Foundation. December 9, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2024 – via Linux.com.
  6. ^ Corbet J (September 28, 2024). "Results of the 2024 TAB election September 28". LWN.net. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  7. ^ Nass R (June 23, 2021). "Embedded Executive: Shuah Khan, Linux Kernel Fellow, Linux Foundation". Embedded Computing Design. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  8. ^ Torvalds L (October 5, 2024). "MAINTAINERS - kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree". Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c Corbet J (August 20, 2014). "Kernel self tests". LWN.net. Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  10. ^ a b Corbet, Jonathan (November 2, 2017). "A kernel self-testing update". LWN.net. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Perlow J (January 29, 2021). "Interview with Shuah Khan, Kernel Maintainer & Linux Fellow". Linux.com. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Subject: CodingStyle: Inclusive Terminology". git.kernel.org. July 3, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2024. Signed-off-by: Shuah Khan
  13. ^ a b Cimpanu, Catalin (July 11, 2020). "Linux team approves new terminology, bans terms like 'blacklist' and 'slave'". ZDNET. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
  14. ^ Sharwood, Simon (July 13, 2020). "Linus Torvalds banishes masters, slaves and blacklists from the Linux kernel, starting now". The Register. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
  15. ^ "LKML: Dan Williams: Re: [Tech-board-discuss] [PATCH] CodingStyle: Inclusive Terminology". lkml.org. July 6, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2024. Please add my Signed-off-by: Shuah Khan
  16. ^ Corbet, Jonathan (November 4, 2015). "Kernel testing". Retrieved November 24, 2024.


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