linux-drivers/
drivers/iio/light

Ambient light, UV, color, and proximity sensors (IIO)

A collection of drivers for the small optical sensors found in phones, laptops, tablets, and industrial lighting equipment. They measure ambient brightness for automatic screen dimming, detect UV exposure, sense color temperature, or notice when a face is near the screen, and they expose those readings through the kernel's Industrial I/O framework.

keep conf=0.93 deploy=high replacement=none subsystem=iio category=sensor-iio
93%

recommendation

It should stay in the kernel because the directory covers a large catalog of sensors that are still shipped in current products, including parts like TI's OPT4001 and Vishay's VEML6030 that vendors actively market in 2025. Upstream maintenance is healthy too, with patch review and commits landing across multiple files and authors through 2025, such as recent work on the Liteon LTR-390 driver on the linux-iio list.

repository signals

71 files
49,069 source lines
466 commits, 5y
+20,261 / −5,545 lines added / removed, 5y
94 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 466 total · active in 56/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 6 commits · +1,252 −12 2021-05: 13 commits · +46 −41 2021-06: 14 commits · +64 −77 2021-07: 3 commits · +16 −44 2021-08: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-09: 5 commits · +13 −27 2021-10: 7 commits · +66 −37 2021-11: 2 commits · +41 −1 2021-12: 7 commits · +20 −20 2022-01: 14 commits · +40 −83 2022-02: 1 commit · +0 −1 2022-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-04: 10 commits · +51 −28 2022-05: 4 commits · +29 −5 2022-06: 16 commits · +64 −91 2022-07: 4 commits · +575 −4 2022-08: 7 commits · +50 −86 2022-09: 2 commits · +179 −6 2022-10: 3 commits · +9 −49 2022-11: 46 commits · +150 −164 2022-12: 11 commits · +89 −106 2023-01: 5 commits · +318 −143 2023-02: 1 commit · +12 −0 2023-03: 3 commits · +1,524 −11 2023-04: 4 commits · +497 −5 2023-05: 5 commits · +1,104 −49 2023-06: 11 commits · +687 −79 2023-07: 1 commit · +1 −1 2023-08: 3 commits · +519 −117 2023-09: 8 commits · +126 −37 2023-10: 1 commit · +196 −5 2023-11: 4 commits · +854 −6 2023-12: 10 commits · +222 −112 2024-01: 3 commits · +160 −37 2024-02: 8 commits · +106 −21 2024-03: 2 commits · +1,369 −1 2024-04: 4 commits · +34 −29 2024-05: 6 commits · +61 −51 2024-06: 7 commits · +310 −18 2024-07: 22 commits · +1,304 −362 2024-08: 4 commits · +157 −19 2024-09: 24 commits · +421 −78 2024-10: 40 commits · +1,599 −387 2024-11: 10 commits · +225 −1,798 2024-12: 8 commits · +1,565 −138 2025-01: 6 commits · +1,927 −339 2025-02: 4 commits · +237 −13 2025-03: 32 commits · +334 −287 2025-04: 7 commits · +173 −175 2025-05: 3 commits · +13 −29 2025-06: 12 commits · +39 −45 2025-07: 3 commits · +1,097 −1 2025-08: 17 commits · +133 −162 2025-09: 1 commit · +119 −17 2025-10: 4 commits · +7 −7 2025-11: 1 commit · +6 −6 2025-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-01: 5 commits · +38 −69 2026-02: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-03: 2 commits · +13 −9 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. lore-kernel.gnuweeb.org

    Recent linux-iio patch traffic touched drivers/iio/light/ltr390.c in 2025, indicating active upstream maintenance rather than abandonment.

  2. git.kernel.org

    The directory is an active menu of many ambient-light, color, UV, and proximity sensor drivers in the upstream kernel.

  3. ti.com

    TI lists OPT4001 as ACTIVE and orderable, showing at least part of this driver family corresponds to hardware still sold new.

  4. vishay.com

    Vishay's VEML6030 product page offers samples/buy flow, indicating current commercial availability for another supported light-sensor family.

  5. vishay.com

    The VEML6030 datasheet lists current applications including mobile devices, industrial lighting control, and consumer/computing displays, supporting ongoing deployment.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Not an early-exit case: this is a real IIO driver directory with many module-backed sensor drivers. Activity evidence came from local `rg`/`sed` inspection and local `git -c safe.directory=... log/shortlog` commands, which showed many 2025-2026 touches across multiple files and authors. The lore URL was obtained via `web.search_query` on the linux-iio archive mirror and shows recent patch review on a file in this directory; a separate removal/deprecation search on lore mirrors produced no concrete removal thread. The kernel.org tree URL is a canonical-recall stable source for directory scope. TI and Vishay URLs were obtained via `web.search_query` on official vendor domains and show currently marketed parts that map to drivers in this directory. Because the directory covers many still-sold sensor SKUs and has strong ongoing upstream maintenance, the correct recommendation is keep, with no single replacement driver.