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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +01002 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
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07008/*
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.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +010064
65 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition"
66 Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet.
67 URL: http://www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book/index.html
68 Keywords: device drivers, modules, debugging, memory, hardware,
69 interrupt handling, char drivers, block drivers, kmod, mmap, DMA,
70 buses.
71 Description: O'Reilly's popular book, now also on-line under the
72 GNU Free Documentation License.
73 Notes: You can also buy it in paper-form from O'Reilly. See below
74 under BOOKS (Not on-line).
75
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070076 * 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.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +010084
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070085 * 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
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +010088 Keywords: concrete architecture, extracted design, reverse
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070089 engineering, system structure, dependencies.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +010090 Description: Concrete architecture of the Linux kernel,
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070091 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...).
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +010094
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070095 * 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.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100104
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700105 * 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.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100114
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700115 * Title: "The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code"
116 Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100117 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700118 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100124
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700125 * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers"
126 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100127 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700128 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100137
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700138 * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Discovery"
139 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100140 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700141 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100149
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700150 * Title: "The Devil's in the Details"
151 Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100152 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700153 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100159
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700160 * Title: "Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA"
161 Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100162 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700163 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100173
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700174 * Title: "Device Drivers Concluded"
175 Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100176 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700177 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100185
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700186 * Title: "Network Buffers And Memory Management"
187 Author: Alan Cox.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100188 URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700189 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 Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800199 URL: http://users.evitech.fi/~tk/rtos/writing_linux_device_d.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700200 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".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100217
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700218 * Title: "Programming PCI-Devices under Linux"
219 Author: Claus Schroeter.
220 URL:
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100221 ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/pcip.ps.gz
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700222 Keywords: PCI, device, busmastering.
223 Description: 6 pages tutorial on PCI programming under Linux.
224 Gives the basic concepts on the architecture of the PCI subsystem,
225 as long as basic functions and macros to read/write the devices
226 and perform busmastering.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100227
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700228 * Title: "Writing Character Device Driver for Linux"
229 Author: R. Baruch and C. Schroeter.
230 URL:
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100231 ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/drivers.ps.gz
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700232 Keywords: character device drivers, I/O, signals, DMA, accessing
233 ports in user space, kernel environment.
234 Description: 68 pages paper on writing character drivers. A little
235 bit old (1.993, 1.994) although still useful.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100236
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700237 * Title: "Design and Implementation of the Second Extended
238 Filesystem"
239 Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
240 URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html
241 Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices,
242 VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library,
243 ext2fs tools, e2fsck.
244 Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers.
245 Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features,
246 design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks,
247 e2fsck's passes description... A must read!
248 Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the
249 First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100250
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700251 * Title: "Analysis of the Ext2fs structure"
252 Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100253 URL: http://www.nondot.org/sabre/os/files/FileSystems/ext2fs/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700254 Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
255 Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes,
256 bitmaps, invariants...
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100257
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700258 * Title: "Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem"
259 Author: Stephen C. Tweedie.
260 URL:
261 ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/journal-design.ps.gz
262 Keywords: ext3, journaling.
263 Description: Excellent 8-pages paper explaining the journaling
264 capabilities added to ext2 by the author, showing different
265 problems faced and the alternatives chosen.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100266
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700267 * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.0 to 2.2"
268 Author: Richard Gooch.
269 URL:
270 http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/porting-to-2.2.html
271 Keywords: 2.2, changes.
272 Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
273 from 2.0.x to 2.2.x.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100274
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700275 * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.2 to 2.4"
276 Author: Richard Gooch.
277 URL:
278 http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/porting-to-2.4.html
279 Keywords: 2.4, changes.
280 Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
281 from 2.2.x to 2.4.x.
282
283 * Title: "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide"
284 Author: Ori Pomerantz.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800285 URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700286 Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
287 interrupt handlers .
288 Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
289 programming. Lots of examples.
290
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700291 * Title: "I/O Event Handling Under Linux"
292 Author: Richard Gooch.
293 URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/io-events.html
294 Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
295 event queues.
296 Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about
297 how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of
298 open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your
299 application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active
300 (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you
301 want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of
302 inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage".
303
304 * Title: "The Kernel Hacking HOWTO"
305 Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800306 Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking/
307 (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700308 Keywords: HOWTO, kernel contexts, deadlock, locking, modules,
309 symbols, return conventions.
310 Description: From the Introduction: "Please understand that I
311 never wanted to write this document, being grossly underqualified,
312 but I always wanted to read it, and this was the only way. I
313 simply explain some best practices, and give reading entry-points
314 into the kernel sources. I avoid implementation details: that's
315 what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful
316 routines. This document assumes familiarity with C, and an
317 understanding of what the kernel is, and how it is used. It was
318 originally written for the 2.3 kernels, but nearly all of it
319 applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly different".
320
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800321 * Title: "Writing an ALSA Driver"
322 Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
323 URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700324 Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
325 Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers,
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800326 both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel
327 sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700328
329 * Title: "Programming Guide for Linux USB Device Drivers"
330 Author: Detlef Fliegl.
331 URL: http://usb.in.tum.de/usbdoc/
332 Keywords: USB, universal serial bus.
333 Description: A must-read. From the Preface: "This document should
334 give detailed information about the current state of the USB
335 subsystem and its API for USB device drivers. The first section
336 will deal with the basics of USB devices. You will learn about
337 different types of devices and their properties. Going into detail
338 you will see how USB devices communicate on the bus. The second
339 section gives an overview of the Linux USB subsystem [2] and the
340 device driver framework. Then the API and its data structures will
341 be explained step by step. The last section of this document
342 contains a reference of all API calls and their return codes".
343 Notes: Beware: the main page states: "This document may not be
344 published, printed or used in excerpts without explicit permission
345 of the author". Fortunately, it may still be read...
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100346
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700347 * Title: "Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary"
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800348 Author: various
349 URL: http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700350 Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
351 Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
352 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
353 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
354
355 * Title: "Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO"
356 Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800357 Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking/
358 (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700359 Keywords: locks, locking, spinlock, semaphore, atomic, race
360 condition, bottom halves, tasklets, softirqs.
361 Description: The title says it all: document describing the
362 locking system in the Linux Kernel either in uniprocessor or SMP
363 systems.
364 Notes: "It was originally written for the later (>2.3.47) 2.3
365 kernels, but most of it applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly
366 different". Freely redistributable under the conditions of the GNU
367 General Public License.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100368
369 * Title: "Global spinlock list and usage"
370 Author: Rick Lindsley.
371 URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
372 Keywords: spinlock.
373 Description: This is an attempt to document both the existence and
374 usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive
375 list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions
376 access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it
377 is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held...
378
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700379 * Title: "Porting Linux 2.0 Drivers To Linux 2.2: Changes and New
380 Features "
381 Author: Alan Cox.
382 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-05/gear_01.html
383 Keywords: ports, porting.
384 Description: Article from Linux Magazine on porting from 2.0 to
385 2.2 kernels.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100386
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700387 * Title: "Porting Device Drivers To Linux 2.2: part II"
388 Author: Alan Cox.
389 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-06/gear_01.html
390 Keywords: ports, porting.
391 Description: Second part on porting from 2.0 to 2.2 kernels.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100392
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700393 * Title: "How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power
394 Macintosh"
395 Author: Paul Mackerras.
396 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-07/gear_01.html
397 Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
398 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100399
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700400 * Title: "An Introduction to SCSI Drivers"
401 Author: Alan Cox.
402 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-08/gear_01.html
403 Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
404 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100405
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700406 * Title: "Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales"
407 Author: Alan Cox.
408 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-09/gear_01.html
409 Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
410 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100411
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700412 * Title: "Writing Linux Mouse Drivers"
413 Author: Alan Cox.
414 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-10/gear_01.html
415 Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
416 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100417
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700418 * Title: "More on Mouse Drivers"
419 Author: Alan Cox.
420 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-11/gear_01.html
421 Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
422 Description: The title still says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100423
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700424 * Title: "Writing Video4linux Radio Driver"
425 Author: Alan Cox.
426 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-12/gear_01.html
427 Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
428 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100429
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700430 * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device"
431 Author: Alan Cox.
432 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-01/gear_01.html
433 Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
434 camera driver.
435 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100436
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700437 * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices"
438 Author: Alan Cox.
439 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-02/gear_01.html
440 Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
441 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
442 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100443
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700444 * Title: "PCI Management in Linux 2.2"
445 Author: Alan Cox.
446 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-03/gear_01.html
447 Keywords: PCI, bus, bus-mastering.
448 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100449
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700450 * Title: "Linux 2.4 Kernel Internals"
451 Author: Tigran Aivazian and Christoph Hellwig.
452 URL: http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/lki.html
453 Keywords: Linux, kernel, booting, SMB boot, VFS, page cache.
454 Description: A little book used for a short training course.
455 Covers building the kernel image, booting (including SMP bootup),
456 process management, VFS and more.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100457
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700458 * Title: "Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and
459 Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack."
460 Author: Glenn Herrin.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100461 URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700462 Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection,
463 socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets,
464 modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
465 Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking,
466 explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space
467 configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of
468 the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps
469 packets follow from the time they are received at the network
470 device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel
471 code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet
472 dropper example.
473
474 * Title: "Get those boards talking under Linux."
475 Author: Alex Ivchenko.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800476 URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46968.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700477 Keywords: data-acquisition boards, drivers, modules, interrupts,
478 memory allocation.
479 Description: Article written for people wishing to make their data
480 acquisition boards work on their GNU/Linux machines. Gives a basic
481 overview on writing drivers, from the naming of functions to
482 interrupt handling.
483 Notes: Two-parts article. Part II is at
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800484 URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46998.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700485
486 * Title: "Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide"
487 Author: David Hinds.
488 URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
489 Keywords: PCMCIA.
490 Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device
491 drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also
492 describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with
493 Card Services.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100494
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700495 * Title: "The Linux Kernel NFSD Implementation"
496 Author: Neil Brown.
497 URL:
498 http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/nfsd.html
499 Keywords: knfsd, nfsd, NFS, RPC, lockd, mountd, statd.
500 Description: The title says it all.
501 Notes: Covers knfsd's version 1.4.7 (patch against 2.2.7 kernel).
502
503 * Title: "A Linux vm README"
504 Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
505 URL: http://reality.sgi.com/kanoj_engr/vm229.html
506 Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page
507 cache, swap cache, kswapd.
508 Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions
509 relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
510
511 * Title: "(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The
512 definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system
513 administrators."
514 Author: pragmatic/THC.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800515 URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700516 Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
517 Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in
518 order to intercept and modify syscalls, make
519 files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys,
520 write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to
521 avoid all those abuses.
522 Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800523 kernels.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700524
525 BOOKS: (Not on-line)
526
527 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers"
528 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
529 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
530 Date: 1998.
531 Pages: 439.
532 ISBN: 1-56592-292-1
533
534 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition"
535 Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet.
536 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
537 Date: 2001.
538 Pages: 586.
539 ISBN: 0-59600-008-1
540 Notes: Further information in
541 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800542
543 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 3nd Edition"
544 Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
545 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
546 Date: 2005.
547 Pages: 636.
548 ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
549 Notes: Further information in
550 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
551 PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
552
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700553 * Title: "Linux Kernel Internals"
554 Author: Michael Beck.
555 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
556 Date: 1997.
557 ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
558
559 * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System"
560 Author: Maurice J. Bach.
561 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
562 Date: 1986.
563 Pages: 471.
564 ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
565
566 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX
567 Operating System"
568 Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J.
569 Karels, John S. Quarterman.
570 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
571 Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990).
572 ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
573
574 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX
575 Operating System"
576 Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
577 John S. Quarterman.
578 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
579 Date: 1996.
580 ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
581
582 * Title: "Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du
583 noyau"
584 Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel.
585 Publisher: Eyrolles.
586 Date: 1997.
587 Pages: 520.
588 ISBN: 2-212-08932-5
589 Notes: French.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100590
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700591 * Title: "Unix internals -- the new frontiers"
592 Author: Uresh Vahalia.
593 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
594 Date: 1996.
595 Pages: 600.
596 ISBN: 0-13-101908-2
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100597
598 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX
599 Operating System"
600 Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
601 John S. Quarterman.
602 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
603 Date: 1996.
604 ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
605
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700606 * Title: "Programming for the real world - POSIX.4"
607 Author: Bill O. Gallmeister.
608 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc..
609 Date: 1995.
610 Pages: ???.
611 ISBN: I-56592-074-0
612 Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
613 POSIX. Good reference.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100614
615 * Title: "UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric
616 Multiprocesssing and Caching for Kernel Programmers"
617 Author: Curt Schimmel.
618 Publisher: Addison Wesley.
619 Date: June, 1994.
620 Pages: 432.
621 ISBN: 0-201-63338-8
622
623 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX
624 Operating System"
625 Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J.
626 Karels, John S. Quarterman.
627 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
628 Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990).
629 ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
630
631 * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System"
632 Author: Maurice J. Bach.
633 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
634 Date: 1986.
635 Pages: 471.
636 ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
637
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700638 MISCELLANEOUS:
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100639
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700640 * Name: linux/Documentation
641 Author: Many.
642 URL: Just look inside your kernel sources.
643 Keywords: anything, DocBook.
644 Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
645 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
646 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
647 be more up to date than the web version.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100648
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700649 * Name: "Linux Source Driver"
650 URL: http://lsd.linux.cz
651 Keywords: Browsing source code.
652 Description: "Linux Source Driver (LSD) is an application, which
653 can make browsing source codes of Linux kernel easier than you can
654 imagine. You can select between multiple versions of kernel (e.g.
655 0.01, 1.0.0, 2.0.33, 2.0.34pre13, 2.0.0, 2.1.101 etc.). With LSD
656 you can search Linux kernel (fulltext, macros, types, functions
657 and variables) and LSD can generate patches for you on the fly
658 (files, directories or kernel)".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100659
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700660 * Name: "Linux Kernel Source Reference"
661 Author: Thomas Graichen.
662 URL: http://innominate.org/~graichen/projects/lksr/
663 Keywords: CVS, web, cvsweb, browsing source code.
664 Description: Web interface to a CVS server with the kernel
665 sources. "Here you can have a look at any file of the Linux kernel
666 sources of any version starting from 1.0 up to the (daily updated)
667 current version available. Also you can check the differences
668 between two versions of a file".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100669
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700670 * Name: "Cross-Referencing Linux"
671 URL: http://lxr.linux.no/source/
672 Keywords: Browsing source code.
673 Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
674 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
675 where they are defined and where they are used.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100676
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700677 * Name: "Linux Weekly News"
678 URL: http://lwn.net
679 Keywords: latest kernel news.
680 Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
681 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
682 produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100683
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700684 * Name: "Kernel Traffic"
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100685 URL: http://kt.zork.net/kernel-traffic/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700686 Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list, weekly kernel news.
687 Description: Weekly newsletter covering the most relevant
688 discussions of the linux-kernel mailing list.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100689
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700690 * Name: "CuTTiNG.eDGe.LiNuX"
691 URL: http://edge.kernelnotes.org
692 Keywords: changelist.
693 Description: Site which provides the changelist for every kernel
694 release. What's new, what's better, what's changed. Myrdraal reads
695 the patches and describes them. Pointers to the patches are there,
696 too.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100697
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700698 * Name: "New linux-kernel Mailing List FAQ"
699 URL: http://www.tux.org/lkml/
700 Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list FAQ.
701 Description: linux-kernel is a mailing list for developers to
702 communicate. This FAQ builds on the previous linux-kernel mailing
703 list FAQ maintained by Frohwalt Egerer, who no longer maintains
704 it. Read it to see how to join the mailing list. Dozens of
705 interesting questions regarding the list, Linux, developers (who
706 is ...?), terms (what is...?) are answered here too. Just read it.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100707
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700708 * Name: "Linux Virtual File System"
709 Author: Peter J. Braam.
710 URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
711 Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
712 Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the
713 Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the
714 dcache.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100715
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700716 * Name: "Gary's Encyclopedia - The Linux Kernel"
717 Author: Gary (I suppose...).
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100718 URL: http://www.lisoleg.net/cgi-bin/lisoleg.pl?view=kernel.htm
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700719 Keywords: links, not found here?.
720 Description: Gary's Encyclopedia exists to allow the rapid finding
721 of documentation and other information of interest to GNU/Linux
722 users. It has about 4000 links to external pages in 150 major
723 categories. This link is for kernel-specific links, documents,
724 sites... Look there if you could not find here what you were
725 looking for.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100726
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700727 * Name: "The home page of Linux-MM"
728 Author: The Linux-MM team.
729 URL: http://linux-mm.org/
730 Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
731 mailing list.
732 Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
733 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
734 it if you are interested in memory management development!
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100735
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700736 * Name: "Kernel Newbies IRC Channel"
737 URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org
738 Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
739 Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.openprojects.net. From the web
740 page: "#kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
741 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
742 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
743 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
744 people. [...] #kernelnewbies is on the Open Projects IRC Network,
745 try irc.openprojects.net or irc.<country>.openprojects.net as your
746 server and then /join #kernelnewbies". It also hosts articles,
747 documents, FAQs...
748
749 * Name: "linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines"
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800750 URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700751 URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800752 URL: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel
753 URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
754 URL: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/
755 URL: http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700756 Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
757 Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
758 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
759 _________________________________________________________________
760
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800761 Document last updated on Sat 2005-NOV-19