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1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3.. _linux_doc:
4
5==============================
6The Linux Kernel documentation
7==============================
8
9This is the top level of the kernel's documentation tree. Kernel
10documentation, like the kernel itself, is very much a work in progress;
11that is especially true as we work to integrate our many scattered
12documents into a coherent whole. Please note that improvements to the
13documentation are welcome; join the linux-doc list at vger.kernel.org if
14you want to help out.
15
16Working with the development community
17======================================
18
19The essential guides for interacting with the kernel's development
20community and getting your work upstream.
21
22.. toctree::
23 :maxdepth: 1
24
25 Development process <process/development-process>
26 Submitting patches <process/submitting-patches>
27 Code of conduct <process/code-of-conduct>
28 Maintainer handbook <maintainer/index>
29 All development-process docs <process/index>
30
31
32Internal API manuals
33====================
34
35Manuals for use by developers working to interface with the rest of the
36kernel.
37
38.. toctree::
39 :maxdepth: 1
40
41 Core API <core-api/index>
42 Driver APIs <driver-api/index>
43 Subsystems <subsystem-apis>
44 Locking <locking/index>
45
46Development tools and processes
47===============================
48
49Various other manuals with useful information for all kernel developers.
50
51.. toctree::
52 :maxdepth: 1
53
54 Licensing rules <process/license-rules>
55 Writing documentation <doc-guide/index>
56 Development tools <dev-tools/index>
57 Testing guide <dev-tools/testing-overview>
58 Hacking guide <kernel-hacking/index>
59 Tracing <trace/index>
60 Fault injection <fault-injection/index>
61 Livepatching <livepatch/index>
62 Rust <rust/index>
63
64
65User-oriented documentation
66===========================
67
68The following manuals are written for *users* of the kernel — those who are
69trying to get it to work optimally on a given system and application
70developers seeking information on the kernel's user-space APIs.
71
72.. toctree::
73 :maxdepth: 1
74
75 Administration <admin-guide/index>
76 Build system <kbuild/index>
77 Reporting issues <admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst>
78 Userspace tools <tools/index>
79 Userspace API <userspace-api/index>
80
81See also: the `Linux man pages <https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/>`_,
82which are kept separately from the kernel's own documentation.
83
84Firmware-related documentation
85==============================
86The following holds information on the kernel's expectations regarding the
87platform firmwares.
88
89.. toctree::
90 :maxdepth: 1
91
92 Firmware <firmware-guide/index>
93 Firmware and Devicetree <devicetree/index>
94
95
96Architecture-specific documentation
97===================================
98
99.. toctree::
100 :maxdepth: 2
101
102 CPU architectures <arch/index>
103
104
105Other documentation
106===================
107
108There are several unsorted documents that don't seem to fit on other parts
109of the documentation body, or may require some adjustments and/or conversion
110to reStructuredText format, or are simply too old.
111
112.. toctree::
113 :maxdepth: 1
114
115 Unsorted documentation <staging/index>
116
117
118Translations
119============
120
121.. toctree::
122 :maxdepth: 2
123
124 Translations <translations/index>
125
126Indices and tables
127==================
128
129* :ref:`genindex`
1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3
4.. The Linux Kernel documentation master file, created by
5 sphinx-quickstart on Fri Feb 12 13:51:46 2016.
6 You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
7 contain the root `toctree` directive.
8
9.. _linux_doc:
10
11The Linux Kernel documentation
12==============================
13
14This is the top level of the kernel's documentation tree. Kernel
15documentation, like the kernel itself, is very much a work in progress;
16that is especially true as we work to integrate our many scattered
17documents into a coherent whole. Please note that improvements to the
18documentation are welcome; join the linux-doc list at vger.kernel.org if
19you want to help out.
20
21Licensing documentation
22-----------------------
23
24The following describes the license of the Linux kernel source code
25(GPLv2), how to properly mark the license of individual files in the source
26tree, as well as links to the full license text.
27
28* :ref:`kernel_licensing`
29
30User-oriented documentation
31---------------------------
32
33The following manuals are written for *users* of the kernel — those who are
34trying to get it to work optimally on a given system.
35
36.. toctree::
37 :maxdepth: 2
38
39 admin-guide/index
40 kbuild/index
41
42Firmware-related documentation
43------------------------------
44The following holds information on the kernel's expectations regarding the
45platform firmwares.
46
47.. toctree::
48 :maxdepth: 2
49
50 firmware-guide/index
51 devicetree/index
52
53Application-developer documentation
54-----------------------------------
55
56The user-space API manual gathers together documents describing aspects of
57the kernel interface as seen by application developers.
58
59.. toctree::
60 :maxdepth: 2
61
62 userspace-api/index
63
64
65Introduction to kernel development
66----------------------------------
67
68These manuals contain overall information about how to develop the kernel.
69The kernel community is quite large, with thousands of developers
70contributing over the course of a year. As with any large community,
71knowing how things are done will make the process of getting your changes
72merged much easier.
73
74.. toctree::
75 :maxdepth: 2
76
77 process/index
78 dev-tools/index
79 doc-guide/index
80 kernel-hacking/index
81 trace/index
82 maintainer/index
83 fault-injection/index
84 livepatch/index
85
86
87Kernel API documentation
88------------------------
89
90These books get into the details of how specific kernel subsystems work
91from the point of view of a kernel developer. Much of the information here
92is taken directly from the kernel source, with supplemental material added
93as needed (or at least as we managed to add it — probably *not* all that is
94needed).
95
96.. toctree::
97 :maxdepth: 2
98
99 driver-api/index
100 core-api/index
101 locking/index
102 accounting/index
103 block/index
104 cdrom/index
105 cpu-freq/index
106 ide/index
107 fb/index
108 fpga/index
109 hid/index
110 i2c/index
111 iio/index
112 isdn/index
113 infiniband/index
114 leds/index
115 netlabel/index
116 networking/index
117 pcmcia/index
118 power/index
119 target/index
120 timers/index
121 spi/index
122 w1/index
123 watchdog/index
124 virt/index
125 input/index
126 hwmon/index
127 gpu/index
128 security/index
129 sound/index
130 crypto/index
131 filesystems/index
132 vm/index
133 bpf/index
134 usb/index
135 PCI/index
136 scsi/index
137 misc-devices/index
138 scheduler/index
139 mhi/index
140
141Architecture-agnostic documentation
142-----------------------------------
143
144.. toctree::
145 :maxdepth: 2
146
147 asm-annotations
148
149Architecture-specific documentation
150-----------------------------------
151
152These books provide programming details about architecture-specific
153implementation.
154
155.. toctree::
156 :maxdepth: 2
157
158 arm/index
159 arm64/index
160 ia64/index
161 m68k/index
162 mips/index
163 nios2/nios2
164 openrisc/index
165 parisc/index
166 powerpc/index
167 riscv/index
168 s390/index
169 sh/index
170 sparc/index
171 x86/index
172 xtensa/index
173
174Filesystem Documentation
175------------------------
176
177The documentation in this section are provided by specific filesystem
178subprojects.
179
180.. toctree::
181 :maxdepth: 2
182
183 filesystems/ext4/index
184
185Other documentation
186-------------------
187
188There are several unsorted documents that don't seem to fit on other parts
189of the documentation body, or may require some adjustments and/or conversion
190to ReStructured Text format, or are simply too old.
191
192.. toctree::
193 :maxdepth: 2
194
195 staging/index
196 watch_queue
197
198
199Translations
200------------
201
202.. toctree::
203 :maxdepth: 2
204
205 translations/index
206
207Indices and tables
208==================
209
210* :ref:`genindex`