Loading...
1.. _kernel_docs:
2
3Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel
4=============================================================================================
5
6 Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>
7
8The need for a document like this one became apparent in the
9linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers
10to information, appeared again and again.
11
12Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more
13get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always
14enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the
15philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
16
17Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to
18start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which
19kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents
20available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference
21books are also mentioned.
22
23PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
24send me an e-mail, and I'll include a reference to it here. Any
25corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed.
26
27The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are
28cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the
29"Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful
30when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the
31Document.
32
33Enjoy!
34
35.. note::
36
37 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its
38 published date, from the newest to the oldest.
39
40Docs at the Linux Kernel tree
41-----------------------------
42
43The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``.
44
45 * Name: **linux/Documentation**
46
47 :Author: Many.
48 :Location: Documentation/
49 :Keywords: text files, Sphinx.
50 :Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
51 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
52 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
53 be more up to date than the web version.
54
55On-line docs
56------------
57
58 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary**
59
60 :Author: various
61 :URL: https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary
62 :Date: rolling version
63 :Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
64 :Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
65 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
66 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
67
68 * Title: **Tracing the Way of Data in a TCP Connection through the Linux Kernel**
69
70 :Author: Richard Sailer
71 :URL: https://archive.org/details/linux_kernel_data_flow_short_paper
72 :Date: 2016
73 :Keywords: Linux Kernel Networking, TCP, tracing, ftrace
74 :Description: A seminar paper explaining ftrace and how to use it for
75 understanding linux kernel internals,
76 illustrated at tracing the way of a TCP packet through the kernel.
77 :Abstract: *This short paper outlines the usage of ftrace a tracing framework
78 as a tool to understand a running Linux system.
79 Having obtained a trace-log a kernel hacker can read and understand
80 source code more determined and with context.
81 In a detailed example this approach is demonstrated in tracing
82 and the way of data in a TCP Connection through the kernel.
83 Finally this trace-log is used as base for more a exact conceptual
84 exploration and description of the Linux TCP/IP implementation.*
85
86 * Title: **On submitting kernel Patches**
87
88 :Author: Andi Kleen
89 :URL: http://halobates.de/on-submitting-kernel-patches.pdf
90 :Date: 2008
91 :Keywords: patches, review process, types of submissions, basic rules, case studies
92 :Description: This paper gives several experience values on what types of patches
93 there are and how likley they get merged.
94 :Abstract:
95 [...]. This paper examines some common problems for
96 submitting larger changes and some strategies to avoid problems.
97
98 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition**
99
100 :Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman
101 :URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
102 :Date: 2005
103 :Description: A 600-page book covering the (2.6.10) driver
104 programming API and kernel hacking in general. Available under the
105 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
106 :note: You can also :ref:`purchase a copy from O'Reilly or elsewhere <ldd3_published>`.
107
108 * Title: **Writing an ALSA Driver**
109
110 :Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
111 :URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
112 :Date: 2005
113 :Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
114 :Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers,
115 both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel
116 sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
117
118 * Title: **Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide**
119
120 :Author: David Hinds.
121 :URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
122 :Date: 2003
123 :Keywords: PCMCIA.
124 :Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device
125 drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also
126 describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with
127 Card Services.
128
129 * Title: **Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide**
130
131 :Author: Ori Pomerantz.
132 :URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
133 :Date: 2001
134 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
135 interrupt handlers .
136 :Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
137 programming. Lots of examples.
138
139 * Title: **Global spinlock list and usage**
140
141 :Author: Rick Lindsley.
142 :URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
143 :Date: 2001
144 :Keywords: spinlock.
145 :Description: This is an attempt to document both the existence and
146 usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive
147 list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions
148 access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it
149 is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held...
150
151 * Title: **A Linux vm README**
152
153 :Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
154 :URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html
155 :Date: 2001
156 :Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page
157 cache, swap cache, kswapd.
158 :Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions
159 relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
160
161 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device**
162
163 :Author: Alan Cox.
164 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406
165 :Date: 2000
166 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
167 camera driver.
168 :Description: The title says it all.
169
170 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices**
171
172 :Author: Alan Cox.
173 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429
174 :Date: 2000
175 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
176 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
177 :Description: The title says it all.
178
179 * Title: **Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack.**
180
181 :Author: Glenn Herrin.
182 :URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin
183 :Date: 2000
184 :Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection,
185 socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets,
186 modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
187 :Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking,
188 explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space
189 configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of
190 the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps
191 packets follow from the time they are received at the network
192 device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel
193 code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet
194 dropper example.
195
196 * Title: **How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power Macintosh**
197
198 :Author: Paul Mackerras.
199 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261
200 :Date: 1999
201 :Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
202 :Description: The title says it all.
203
204 * Title: **An Introduction to SCSI Drivers**
205
206 :Author: Alan Cox.
207 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284
208 :Date: 1999
209 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
210 :Description: The title says it all.
211
212 * Title: **Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales**
213
214 :Author: Alan Cox.
215 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307
216 :Date: 1999
217 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
218 :Description: The title says it all.
219
220 * Title: **Writing Linux Mouse Drivers**
221
222 :Author: Alan Cox.
223 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330
224 :Date: 1999
225 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
226 :Description: The title says it all.
227
228 * Title: **More on Mouse Drivers**
229
230 :Author: Alan Cox.
231 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356
232 :Date: 1999
233 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
234 :Description: The title still says it all.
235
236 * Title: **Writing Video4linux Radio Driver**
237
238 :Author: Alan Cox.
239 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381
240 :Date: 1999
241 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
242 :Description: The title says it all.
243
244 * Title: **I/O Event Handling Under Linux**
245
246 :Author: Richard Gooch.
247 :URL: http://web.mit.edu/~yandros/doc/io-events.html
248 :Date: 1999
249 :Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
250 event queues.
251 :Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about
252 how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of
253 open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your
254 application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active
255 (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you
256 want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of
257 inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage".
258
259 * Title: **(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system administrators.**
260
261 :Author: pragmatic/THC.
262 :URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
263 :Date: 1999
264 :Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
265 :Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in
266 order to intercept and modify syscalls, make
267 files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys,
268 write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to
269 avoid all those abuses.
270 :Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x
271 kernels.
272
273 * Name: **Linux Virtual File System**
274
275 :Author: Peter J. Braam.
276 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
277 :Date: 1998
278 :Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
279 :Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the
280 Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the
281 dcache.
282
283 * Title: **The Venus kernel interface**
284
285 :Author: Peter J. Braam.
286 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html
287 :Date: 1998
288 :Keywords: coda, filesystem, venus, cache manager.
289 :Description: "This document describes the communication between
290 Venus and kernel level file system code needed for the operation
291 of the Coda filesystem. This version document is meant to describe
292 the current interface (version 1.0) as well as improvements we
293 envisage".
294
295 * Title: **Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem**
296
297 :Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
298 :URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html
299 :Date: 1998
300 :Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices,
301 VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library,
302 ext2fs tools, e2fsck.
303 :Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers.
304 Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features,
305 design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks,
306 e2fsck's passes description... A must read!
307 :Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the
308 First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9.
309
310 * Title: **The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code**
311
312 :Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
313 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391
314 :Date: 1997
315 :Keywords: RAID, MD driver.
316 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
317 :Abstract: *A description of the implementation of the RAID-1,
318 RAID-4 and RAID-5 personalities of the MD device driver in the
319 Linux kernel, providing users with high performance and reliable,
320 secondary-storage capability using software*.
321
322 * Title: **Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide**
323
324 :Author: Michael K. Johnson.
325 :URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html
326 :Date: 1997
327 :Keywords: device drivers, files, VFS, kernel interface, character vs
328 block devices, hardware interrupts, scsi, DMA, access to user memory,
329 memory allocation, timers.
330 :Description: A guide designed to help you get up to speed on the
331 concepts that are not intuitevly obvious, and to document the internal
332 structures of Linux.
333
334 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers**
335
336 :Author: Alessandro Rubini.
337 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219
338 :Date: 1996
339 :Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules,
340 allocating resources.
341 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
342 :Abstract: *This is the first of a series of four articles
343 co-authored by Alessandro Rubini and Georg Zezchwitz which present
344 a practical approach to writing Linux device drivers as kernel
345 loadable modules. This installment presents an introduction to the
346 topic, preparing the reader to understand next month's
347 installment*.
348
349 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Discovery**
350
351 :Author: Alessandro Rubini.
352 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220
353 :Date: 1996
354 :Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module,
355 autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations,
356 open(), close().
357 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
358 :Abstract: *This article, the second of four, introduces part of
359 the actual code to create custom module implementing a character
360 device driver. It describes the code for module initialization and
361 cleanup, as well as the open() and close() system calls*.
362
363 * Title: **The Devil's in the Details**
364
365 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
366 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221
367 :Date: 1996
368 :Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non
369 blocking mode, interrupt handler.
370 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
371 :Abstract: *This article, the third of four on writing character
372 device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using
373 ioctl-calls*.
374
375 * Title: **Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA**
376
377 :Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
378 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222
379 :Date: 1996
380 :Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues.
381 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
382 :Abstract: *This is the fourth in a series of articles about
383 writing character device drivers as loadable kernel modules. This
384 month, we further investigate the field of interrupt handling.
385 Though it is conceptually simple, practical limitations and
386 constraints make this an ''interesting'' part of device driver
387 writing, and several different facilities have been provided for
388 different situations. We also investigate the complex topic of
389 DMA*.
390
391 * Title: **Device Drivers Concluded**
392
393 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz.
394 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287
395 :Date: 1996
396 :Keywords: address spaces, pages, pagination, page management,
397 demand loading, swapping, memory protection, memory mapping, mmap,
398 virtual memory areas (VMAs), vremap, PCI.
399 :Description: Finally, the above turned out into a five articles
400 series. This latest one's introduction reads: "This is the last of
401 five articles about character device drivers. In this final
402 section, Georg deals with memory mapping devices, beginning with
403 an overall description of the Linux memory management concepts".
404
405 * Title: **Network Buffers And Memory Management**
406
407 :Author: Alan Cox.
408 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312
409 :Date: 1996
410 :Keywords: sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer
411 variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive,
412 configuration, multicast.
413 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner.
414 :Abstract: *Writing a network device driver for Linux is fundamentally
415 simple---most of the complexity (other than talking to the
416 hardware) involves managing network packets in memory*.
417
418 * Title: **Analysis of the Ext2fs structure**
419
420 :Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
421 :URL: http://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS2002/fs-ext2/
422 :Date: 1994
423 :Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
424 :Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes,
425 bitmaps, invariants...
426
427Published books
428---------------
429
430 * Title: **Linux Treiber entwickeln**
431
432 :Author: Jürgen Quade, Eva-Katharina Kunst
433 :Publisher: dpunkt.verlag
434 :Date: Oct 2015 (4th edition)
435 :Pages: 688
436 :ISBN: 978-3-86490-288-8
437 :Note: German. The third edition from 2011 is
438 much cheaper and still quite up-to-date.
439
440 * Title: **Linux Kernel Networking: Implementation and Theory**
441
442 :Author: Rami Rosen
443 :Publisher: Apress
444 :Date: December 22, 2013
445 :Pages: 648
446 :ISBN: 978-1430261964
447
448 * Title: **Embedded Linux Primer: A practical Real-World Approach, 2nd Edition**
449
450 :Author: Christopher Hallinan
451 :Publisher: Pearson
452 :Date: November, 2010
453 :Pages: 656
454 :ISBN: 978-0137017836
455
456 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition**
457
458 :Author: Robert Love
459 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
460 :Date: July, 2010
461 :Pages: 440
462 :ISBN: 978-0672329463
463
464 * Title: **Essential Linux Device Drivers**
465
466 :Author: Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran
467 :Published: Prentice Hall
468 :Date: April, 2008
469 :Pages: 744
470 :ISBN: 978-0132396554
471
472.. _ldd3_published:
473
474 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition**
475
476 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
477 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
478 :Date: 2005
479 :Pages: 636
480 :ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
481 :Notes: Further information in
482 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
483 PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
484
485 * Title: **Linux Kernel Internals**
486
487 :Author: Michael Beck
488 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
489 :Date: 1997
490 :ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
491
492 * Title: **Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du noyau**
493
494 :Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel
495 :Publisher: Eyrolles
496 :Date: 1997
497 :Pages: 520
498 :ISBN: 2-212-08932-5
499 :Notes: French
500
501 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX Operating System**
502
503 :Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
504 John S. Quarterman
505 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
506 :Date: 1996
507 :ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
508
509 * Title: **Unix internals -- the new frontiers**
510
511 :Author: Uresh Vahalia
512 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
513 :Date: 1996
514 :Pages: 600
515 :ISBN: 0-13-101908-2
516
517 * Title: **Programming for the real world - POSIX.4**
518
519 :Author: Bill O. Gallmeister
520 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc
521 :Date: 1995
522 :Pages: 552
523 :ISBN: I-56592-074-0
524 :Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
525 POSIX. Good reference.
526
527 * Title: **UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers**
528
529 :Author: Curt Schimmel
530 :Publisher: Addison Wesley
531 :Date: June, 1994
532 :Pages: 432
533 :ISBN: 0-201-63338-8
534
535 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System**
536
537 :Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J
538 Karels, John S. Quarterman
539 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
540 :Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990)
541 :ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
542
543 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System**
544
545 :Author: Maurice J. Bach
546 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
547 :Date: 1986
548 :Pages: 471
549 :ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
550
551Miscellaneous
552-------------
553
554 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux**
555
556 :URL: https://elixir.bootlin.com/
557 :Keywords: Browsing source code.
558 :Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
559 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
560 where they are defined and where they are used.
561
562 * Name: **Linux Weekly News**
563
564 :URL: http://lwn.net
565 :Keywords: latest kernel news.
566 :Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
567 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
568 produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
569
570 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM**
571
572 :Author: The Linux-MM team.
573 :URL: http://linux-mm.org/
574 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
575 mailing list.
576 :Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
577 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
578 it if you are interested in memory management development!
579
580 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website**
581
582 :URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org
583 :Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
584 :Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net.
585 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
586 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
587 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
588 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
589 people.
590 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network.
591 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies.
592 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
593
594 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines**
595
596 :URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
597 :URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
598 :URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
599 :Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
600 :Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
601 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
602
603-------
604
605Document last updated on Tue 2016-Sep-20
606
607This document is based on:
608 http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html
1.. _kernel_docs:
2
3Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel
4=============================================================================================
5
6 Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>
7
8The need for a document like this one became apparent in the
9linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers
10to information, appeared again and again.
11
12Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more
13get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always
14enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the
15philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
16
17Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to
18start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which
19kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents
20available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference
21books are also mentioned.
22
23PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
24send me an e-mail, and I'll include a reference to it here. Any
25corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed.
26
27The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are
28cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the
29"Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful
30when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the
31Document.
32
33Enjoy!
34
35.. note::
36
37 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its
38 published date, from the newest to the oldest.
39
40Docs at the Linux Kernel tree
41-----------------------------
42
43The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``.
44
45 * Name: **linux/Documentation**
46
47 :Author: Many.
48 :Location: Documentation/
49 :Keywords: text files, Sphinx.
50 :Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
51 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
52 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
53 be more up to date than the web version.
54
55On-line docs
56------------
57
58 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary**
59
60 :Author: various
61 :URL: https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary
62 :Date: rolling version
63 :Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
64 :Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
65 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
66 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
67
68 * Title: **Tracing the Way of Data in a TCP Connection through the Linux Kernel**
69
70 :Author: Richard Sailer
71 :URL: https://archive.org/details/linux_kernel_data_flow_short_paper
72 :Date: 2016
73 :Keywords: Linux Kernel Networking, TCP, tracing, ftrace
74 :Description: A seminar paper explaining ftrace and how to use it for
75 understanding linux kernel internals,
76 illustrated at tracing the way of a TCP packet through the kernel.
77 :Abstract: *This short paper outlines the usage of ftrace a tracing framework
78 as a tool to understand a running Linux system.
79 Having obtained a trace-log a kernel hacker can read and understand
80 source code more determined and with context.
81 In a detailed example this approach is demonstrated in tracing
82 and the way of data in a TCP Connection through the kernel.
83 Finally this trace-log is used as base for more a exact conceptual
84 exploration and description of the Linux TCP/IP implementation.*
85
86 * Title: **On submitting kernel Patches**
87
88 :Author: Andi Kleen
89 :URL: http://halobates.de/on-submitting-kernel-patches.pdf
90 :Date: 2008
91 :Keywords: patches, review process, types of submissions, basic rules, case studies
92 :Description: This paper gives several experience values on what types of patches
93 there are and how likley they get merged.
94 :Abstract:
95 [...]. This paper examines some common problems for
96 submitting larger changes and some strategies to avoid problems.
97
98 * Title: **Overview of the Virtual File System**
99
100 :Author: Richard Gooch.
101 :URL: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
102 :Date: 2007
103 :Keywords: VFS, File System, mounting filesystems, opening files,
104 dentries, dcache.
105 :Description: Brief introduction to the Linux Virtual File System.
106 What is it, how it works, operations taken when opening a file or
107 mounting a file system and description of important data
108 structures explaining the purpose of each of their entries.
109
110 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition**
111
112 :Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman
113 :URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
114 :Date: 2005
115 :Description: A 600-page book covering the (2.6.10) driver
116 programming API and kernel hacking in general. Available under the
117 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
118 :note: You can also :ref:`purchase a copy from O'Reilly or elsewhere <ldd3_published>`.
119
120 * Title: **Writing an ALSA Driver**
121
122 :Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
123 :URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
124 :Date: 2005
125 :Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
126 :Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers,
127 both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel
128 sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
129
130 * Title: **Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide**
131
132 :Author: David Hinds.
133 :URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
134 :Date: 2003
135 :Keywords: PCMCIA.
136 :Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device
137 drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also
138 describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with
139 Card Services.
140
141 * Title: **Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide**
142
143 :Author: Ori Pomerantz.
144 :URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
145 :Date: 2001
146 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
147 interrupt handlers .
148 :Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
149 programming. Lots of examples.
150
151 * Title: **Global spinlock list and usage**
152
153 :Author: Rick Lindsley.
154 :URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
155 :Date: 2001
156 :Keywords: spinlock.
157 :Description: This is an attempt to document both the existence and
158 usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive
159 list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions
160 access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it
161 is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held...
162
163 * Title: **A Linux vm README**
164
165 :Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
166 :URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html
167 :Date: 2001
168 :Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page
169 cache, swap cache, kswapd.
170 :Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions
171 relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
172
173 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device**
174
175 :Author: Alan Cox.
176 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406
177 :Date: 2000
178 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
179 camera driver.
180 :Description: The title says it all.
181
182 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices**
183
184 :Author: Alan Cox.
185 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429
186 :Date: 2000
187 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
188 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
189 :Description: The title says it all.
190
191 * Title: **Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack.**
192
193 :Author: Glenn Herrin.
194 :URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin
195 :Date: 2000
196 :Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection,
197 socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets,
198 modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
199 :Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking,
200 explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space
201 configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of
202 the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps
203 packets follow from the time they are received at the network
204 device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel
205 code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet
206 dropper example.
207
208 * Title: **How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power Macintosh**
209
210 :Author: Paul Mackerras.
211 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261
212 :Date: 1999
213 :Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
214 :Description: The title says it all.
215
216 * Title: **An Introduction to SCSI Drivers**
217
218 :Author: Alan Cox.
219 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284
220 :Date: 1999
221 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
222 :Description: The title says it all.
223
224 * Title: **Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales**
225
226 :Author: Alan Cox.
227 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307
228 :Date: 1999
229 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
230 :Description: The title says it all.
231
232 * Title: **Writing Linux Mouse Drivers**
233
234 :Author: Alan Cox.
235 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330
236 :Date: 1999
237 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
238 :Description: The title says it all.
239
240 * Title: **More on Mouse Drivers**
241
242 :Author: Alan Cox.
243 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356
244 :Date: 1999
245 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
246 :Description: The title still says it all.
247
248 * Title: **Writing Video4linux Radio Driver**
249
250 :Author: Alan Cox.
251 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381
252 :Date: 1999
253 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
254 :Description: The title says it all.
255
256 * Title: **I/O Event Handling Under Linux**
257
258 :Author: Richard Gooch.
259 :URL: http://web.mit.edu/~yandros/doc/io-events.html
260 :Date: 1999
261 :Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
262 event queues.
263 :Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about
264 how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of
265 open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your
266 application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active
267 (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you
268 want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of
269 inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage".
270
271 * Title: **(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system administrators.**
272
273 :Author: pragmatic/THC.
274 :URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
275 :Date: 1999
276 :Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
277 :Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in
278 order to intercept and modify syscalls, make
279 files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys,
280 write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to
281 avoid all those abuses.
282 :Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x
283 kernels.
284
285 * Name: **Linux Virtual File System**
286
287 :Author: Peter J. Braam.
288 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
289 :Date: 1998
290 :Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
291 :Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the
292 Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the
293 dcache.
294
295 * Title: **The Venus kernel interface**
296
297 :Author: Peter J. Braam.
298 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html
299 :Date: 1998
300 :Keywords: coda, filesystem, venus, cache manager.
301 :Description: "This document describes the communication between
302 Venus and kernel level file system code needed for the operation
303 of the Coda filesystem. This version document is meant to describe
304 the current interface (version 1.0) as well as improvements we
305 envisage".
306
307 * Title: **Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem**
308
309 :Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
310 :URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html
311 :Date: 1998
312 :Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices,
313 VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library,
314 ext2fs tools, e2fsck.
315 :Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers.
316 Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features,
317 design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks,
318 e2fsck's passes description... A must read!
319 :Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the
320 First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9.
321
322 * Title: **The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code**
323
324 :Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
325 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391
326 :Date: 1997
327 :Keywords: RAID, MD driver.
328 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
329 :Abstract: *A description of the implementation of the RAID-1,
330 RAID-4 and RAID-5 personalities of the MD device driver in the
331 Linux kernel, providing users with high performance and reliable,
332 secondary-storage capability using software*.
333
334 * Title: **Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide**
335
336 :Author: Michael K. Johnson.
337 :URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html
338 :Date: 1997
339 :Keywords: device drivers, files, VFS, kernel interface, character vs
340 block devices, hardware interrupts, scsi, DMA, access to user memory,
341 memory allocation, timers.
342 :Description: A guide designed to help you get up to speed on the
343 concepts that are not intuitevly obvious, and to document the internal
344 structures of Linux.
345
346 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers**
347
348 :Author: Alessandro Rubini.
349 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219
350 :Date: 1996
351 :Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules,
352 allocating resources.
353 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
354 :Abstract: *This is the first of a series of four articles
355 co-authored by Alessandro Rubini and Georg Zezchwitz which present
356 a practical approach to writing Linux device drivers as kernel
357 loadable modules. This installment presents an introduction to the
358 topic, preparing the reader to understand next month's
359 installment*.
360
361 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Discovery**
362
363 :Author: Alessandro Rubini.
364 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220
365 :Date: 1996
366 :Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module,
367 autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations,
368 open(), close().
369 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
370 :Abstract: *This article, the second of four, introduces part of
371 the actual code to create custom module implementing a character
372 device driver. It describes the code for module initialization and
373 cleanup, as well as the open() and close() system calls*.
374
375 * Title: **The Devil's in the Details**
376
377 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
378 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221
379 :Date: 1996
380 :Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non
381 blocking mode, interrupt handler.
382 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
383 :Abstract: *This article, the third of four on writing character
384 device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using
385 ioctl-calls*.
386
387 * Title: **Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA**
388
389 :Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
390 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222
391 :Date: 1996
392 :Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues.
393 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
394 :Abstract: *This is the fourth in a series of articles about
395 writing character device drivers as loadable kernel modules. This
396 month, we further investigate the field of interrupt handling.
397 Though it is conceptually simple, practical limitations and
398 constraints make this an ''interesting'' part of device driver
399 writing, and several different facilities have been provided for
400 different situations. We also investigate the complex topic of
401 DMA*.
402
403 * Title: **Device Drivers Concluded**
404
405 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz.
406 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287
407 :Date: 1996
408 :Keywords: address spaces, pages, pagination, page management,
409 demand loading, swapping, memory protection, memory mapping, mmap,
410 virtual memory areas (VMAs), vremap, PCI.
411 :Description: Finally, the above turned out into a five articles
412 series. This latest one's introduction reads: "This is the last of
413 five articles about character device drivers. In this final
414 section, Georg deals with memory mapping devices, beginning with
415 an overall description of the Linux memory management concepts".
416
417 * Title: **Network Buffers And Memory Management**
418
419 :Author: Alan Cox.
420 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312
421 :Date: 1996
422 :Keywords: sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer
423 variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive,
424 configuration, multicast.
425 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner.
426 :Abstract: *Writing a network device driver for Linux is fundamentally
427 simple---most of the complexity (other than talking to the
428 hardware) involves managing network packets in memory*.
429
430 * Title: **Analysis of the Ext2fs structure**
431
432 :Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
433 :URL: http://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS2002/fs-ext2/
434 :Date: 1994
435 :Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
436 :Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes,
437 bitmaps, invariants...
438
439Published books
440---------------
441
442 * Title: **Linux Treiber entwickeln**
443
444 :Author: Jürgen Quade, Eva-Katharina Kunst
445 :Publisher: dpunkt.verlag
446 :Date: Oct 2015 (4th edition)
447 :Pages: 688
448 :ISBN: 978-3-86490-288-8
449 :Note: German. The third edition from 2011 is
450 much cheaper and still quite up-to-date.
451
452 * Title: **Linux Kernel Networking: Implementation and Theory**
453
454 :Author: Rami Rosen
455 :Publisher: Apress
456 :Date: December 22, 2013
457 :Pages: 648
458 :ISBN: 978-1430261964
459
460 * Title: **Embedded Linux Primer: A practical Real-World Approach, 2nd Edition**
461
462 :Author: Christopher Hallinan
463 :Publisher: Pearson
464 :Date: November, 2010
465 :Pages: 656
466 :ISBN: 978-0137017836
467
468 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition**
469
470 :Author: Robert Love
471 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
472 :Date: July, 2010
473 :Pages: 440
474 :ISBN: 978-0672329463
475
476 * Title: **Essential Linux Device Drivers**
477
478 :Author: Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran
479 :Published: Prentice Hall
480 :Date: April, 2008
481 :Pages: 744
482 :ISBN: 978-0132396554
483
484.. _ldd3_published:
485
486 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition**
487
488 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
489 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
490 :Date: 2005
491 :Pages: 636
492 :ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
493 :Notes: Further information in
494 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
495 PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
496
497 * Title: **Linux Kernel Internals**
498
499 :Author: Michael Beck
500 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
501 :Date: 1997
502 :ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
503
504 * Title: **Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du noyau**
505
506 :Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel
507 :Publisher: Eyrolles
508 :Date: 1997
509 :Pages: 520
510 :ISBN: 2-212-08932-5
511 :Notes: French
512
513 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX Operating System**
514
515 :Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
516 John S. Quarterman
517 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
518 :Date: 1996
519 :ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
520
521 * Title: **Unix internals -- the new frontiers**
522
523 :Author: Uresh Vahalia
524 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
525 :Date: 1996
526 :Pages: 600
527 :ISBN: 0-13-101908-2
528
529 * Title: **Programming for the real world - POSIX.4**
530
531 :Author: Bill O. Gallmeister
532 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc
533 :Date: 1995
534 :Pages: 552
535 :ISBN: I-56592-074-0
536 :Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
537 POSIX. Good reference.
538
539 * Title: **UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers**
540
541 :Author: Curt Schimmel
542 :Publisher: Addison Wesley
543 :Date: June, 1994
544 :Pages: 432
545 :ISBN: 0-201-63338-8
546
547 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System**
548
549 :Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J
550 Karels, John S. Quarterman
551 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
552 :Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990)
553 :ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
554
555 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System**
556
557 :Author: Maurice J. Bach
558 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
559 :Date: 1986
560 :Pages: 471
561 :ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
562
563Miscellaneous
564-------------
565
566 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux**
567
568 :URL: http://lxr.free-electrons.com/
569 :Keywords: Browsing source code.
570 :Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
571 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
572 where they are defined and where they are used.
573
574 * Name: **Linux Weekly News**
575
576 :URL: http://lwn.net
577 :Keywords: latest kernel news.
578 :Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
579 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
580 produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
581
582 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM**
583
584 :Author: The Linux-MM team.
585 :URL: http://linux-mm.org/
586 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
587 mailing list.
588 :Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
589 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
590 it if you are interested in memory management development!
591
592 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website**
593
594 :URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org
595 :Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
596 :Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net.
597 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
598 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
599 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
600 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
601 people.
602 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network.
603 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies.
604 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
605
606 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines**
607
608 :URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
609 :URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
610 :URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
611 :Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
612 :Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
613 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
614
615-------
616
617Document last updated on Tue 2016-Sep-20
618
619This document is based on:
620 http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html