blob: 08913361e054522da78fd32cefc50b7ff9a1bb6e [file] [log] [blame]
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.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -070078 URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/
Matt LaPlante01dd2fb2007-10-20 01:34:40 +020079 Keywords: conceptual software architecture, extracted design,
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070080 reverse engineering, system structure.
Matt LaPlante01dd2fb2007-10-20 01:34:40 +020081 Description: Conceptual software architecture of the Linux kernel,
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070082 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.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -070087 URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/
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.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -070098 URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070099 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.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700107 URL: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700108 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.
Francis Galieguea33f3222010-04-23 00:08:02 +0200119 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700120 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.
Francis Galieguea33f3222010-04-23 00:08:02 +0200130 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700131 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().
Francis Galieguea33f3222010-04-23 00:08:02 +0200144 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700145 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.
Francis Galieguea33f3222010-04-23 00:08:02 +0200155 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700156 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.
Francis Galieguea33f3222010-04-23 00:08:02 +0200164 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700165 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"
John Anthony Kazos Jrbe2a6082007-05-09 08:50:42 +0200239 Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700240 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:
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700270 http://www.linuxhq.com/guides/LKMPG/node28.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700271 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.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700277 Keywords: 2.4, changes.
278 Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
279 from 2.2.x to 2.4.x.
280
281 * Title: "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide"
282 Author: Ori Pomerantz.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800283 URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700284 Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
285 interrupt handlers .
286 Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
287 programming. Lots of examples.
288
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700289 * Title: "I/O Event Handling Under Linux"
290 Author: Richard Gooch.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700291 Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
292 event queues.
293 Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about
294 how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of
295 open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your
296 application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active
297 (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you
298 want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of
299 inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage".
300
301 * Title: "The Kernel Hacking HOWTO"
302 Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
Paul Bolle395cf962011-08-15 02:02:26 +0200303 Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking.tmpl
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800304 (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700305 Keywords: HOWTO, kernel contexts, deadlock, locking, modules,
306 symbols, return conventions.
307 Description: From the Introduction: "Please understand that I
308 never wanted to write this document, being grossly underqualified,
309 but I always wanted to read it, and this was the only way. I
310 simply explain some best practices, and give reading entry-points
311 into the kernel sources. I avoid implementation details: that's
312 what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful
313 routines. This document assumes familiarity with C, and an
314 understanding of what the kernel is, and how it is used. It was
315 originally written for the 2.3 kernels, but nearly all of it
316 applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly different".
317
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800318 * Title: "Writing an ALSA Driver"
319 Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
320 URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700321 Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
322 Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers,
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800323 both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel
324 sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700325
326 * Title: "Programming Guide for Linux USB Device Drivers"
327 Author: Detlef Fliegl.
328 URL: http://usb.in.tum.de/usbdoc/
329 Keywords: USB, universal serial bus.
330 Description: A must-read. From the Preface: "This document should
331 give detailed information about the current state of the USB
332 subsystem and its API for USB device drivers. The first section
333 will deal with the basics of USB devices. You will learn about
334 different types of devices and their properties. Going into detail
335 you will see how USB devices communicate on the bus. The second
336 section gives an overview of the Linux USB subsystem [2] and the
337 device driver framework. Then the API and its data structures will
338 be explained step by step. The last section of this document
339 contains a reference of all API calls and their return codes".
340 Notes: Beware: the main page states: "This document may not be
341 published, printed or used in excerpts without explicit permission
342 of the author". Fortunately, it may still be read...
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100343
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700344 * Title: "Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary"
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800345 Author: various
346 URL: http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700347 Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
348 Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
349 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
350 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
351
352 * Title: "Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO"
353 Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
Paul Bolle395cf962011-08-15 02:02:26 +0200354 Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800355 (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700356 Keywords: locks, locking, spinlock, semaphore, atomic, race
357 condition, bottom halves, tasklets, softirqs.
358 Description: The title says it all: document describing the
359 locking system in the Linux Kernel either in uniprocessor or SMP
360 systems.
361 Notes: "It was originally written for the later (>2.3.47) 2.3
362 kernels, but most of it applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly
363 different". Freely redistributable under the conditions of the GNU
364 General Public License.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100365
366 * Title: "Global spinlock list and usage"
367 Author: Rick Lindsley.
368 URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
369 Keywords: spinlock.
370 Description: This is an attempt to document both the existence and
371 usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive
372 list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions
373 access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it
374 is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held...
375
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700376 * Title: "Porting Linux 2.0 Drivers To Linux 2.2: Changes and New
377 Features "
378 Author: Alan Cox.
379 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-05/gear_01.html
380 Keywords: ports, porting.
381 Description: Article from Linux Magazine on porting from 2.0 to
382 2.2 kernels.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100383
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700384 * Title: "Porting Device Drivers To Linux 2.2: part II"
385 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700386 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/238
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700387 Keywords: ports, porting.
388 Description: Second part on porting from 2.0 to 2.2 kernels.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100389
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700390 * Title: "How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power
391 Macintosh"
392 Author: Paul Mackerras.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700393 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700394 Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
395 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100396
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700397 * Title: "An Introduction to SCSI Drivers"
398 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700399 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700400 Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
401 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100402
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700403 * Title: "Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales"
404 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700405 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700406 Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
407 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100408
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700409 * Title: "Writing Linux Mouse Drivers"
410 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700411 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700412 Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
413 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100414
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700415 * Title: "More on Mouse Drivers"
416 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700417 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700418 Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
419 Description: The title still says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100420
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700421 * Title: "Writing Video4linux Radio Driver"
422 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700423 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700424 Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
425 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100426
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700427 * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device"
428 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700429 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700430 Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
431 camera driver.
432 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100433
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700434 * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices"
435 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700436 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700437 Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
438 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
439 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100440
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700441 * Title: "PCI Management in Linux 2.2"
442 Author: Alan Cox.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700443 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/452
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700444 Keywords: PCI, bus, bus-mastering.
445 Description: The title says it all.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100446
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700447 * Title: "Linux 2.4 Kernel Internals"
448 Author: Tigran Aivazian and Christoph Hellwig.
449 URL: http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/lki.html
450 Keywords: Linux, kernel, booting, SMB boot, VFS, page cache.
451 Description: A little book used for a short training course.
452 Covers building the kernel image, booting (including SMP bootup),
453 process management, VFS and more.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100454
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700455 * Title: "Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and
456 Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack."
457 Author: Glenn Herrin.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100458 URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700459 Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection,
460 socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets,
461 modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
462 Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking,
463 explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space
464 configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of
465 the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps
466 packets follow from the time they are received at the network
467 device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel
468 code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet
469 dropper example.
470
471 * Title: "Get those boards talking under Linux."
472 Author: Alex Ivchenko.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800473 URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46968.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700474 Keywords: data-acquisition boards, drivers, modules, interrupts,
475 memory allocation.
476 Description: Article written for people wishing to make their data
477 acquisition boards work on their GNU/Linux machines. Gives a basic
478 overview on writing drivers, from the naming of functions to
479 interrupt handling.
480 Notes: Two-parts article. Part II is at
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800481 URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46998.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700482
483 * Title: "Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide"
484 Author: David Hinds.
485 URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
486 Keywords: PCMCIA.
487 Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device
488 drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also
489 describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with
490 Card Services.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100491
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700492 * Title: "The Linux Kernel NFSD Implementation"
493 Author: Neil Brown.
494 URL:
495 http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/nfsd.html
496 Keywords: knfsd, nfsd, NFS, RPC, lockd, mountd, statd.
497 Description: The title says it all.
498 Notes: Covers knfsd's version 1.4.7 (patch against 2.2.7 kernel).
499
500 * Title: "A Linux vm README"
501 Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700502 URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700503 Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page
504 cache, swap cache, kswapd.
505 Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions
506 relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
507
508 * Title: "(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The
509 definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system
510 administrators."
511 Author: pragmatic/THC.
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800512 URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700513 Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
514 Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in
515 order to intercept and modify syscalls, make
516 files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys,
517 write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to
518 avoid all those abuses.
519 Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800520 kernels.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700521
522 BOOKS: (Not on-line)
523
524 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers"
525 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
526 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
527 Date: 1998.
528 Pages: 439.
529 ISBN: 1-56592-292-1
530
531 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition"
532 Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet.
533 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
534 Date: 2001.
535 Pages: 586.
536 ISBN: 0-59600-008-1
537 Notes: Further information in
538 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800539
Nicolas Kaiserd5ba92b2011-01-05 16:27:53 -0800540 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition"
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800541 Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
542 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
543 Date: 2005.
544 Pages: 636.
545 ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
546 Notes: Further information in
547 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
548 PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
549
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700550 * Title: "Linux Kernel Internals"
551 Author: Michael Beck.
552 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
553 Date: 1997.
554 ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
555
556 * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System"
557 Author: Maurice J. Bach.
558 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
559 Date: 1986.
560 Pages: 471.
561 ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
562
563 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX
564 Operating System"
565 Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J.
566 Karels, John S. Quarterman.
567 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
568 Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990).
569 ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
570
571 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX
572 Operating System"
573 Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
574 John S. Quarterman.
575 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
576 Date: 1996.
577 ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
578
579 * Title: "Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du
580 noyau"
581 Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel.
582 Publisher: Eyrolles.
583 Date: 1997.
584 Pages: 520.
585 ISBN: 2-212-08932-5
586 Notes: French.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100587
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700588 * Title: "Unix internals -- the new frontiers"
589 Author: Uresh Vahalia.
590 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
591 Date: 1996.
592 Pages: 600.
593 ISBN: 0-13-101908-2
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100594
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700595 * Title: "Programming for the real world - POSIX.4"
596 Author: Bill O. Gallmeister.
597 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc..
598 Date: 1995.
599 Pages: ???.
600 ISBN: I-56592-074-0
601 Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
602 POSIX. Good reference.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100603
604 * Title: "UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric
Nicolas Kaiserd5ba92b2011-01-05 16:27:53 -0800605 Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers"
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100606 Author: Curt Schimmel.
607 Publisher: Addison Wesley.
608 Date: June, 1994.
609 Pages: 432.
610 ISBN: 0-201-63338-8
611
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700612 MISCELLANEOUS:
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100613
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700614 * Name: linux/Documentation
615 Author: Many.
616 URL: Just look inside your kernel sources.
617 Keywords: anything, DocBook.
618 Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
619 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
620 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
621 be more up to date than the web version.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100622
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700623 * Name: "Linux Kernel Source Reference"
624 Author: Thomas Graichen.
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700625 URL: http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=96446640102205&w=4
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700626 Keywords: CVS, web, cvsweb, browsing source code.
627 Description: Web interface to a CVS server with the kernel
628 sources. "Here you can have a look at any file of the Linux kernel
629 sources of any version starting from 1.0 up to the (daily updated)
630 current version available. Also you can check the differences
631 between two versions of a file".
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100632
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700633 * Name: "Cross-Referencing Linux"
634 URL: http://lxr.linux.no/source/
635 Keywords: Browsing source code.
636 Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
637 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
638 where they are defined and where they are used.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100639
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700640 * Name: "Linux Weekly News"
641 URL: http://lwn.net
642 Keywords: latest kernel news.
643 Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
644 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
645 produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100646
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700647 * Name: "Kernel Traffic"
Justin P. Mattock0ea6e612010-07-23 20:51:24 -0700648 URL: http://kt.earth.li/kernel-traffic/index.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700649 Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list, weekly kernel news.
650 Description: Weekly newsletter covering the most relevant
651 discussions of the linux-kernel mailing list.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100652
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700653 * Name: "CuTTiNG.eDGe.LiNuX"
654 URL: http://edge.kernelnotes.org
655 Keywords: changelist.
656 Description: Site which provides the changelist for every kernel
657 release. What's new, what's better, what's changed. Myrdraal reads
658 the patches and describes them. Pointers to the patches are there,
659 too.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100660
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700661 * Name: "New linux-kernel Mailing List FAQ"
662 URL: http://www.tux.org/lkml/
663 Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list FAQ.
664 Description: linux-kernel is a mailing list for developers to
665 communicate. This FAQ builds on the previous linux-kernel mailing
666 list FAQ maintained by Frohwalt Egerer, who no longer maintains
667 it. Read it to see how to join the mailing list. Dozens of
668 interesting questions regarding the list, Linux, developers (who
669 is ...?), terms (what is...?) are answered here too. Just read it.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100670
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700671 * Name: "Linux Virtual File System"
672 Author: Peter J. Braam.
673 URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
674 Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
675 Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the
676 Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the
677 dcache.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100678
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700679 * Name: "Gary's Encyclopedia - The Linux Kernel"
680 Author: Gary (I suppose...).
Paul Jackson34397892008-06-05 22:46:09 -0700681 URL: http://slencyclopedia.berlios.de/index.html
682 Keywords: linux, community, everything!
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700683 Description: Gary's Encyclopedia exists to allow the rapid finding
684 of documentation and other information of interest to GNU/Linux
685 users. It has about 4000 links to external pages in 150 major
686 categories. This link is for kernel-specific links, documents,
Paul Jackson34397892008-06-05 22:46:09 -0700687 sites... This list is now hosted by developer.Berlios.de,
688 but seems not to have been updated since sometime in 1999.
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100689
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700690 * Name: "The home page of Linux-MM"
691 Author: The Linux-MM team.
692 URL: http://linux-mm.org/
693 Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
694 mailing list.
695 Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
696 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
697 it if you are interested in memory management development!
James Nelson86aae082007-02-17 20:15:38 +0100698
Richard Sailer1c35c282015-10-04 02:14:32 +0200699 * Name: "Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website"
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700700 URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org
701 Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
Richard Sailer1c35c282015-10-04 02:14:32 +0200702 Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net.
703 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700704 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
705 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
706 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
Richard Sailer1c35c282015-10-04 02:14:32 +0200707 people.
708 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network.
709 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies.
710 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700711
712 * Name: "linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines"
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800713 URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700714 URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800715 URL: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel
716 URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
717 URL: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/
718 URL: http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700719 Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
720 Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
721 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
722 _________________________________________________________________
723
Randy Dunlap98766fb2005-11-21 21:32:31 -0800724 Document last updated on Sat 2005-NOV-19