Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | |
| 2 | Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Understanding the Linux Kernel. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es> |
| 7 | |
| 8 | /* |
| 9 | * The latest version of this document may be found at: |
| 10 | * http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html |
| 11 | */ |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The need for a document like this one became apparent in the |
| 14 | linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers |
| 15 | to information, appeared again and again. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more |
| 18 | get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always |
| 19 | enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the |
| 20 | philosophy and design decisions behind this code. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to |
| 23 | start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which |
| 24 | kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents |
| 25 | available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference |
| 26 | books are also mentioned. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document, |
| 29 | send me an e-mail, and I'll include a reference to it here. Any |
| 30 | corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are |
| 33 | cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the |
| 34 | "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful |
| 35 | when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the |
| 36 | Document. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Enjoy! |
| 39 | |
| 40 | ON-LINE DOCS: |
| 41 | |
| 42 | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition" |
| 43 | Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman |
| 44 | URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ |
| 45 | Description: A 600-page book covering the (2.6.10) driver |
| 46 | programming API and kernel hacking in general. Available under the |
| 47 | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | * Title: "The Linux Kernel" |
| 50 | Author: David A. Rusling. |
| 51 | URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/tlk/tlk.html |
| 52 | Keywords: everything!, book. |
| 53 | Description: On line, 200 pages book describing most aspects of |
| 54 | the Linux Kernel. Probably, the first reference for beginners. |
| 55 | Lots of illustrations explaining data structures use and |
| 56 | relationships in the purest Richard W. Stevens' style. Contents: |
| 57 | "1.-Hardware Basics, 2.-Software Basics, 3.-Memory Management, |
| 58 | 4.-Processes, 5.-Interprocess Communication Mechanisms, 6.-PCI, |
| 59 | 7.-Interrupts and Interrupt Handling, 8.-Device Drivers, 9.-The |
| 60 | File system, 10.-Networks, 11.-Kernel Mechanisms, 12.-Modules, |
| 61 | 13.-The Linux Kernel Sources, A.-Linux Data Structures, B.-The |
| 62 | Alpha AXP Processor, C.-Useful Web and FTP Sites, D.-The GNU |
| 63 | General Public License, Glossary". In short: a must have. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | * Title: "The Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide" |
| 66 | Author: Michael K.Johnson and others. |
| 67 | URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html |
| 68 | Keywords: everything! |
| 69 | Description: No more Postscript book-like version. Only HTML now. |
| 70 | Many people have contributed. The interface is similar to web |
| 71 | available mailing lists archives. You can find some articles and |
| 72 | then some mails asking questions about them and/or complementing |
| 73 | previous contributions. A little bit anarchic in this aspect, but |
| 74 | with some valuable information in some cases. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | * Title: "Conceptual Architecture of the Linux Kernel" |
| 77 | Author: Ivan T. Bowman. |
| 78 | URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~itbowman/papers/CS746G-a1.html |
| 79 | Keywords: conceptual software arquitecture, extracted design, |
| 80 | reverse engineering, system structure. |
| 81 | Description: Conceptual software arquitecture of the Linux kernel, |
| 82 | automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good |
| 83 | figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | * Title: "Concrete Architecture of the Linux Kernel" |
| 86 | Author: Ivan T. Bowman, Saheem Siddiqi, and Meyer C. Tanuan. |
| 87 | URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~itbowman/papers/CS746G-a2.html |
| 88 | Keywords: concrete arquitecture, extracted design, reverse |
| 89 | engineering, system structure, dependencies. |
| 90 | Description: Concrete arquitecture of the Linux kernel, |
| 91 | automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good |
| 92 | figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding. This papers |
| 93 | focus on lower details than its predecessor (files, variables...). |
| 94 | |
| 95 | * Title: "Linux as a Case Study: Its Extracted Software |
| 96 | Architecture" |
| 97 | Author: Ivan T. Bowman, Richard C. Holt and Neil V. Brewster. |
| 98 | URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~itbowman/papers/linuxcase.html |
| 99 | Keywords: software architecture, architecture recovery, |
| 100 | redocumentation. |
| 101 | Description: Paper appeared at ICSE'99, Los Angeles, May 16-22, |
| 102 | 1999. A mixture of the previous two documents from the same |
| 103 | author. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | * Title: "Overview of the Virtual File System" |
| 106 | Author: Richard Gooch. |
| 107 | URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/vfs.txt |
| 108 | Keywords: VFS, File System, mounting filesystems, opening files, |
| 109 | dentries, dcache. |
| 110 | Description: Brief introduction to the Linux Virtual File System. |
| 111 | What is it, how it works, operations taken when opening a file or |
| 112 | mounting a file system and description of important data |
| 113 | structures explaining the purpose of each of their entries. |
| 114 | |
| 115 | * Title: "The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code" |
| 116 | Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza. |
| 117 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue44/2391.html |
| 118 | Keywords: RAID, MD driver. |
| 119 | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's |
| 120 | abstract: "A description of the implementation of the RAID-1, |
| 121 | RAID-4 and RAID-5 personalities of the MD device driver in the |
| 122 | Linux kernel, providing users with high performance and reliable, |
| 123 | secondary-storage capability using software". |
| 124 | |
| 125 | * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers" |
| 126 | Author: Alessandro Rubini. |
| 127 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue23/1219.html |
| 128 | Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules, |
| 129 | allocating resources. |
| 130 | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's |
| 131 | abstract: "This is the first of a series of four articles |
| 132 | co-authored by Alessandro Rubini and Georg Zezchwitz which present |
| 133 | a practical approach to writing Linux device drivers as kernel |
| 134 | loadable modules. This installment presents an introduction to the |
| 135 | topic, preparing the reader to understand next month's |
| 136 | installment". |
| 137 | |
| 138 | * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Discovery" |
| 139 | Author: Alessandro Rubini. |
| 140 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue24/1220.html |
| 141 | Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module, |
| 142 | autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations, |
| 143 | open(), close(). |
| 144 | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's |
| 145 | abstract: "This article, the second of four, introduces part of |
| 146 | the actual code to create custom module implementing a character |
| 147 | device driver. It describes the code for module initialization and |
| 148 | cleanup, as well as the open() and close() system calls". |
| 149 | |
| 150 | * Title: "The Devil's in the Details" |
| 151 | Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini. |
| 152 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue25/1221.html |
| 153 | Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non |
| 154 | blocking mode, interrupt handler. |
| 155 | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's |
| 156 | abstract: "This article, the third of four on writing character |
| 157 | device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using |
| 158 | ioctl-calls". |
| 159 | |
| 160 | * Title: "Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA" |
| 161 | Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz. |
| 162 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue26/1222.html |
| 163 | Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues. |
| 164 | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's |
| 165 | abstract: "This is the fourth in a series of articles about |
| 166 | writing character device drivers as loadable kernel modules. This |
| 167 | month, we further investigate the field of interrupt handling. |
| 168 | Though it is conceptually simple, practical limitations and |
| 169 | constraints make this an ``interesting'' part of device driver |
| 170 | writing, and several different facilities have been provided for |
| 171 | different situations. We also investigate the complex topic of |
| 172 | DMA". |
| 173 | |
| 174 | * Title: "Device Drivers Concluded" |
| 175 | Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz. |
| 176 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue28/1287.html |
| 177 | Keywords: address spaces, pages, pagination, page management, |
| 178 | demand loading, swapping, memory protection, memory mapping, mmap, |
| 179 | virtual memory areas (VMAs), vremap, PCI. |
| 180 | Description: Finally, the above turned out into a five articles |
| 181 | series. This latest one's introduction reads: "This is the last of |
| 182 | five articles about character device drivers. In this final |
| 183 | section, Georg deals with memory mapping devices, beginning with |
| 184 | an overall description of the Linux memory management concepts". |
| 185 | |
| 186 | * Title: "Network Buffers And Memory Management" |
| 187 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 188 | URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue30/1312.html |
| 189 | Keywords: sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer |
| 190 | variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive, |
| 191 | configuration, multicast. |
| 192 | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner. Here is the abstract: |
| 193 | "Writing a network device driver for Linux is fundamentally |
| 194 | simple---most of the complexity (other than talking to the |
| 195 | hardware) involves managing network packets in memory". |
| 196 | |
| 197 | * Title: "Writing Linux Device Drivers" |
| 198 | Author: Michael K. Johnson. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 199 | URL: http://users.evitech.fi/~tk/rtos/writing_linux_device_d.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 200 | Keywords: files, VFS, file operations, kernel interface, character |
| 201 | vs block devices, I/O access, hardware interrupts, DMA, access to |
| 202 | user memory, memory allocation, timers. |
| 203 | Description: Introductory 50-minutes (sic) tutorial on writing |
| 204 | device drivers. 12 pages written by the same author of the "Kernel |
| 205 | Hackers' Guide" which give a very good overview of the topic. |
| 206 | |
| 207 | * Title: "The Venus kernel interface" |
| 208 | Author: Peter J. Braam. |
| 209 | URL: |
| 210 | http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html |
| 211 | Keywords: coda, filesystem, venus, cache manager. |
| 212 | Description: "This document describes the communication between |
| 213 | Venus and kernel level file system code needed for the operation |
| 214 | of the Coda filesystem. This version document is meant to describe |
| 215 | the current interface (version 1.0) as well as improvements we |
| 216 | envisage". |
| 217 | |
| 218 | * Title: "Programming PCI-Devices under Linux" |
| 219 | Author: Claus Schroeter. |
| 220 | URL: |
| 221 | ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/pcip.ps |
| 222 | .gz |
| 223 | Keywords: PCI, device, busmastering. |
| 224 | Description: 6 pages tutorial on PCI programming under Linux. |
| 225 | Gives the basic concepts on the architecture of the PCI subsystem, |
| 226 | as long as basic functions and macros to read/write the devices |
| 227 | and perform busmastering. |
| 228 | |
| 229 | * Title: "Writing Character Device Driver for Linux" |
| 230 | Author: R. Baruch and C. Schroeter. |
| 231 | URL: |
| 232 | ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/drivers |
| 233 | .ps.gz |
| 234 | Keywords: character device drivers, I/O, signals, DMA, accessing |
| 235 | ports in user space, kernel environment. |
| 236 | Description: 68 pages paper on writing character drivers. A little |
| 237 | bit old (1.993, 1.994) although still useful. |
| 238 | |
| 239 | * Title: "Design and Implementation of the Second Extended |
| 240 | Filesystem" |
| 241 | Author: RĆ©my Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie. |
| 242 | URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html |
| 243 | Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices, |
| 244 | VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library, |
| 245 | ext2fs tools, e2fsck. |
| 246 | Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers. |
| 247 | Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features, |
| 248 | design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks, |
| 249 | e2fsck's passes description... A must read! |
| 250 | Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the |
| 251 | First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9. |
| 252 | |
| 253 | * Title: "Analysis of the Ext2fs structure" |
| 254 | Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau. |
| 255 | URL: http://step.polymtl.ca/~ldd/ext2fs/ext2fs_toc.html |
| 256 | Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs. |
| 257 | Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes, |
| 258 | bitmaps, invariants... |
| 259 | |
| 260 | * Title: "Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem" |
| 261 | Author: Stephen C. Tweedie. |
| 262 | URL: |
| 263 | ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/journal-design.ps.gz |
| 264 | Keywords: ext3, journaling. |
| 265 | Description: Excellent 8-pages paper explaining the journaling |
| 266 | capabilities added to ext2 by the author, showing different |
| 267 | problems faced and the alternatives chosen. |
| 268 | |
| 269 | * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.0 to 2.2" |
| 270 | Author: Richard Gooch. |
| 271 | URL: |
| 272 | http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/porting-to-2.2.html |
| 273 | Keywords: 2.2, changes. |
| 274 | Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed |
| 275 | from 2.0.x to 2.2.x. |
| 276 | |
| 277 | * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.2 to 2.4" |
| 278 | Author: Richard Gooch. |
| 279 | URL: |
| 280 | http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/porting-to-2.4.html |
| 281 | Keywords: 2.4, changes. |
| 282 | Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed |
| 283 | from 2.2.x to 2.4.x. |
| 284 | |
| 285 | * Title: "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide" |
| 286 | Author: Ori Pomerantz. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 287 | URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 288 | Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls, |
| 289 | interrupt handlers . |
| 290 | Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules |
| 291 | programming. Lots of examples. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | * Title: "Device File System (devfs) Overview" |
| 294 | Author: Richard Gooch. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 295 | URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rgooch/linux/docs/devfs.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 296 | Keywords: filesystem, /dev, devfs, dynamic devices, major/minor |
| 297 | allocation, device management. |
| 298 | Description: Document describing Richard Gooch's controversial |
| 299 | devfs, which allows for dynamic devices, only shows present |
| 300 | devices in /dev, gets rid of major/minor numbers allocation |
| 301 | problems, and allows for hundreds of identical devices (which some |
| 302 | USB systems might demand soon). |
| 303 | |
| 304 | * Title: "I/O Event Handling Under Linux" |
| 305 | Author: Richard Gooch. |
| 306 | URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/io-events.html |
| 307 | Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness |
| 308 | event queues. |
| 309 | Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about |
| 310 | how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of |
| 311 | open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your |
| 312 | application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active |
| 313 | (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you |
| 314 | want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of |
| 315 | inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage". |
| 316 | |
| 317 | * Title: "The Kernel Hacking HOWTO" |
| 318 | Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 319 | Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking/ |
| 320 | (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs}) |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 321 | Keywords: HOWTO, kernel contexts, deadlock, locking, modules, |
| 322 | symbols, return conventions. |
| 323 | Description: From the Introduction: "Please understand that I |
| 324 | never wanted to write this document, being grossly underqualified, |
| 325 | but I always wanted to read it, and this was the only way. I |
| 326 | simply explain some best practices, and give reading entry-points |
| 327 | into the kernel sources. I avoid implementation details: that's |
| 328 | what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful |
| 329 | routines. This document assumes familiarity with C, and an |
| 330 | understanding of what the kernel is, and how it is used. It was |
| 331 | originally written for the 2.3 kernels, but nearly all of it |
| 332 | applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly different". |
| 333 | |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 334 | * Title: "Writing an ALSA Driver" |
| 335 | Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> |
| 336 | URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 337 | Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware. |
| 338 | Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers, |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 339 | both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel |
| 340 | sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version. |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 341 | |
| 342 | * Title: "Programming Guide for Linux USB Device Drivers" |
| 343 | Author: Detlef Fliegl. |
| 344 | URL: http://usb.in.tum.de/usbdoc/ |
| 345 | Keywords: USB, universal serial bus. |
| 346 | Description: A must-read. From the Preface: "This document should |
| 347 | give detailed information about the current state of the USB |
| 348 | subsystem and its API for USB device drivers. The first section |
| 349 | will deal with the basics of USB devices. You will learn about |
| 350 | different types of devices and their properties. Going into detail |
| 351 | you will see how USB devices communicate on the bus. The second |
| 352 | section gives an overview of the Linux USB subsystem [2] and the |
| 353 | device driver framework. Then the API and its data structures will |
| 354 | be explained step by step. The last section of this document |
| 355 | contains a reference of all API calls and their return codes". |
| 356 | Notes: Beware: the main page states: "This document may not be |
| 357 | published, printed or used in excerpts without explicit permission |
| 358 | of the author". Fortunately, it may still be read... |
| 359 | |
| 360 | * Title: "Tour Of the Linux Kernel Source" |
| 361 | Author: Vijo Cherian. |
| 362 | URL: http://www.geocities.com/vijoc/tolks/tolks.html |
| 363 | Keywords: . |
| 364 | Description: A classic of this page! Was lost for a while and is |
| 365 | back again. Thanks Vijo! TOLKS: the name says it all. A tour of |
| 366 | the sources, describing directories, files, variables, data |
| 367 | structures... It covers general stuff, device drivers, |
| 368 | filesystems, IPC and Networking Code. |
| 369 | |
| 370 | * Title: "Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary" |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 371 | Author: various |
| 372 | URL: http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/ |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 373 | Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel. |
| 374 | Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as |
| 375 | a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear |
| 376 | during discussion of the Linux kernel". |
| 377 | |
| 378 | * Title: "Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO" |
| 379 | Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 380 | Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking/ |
| 381 | (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs}) |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 382 | Keywords: locks, locking, spinlock, semaphore, atomic, race |
| 383 | condition, bottom halves, tasklets, softirqs. |
| 384 | Description: The title says it all: document describing the |
| 385 | locking system in the Linux Kernel either in uniprocessor or SMP |
| 386 | systems. |
| 387 | Notes: "It was originally written for the later (>2.3.47) 2.3 |
| 388 | kernels, but most of it applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly |
| 389 | different". Freely redistributable under the conditions of the GNU |
| 390 | General Public License. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | * Title: "Porting Linux 2.0 Drivers To Linux 2.2: Changes and New |
| 393 | Features " |
| 394 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 395 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-05/gear_01.html |
| 396 | Keywords: ports, porting. |
| 397 | Description: Article from Linux Magazine on porting from 2.0 to |
| 398 | 2.2 kernels. |
| 399 | |
| 400 | * Title: "Porting Device Drivers To Linux 2.2: part II" |
| 401 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 402 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-06/gear_01.html |
| 403 | Keywords: ports, porting. |
| 404 | Description: Second part on porting from 2.0 to 2.2 kernels. |
| 405 | |
| 406 | * Title: "How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power |
| 407 | Macintosh" |
| 408 | Author: Paul Mackerras. |
| 409 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-07/gear_01.html |
| 410 | Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility. |
| 411 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 412 | |
| 413 | * Title: "An Introduction to SCSI Drivers" |
| 414 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 415 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-08/gear_01.html |
| 416 | Keywords: SCSI, device, driver. |
| 417 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 418 | |
| 419 | * Title: "Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales" |
| 420 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 421 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-09/gear_01.html |
| 422 | Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced. |
| 423 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 424 | |
| 425 | * Title: "Writing Linux Mouse Drivers" |
| 426 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 427 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-10/gear_01.html |
| 428 | Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm. |
| 429 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 430 | |
| 431 | * Title: "More on Mouse Drivers" |
| 432 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 433 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-11/gear_01.html |
| 434 | Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O. |
| 435 | Description: The title still says it all. |
| 436 | |
| 437 | * Title: "Writing Video4linux Radio Driver" |
| 438 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 439 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-12/gear_01.html |
| 440 | Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices. |
| 441 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 442 | |
| 443 | * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device" |
| 444 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 445 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-01/gear_01.html |
| 446 | Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, |
| 447 | camera driver. |
| 448 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices" |
| 451 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 452 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-02/gear_01.html |
| 453 | Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, |
| 454 | camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility. |
| 455 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 456 | |
| 457 | * Title: "PCI Management in Linux 2.2" |
| 458 | Author: Alan Cox. |
| 459 | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-03/gear_01.html |
| 460 | Keywords: PCI, bus, bus-mastering. |
| 461 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 462 | |
| 463 | * Title: "Linux 2.4 Kernel Internals" |
| 464 | Author: Tigran Aivazian and Christoph Hellwig. |
| 465 | URL: http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/lki.html |
| 466 | Keywords: Linux, kernel, booting, SMB boot, VFS, page cache. |
| 467 | Description: A little book used for a short training course. |
| 468 | Covers building the kernel image, booting (including SMP bootup), |
| 469 | process management, VFS and more. |
| 470 | |
| 471 | * Title: "Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and |
| 472 | Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack." |
| 473 | Author: Glenn Herrin. |
| 474 | URL: |
| 475 | http://kernelnewbies.org/documents/ipnetworking/linuxipnetworking. |
| 476 | html |
| 477 | Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection, |
| 478 | socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets, |
| 479 | modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags. |
| 480 | Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking, |
| 481 | explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space |
| 482 | configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of |
| 483 | the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps |
| 484 | packets follow from the time they are received at the network |
| 485 | device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel |
| 486 | code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet |
| 487 | dropper example. |
| 488 | |
| 489 | * Title: "Get those boards talking under Linux." |
| 490 | Author: Alex Ivchenko. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 491 | URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46968.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 492 | Keywords: data-acquisition boards, drivers, modules, interrupts, |
| 493 | memory allocation. |
| 494 | Description: Article written for people wishing to make their data |
| 495 | acquisition boards work on their GNU/Linux machines. Gives a basic |
| 496 | overview on writing drivers, from the naming of functions to |
| 497 | interrupt handling. |
| 498 | Notes: Two-parts article. Part II is at |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 499 | URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46998.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 500 | |
| 501 | * Title: "Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide" |
| 502 | Author: David Hinds. |
| 503 | URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html |
| 504 | Keywords: PCMCIA. |
| 505 | Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device |
| 506 | drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also |
| 507 | describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with |
| 508 | Card Services. |
| 509 | |
| 510 | * Title: "The Linux Kernel NFSD Implementation" |
| 511 | Author: Neil Brown. |
| 512 | URL: |
| 513 | http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/nfsd.html |
| 514 | Keywords: knfsd, nfsd, NFS, RPC, lockd, mountd, statd. |
| 515 | Description: The title says it all. |
| 516 | Notes: Covers knfsd's version 1.4.7 (patch against 2.2.7 kernel). |
| 517 | |
| 518 | * Title: "A Linux vm README" |
| 519 | Author: Kanoj Sarcar. |
| 520 | URL: http://reality.sgi.com/kanoj_engr/vm229.html |
| 521 | Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page |
| 522 | cache, swap cache, kswapd. |
| 523 | Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions |
| 524 | relating the Linux virtual memory implementation. |
| 525 | |
| 526 | * Title: "(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The |
| 527 | definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system |
| 528 | administrators." |
| 529 | Author: pragmatic/THC. |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 530 | URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 531 | Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table. |
| 532 | Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in |
| 533 | order to intercept and modify syscalls, make |
| 534 | files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys, |
| 535 | write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to |
| 536 | avoid all those abuses. |
| 537 | Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 538 | kernels. |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 539 | |
| 540 | BOOKS: (Not on-line) |
| 541 | |
| 542 | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers" |
| 543 | Author: Alessandro Rubini. |
| 544 | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates. |
| 545 | Date: 1998. |
| 546 | Pages: 439. |
| 547 | ISBN: 1-56592-292-1 |
| 548 | |
| 549 | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition" |
| 550 | Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet. |
| 551 | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates. |
| 552 | Date: 2001. |
| 553 | Pages: 586. |
| 554 | ISBN: 0-59600-008-1 |
| 555 | Notes: Further information in |
| 556 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/ |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 557 | |
| 558 | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 3nd Edition" |
| 559 | Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman |
| 560 | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates. |
| 561 | Date: 2005. |
| 562 | Pages: 636. |
| 563 | ISBN: 0-596-00590-3 |
| 564 | Notes: Further information in |
| 565 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/ |
| 566 | PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ |
| 567 | |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 568 | * Title: "Linux Kernel Internals" |
| 569 | Author: Michael Beck. |
| 570 | Publisher: Addison-Wesley. |
| 571 | Date: 1997. |
| 572 | ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition) |
| 573 | |
| 574 | * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" |
| 575 | Author: Maurice J. Bach. |
| 576 | Publisher: Prentice Hall. |
| 577 | Date: 1986. |
| 578 | Pages: 471. |
| 579 | ISBN: 0-13-201757-1 |
| 580 | |
| 581 | * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX |
| 582 | Operating System" |
| 583 | Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. |
| 584 | Karels, John S. Quarterman. |
| 585 | Publisher: Addison-Wesley. |
| 586 | Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990). |
| 587 | ISBN: 0-201-06196-1 |
| 588 | |
| 589 | * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX |
| 590 | Operating System" |
| 591 | Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, |
| 592 | John S. Quarterman. |
| 593 | Publisher: Addison-Wesley. |
| 594 | Date: 1996. |
| 595 | ISBN: 0-201-54979-4 |
| 596 | |
| 597 | * Title: "Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du |
| 598 | noyau" |
| 599 | Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel. |
| 600 | Publisher: Eyrolles. |
| 601 | Date: 1997. |
| 602 | Pages: 520. |
| 603 | ISBN: 2-212-08932-5 |
| 604 | Notes: French. |
| 605 | |
| 606 | * Title: "The Linux Kernel Book" |
| 607 | Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel. |
| 608 | Publisher: John Wiley & Sons. |
| 609 | Date: 1998. |
| 610 | ISBN: 0-471-98141-9 |
| 611 | Notes: English translation. |
| 612 | |
| 613 | * Title: "Linux 2.0" |
| 614 | Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel. |
| 615 | Publisher: GestiĆ³n 2000. |
| 616 | Date: 1997. |
| 617 | Pages: 501. |
| 618 | ISBN: 8-480-88208-5 |
| 619 | Notes: Spanish translation. |
| 620 | |
| 621 | * Title: "Unix internals -- the new frontiers" |
| 622 | Author: Uresh Vahalia. |
| 623 | Publisher: Prentice Hall. |
| 624 | Date: 1996. |
| 625 | Pages: 600. |
| 626 | ISBN: 0-13-101908-2 |
| 627 | |
| 628 | * Title: "Linux Core Kernel Commentary. Guide to Insider's Knowledge |
| 629 | on the Core Kernel of the Linux Code" |
| 630 | Author: Scott Maxwell. |
| 631 | Publisher: Coriolis. |
| 632 | Date: 1999. |
| 633 | Pages: 592. |
| 634 | ISBN: 1-57610-469-9 |
| 635 | Notes: CD-ROM included. Line by line commentary of the kernel |
| 636 | code. |
| 637 | |
| 638 | * Title: "Linux IP Stacks Commentary" |
| 639 | Author: Stephen Satchell and HBJ Clifford. |
| 640 | Publisher: Coriolis. |
| 641 | Date: 2000. |
| 642 | Pages: ???. |
| 643 | ISBN: 1-57610-470-2 |
| 644 | Notes: Line by line source code commentary book. |
| 645 | |
| 646 | * Title: "Programming for the real world - POSIX.4" |
| 647 | Author: Bill O. Gallmeister. |
| 648 | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.. |
| 649 | Date: 1995. |
| 650 | Pages: ???. |
| 651 | ISBN: I-56592-074-0 |
| 652 | Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be |
| 653 | POSIX. Good reference. |
| 654 | |
| 655 | * Title: "Understanding the Linux Kernel" |
| 656 | Author: Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati. |
| 657 | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.. |
| 658 | Date: 2000. |
| 659 | Pages: 702. |
| 660 | ISBN: 0-596-00002-2 |
| 661 | Notes: Further information in |
| 662 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxkernel/ |
| 663 | |
| 664 | MISCELLANEOUS: |
| 665 | |
| 666 | * Name: linux/Documentation |
| 667 | Author: Many. |
| 668 | URL: Just look inside your kernel sources. |
| 669 | Keywords: anything, DocBook. |
| 670 | Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources, |
| 671 | inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document |
| 672 | (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might |
| 673 | be more up to date than the web version. |
| 674 | |
| 675 | * Name: "Linux Source Driver" |
| 676 | URL: http://lsd.linux.cz |
| 677 | Keywords: Browsing source code. |
| 678 | Description: "Linux Source Driver (LSD) is an application, which |
| 679 | can make browsing source codes of Linux kernel easier than you can |
| 680 | imagine. You can select between multiple versions of kernel (e.g. |
| 681 | 0.01, 1.0.0, 2.0.33, 2.0.34pre13, 2.0.0, 2.1.101 etc.). With LSD |
| 682 | you can search Linux kernel (fulltext, macros, types, functions |
| 683 | and variables) and LSD can generate patches for you on the fly |
| 684 | (files, directories or kernel)". |
| 685 | |
| 686 | * Name: "Linux Kernel Source Reference" |
| 687 | Author: Thomas Graichen. |
| 688 | URL: http://innominate.org/~graichen/projects/lksr/ |
| 689 | Keywords: CVS, web, cvsweb, browsing source code. |
| 690 | Description: Web interface to a CVS server with the kernel |
| 691 | sources. "Here you can have a look at any file of the Linux kernel |
| 692 | sources of any version starting from 1.0 up to the (daily updated) |
| 693 | current version available. Also you can check the differences |
| 694 | between two versions of a file". |
| 695 | |
| 696 | * Name: "Cross-Referencing Linux" |
| 697 | URL: http://lxr.linux.no/source/ |
| 698 | Keywords: Browsing source code. |
| 699 | Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser. |
| 700 | Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see |
| 701 | where they are defined and where they are used. |
| 702 | |
| 703 | * Name: "Linux Weekly News" |
| 704 | URL: http://lwn.net |
| 705 | Keywords: latest kernel news. |
| 706 | Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section |
| 707 | summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions |
| 708 | produced during the week. Published every Thursday. |
| 709 | |
| 710 | * Name: "Kernel Traffic" |
| 711 | URL: http://www.kerneltraffic.org/kernel-traffic/ |
| 712 | Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list, weekly kernel news. |
| 713 | Description: Weekly newsletter covering the most relevant |
| 714 | discussions of the linux-kernel mailing list. |
| 715 | |
| 716 | * Name: "CuTTiNG.eDGe.LiNuX" |
| 717 | URL: http://edge.kernelnotes.org |
| 718 | Keywords: changelist. |
| 719 | Description: Site which provides the changelist for every kernel |
| 720 | release. What's new, what's better, what's changed. Myrdraal reads |
| 721 | the patches and describes them. Pointers to the patches are there, |
| 722 | too. |
| 723 | |
| 724 | * Name: "New linux-kernel Mailing List FAQ" |
| 725 | URL: http://www.tux.org/lkml/ |
| 726 | Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list FAQ. |
| 727 | Description: linux-kernel is a mailing list for developers to |
| 728 | communicate. This FAQ builds on the previous linux-kernel mailing |
| 729 | list FAQ maintained by Frohwalt Egerer, who no longer maintains |
| 730 | it. Read it to see how to join the mailing list. Dozens of |
| 731 | interesting questions regarding the list, Linux, developers (who |
| 732 | is ...?), terms (what is...?) are answered here too. Just read it. |
| 733 | |
| 734 | * Name: "Linux Virtual File System" |
| 735 | Author: Peter J. Braam. |
| 736 | URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/ |
| 737 | Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache. |
| 738 | Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the |
| 739 | Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the |
| 740 | dcache. |
| 741 | |
| 742 | * Name: "Gary's Encyclopedia - The Linux Kernel" |
| 743 | Author: Gary (I suppose...). |
| 744 | URL: http://members.aa.net/~swear/pedia/kernel.html |
| 745 | Keywords: links, not found here?. |
| 746 | Description: Gary's Encyclopedia exists to allow the rapid finding |
| 747 | of documentation and other information of interest to GNU/Linux |
| 748 | users. It has about 4000 links to external pages in 150 major |
| 749 | categories. This link is for kernel-specific links, documents, |
| 750 | sites... Look there if you could not find here what you were |
| 751 | looking for. |
| 752 | |
| 753 | * Name: "The home page of Linux-MM" |
| 754 | Author: The Linux-MM team. |
| 755 | URL: http://linux-mm.org/ |
| 756 | Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs, |
| 757 | mailing list. |
| 758 | Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development. |
| 759 | Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss |
| 760 | it if you are interested in memory management development! |
| 761 | |
| 762 | * Name: "Kernel Newbies IRC Channel" |
| 763 | URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org |
| 764 | Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts. |
| 765 | Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.openprojects.net. From the web |
| 766 | page: "#kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie' |
| 767 | kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are |
| 768 | learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or |
| 769 | professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel |
| 770 | people. [...] #kernelnewbies is on the Open Projects IRC Network, |
| 771 | try irc.openprojects.net or irc.<country>.openprojects.net as your |
| 772 | server and then /join #kernelnewbies". It also hosts articles, |
| 773 | documents, FAQs... |
| 774 | |
| 775 | * Name: "linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines" |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 776 | URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 777 | URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 778 | URL: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel |
| 779 | URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel |
| 780 | URL: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/ |
| 781 | URL: http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/ |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 782 | Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search. |
| 783 | Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If |
| 784 | you have a better/another one, please let me know. |
| 785 | _________________________________________________________________ |
| 786 | |
Randy Dunlap | 98766fb | 2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 787 | Document last updated on Sat 2005-NOV-19 |