Two new documentation directories were merged into the upcoming 2.6.23 mainline kernel, containing translations of the HOWTO and stable_api_nonsense.txt documents in Japanese and Chinese. Greg KH explained, "here are some patches that add some translations of some procedural documentation files to the Documentation/ tree." Regarding some of the concerns that were expressed with merging translated documentation into the mainline kernel tarball, Greg noted, "these files change _very_ slowly over time, and are quite easy to keep up to date by the translators." He added:

"I know that kernel development is in English, but translations of a small subset of documentation files that go over procedures and how to get involved in the community is something that I feel is important and will bring in more developers in the end. Having these files in the kernel tree is a good way to keep a central location that all can see and easily find, instead of hiding them away on different web sites that might be harder to update by anyone who needs to do so."

Following a recent patch that translated Documentation/HOWTO into Japanese [story], a new patch offered a translation of the same document into Chinese. Li Yang noted, "currently Chinese involvement in Linux kernel is very low, especially [compared to China's large] population base. Language could be the main obstacle. Hopefully this document will help more Chinese to contribute to Linux kernel."

Linux creator Linus Torvalds noted that he was happy to see translations, "I think that the policies and processes parts of the documentation are things that make total sense to encourage translation of, because it's entirely possible that those are interesting and valid even to the people who aren't necessarily directly involved in the actual coding, and may well be relevant to managers etc who may not be _directly_ involed with the rest of the kernel developers." He then noted that he didn't see any reason to include the translations with the kernel proper, "that said, I don't think that merging the result into the standard kernel makes sense - like it or not, right now English ends up being required to be part of actually getting things into the 'standard' kernel, and as such, at _some_ point there has to be a connection point that switches over to English, and trying to make the translations be an in-kernel thing is thus kind of pointless." Rob Landley noted that he has started putting together a documentation site on which he will include these translations, "send me translations (preferably in HTML format), and I'll put 'em up. (I've already got the one that started this thread.)"

The translation of a some kernel documentation into Japanese led to a discussion as to whether or not it was appropriate to include translated documentation with the kernel source code. One concern that was expressed was that as the number of included translations grows, so would the size of the kernel. Another concern was the liklihood that as time passes the various translations might become out of date. Jesper Juhl suggested one workaround, "since the common language of most kernel contributors is english I personally feel that we should stick to just that one language in the tree and then perhaps keep translations on a website somewhere. So the authoritative docs stay in the tree, in english, so that as many contributors as possible can read and update them."

Greg KH noted that there were a number of files in the kernel that change infrequently and that he would like to see included, "I really do want to see a translated copy of the HOWTO, stable-api-nonsense.txt, and possibly a few other files in the main kernel tree (SubmittingPatches, CodingStyle, and SubmittingDrivers might all be good canidates for this.) These files change relatively infrequently (the HOWTO file has had only 7 changes in 1 and 1/2 years, and they were very minor ones) and should be easy for the translators to keep up with."