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1.. _kernel_docs:
2
3Index of Further Kernel Documentation
4=====================================
5
6The need for a document like this one became apparent in the
7linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers
8to information, appeared again and again.
9
10Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more
11get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always
12enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the
13philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
14
15Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to
16start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which
17kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack.
18
19PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
20include a reference to it here, following the kernel's patch submission
21process. Any corrections, ideas or comments are also welcome.
22
23All documents are cataloged with the following fields: the document's
24"Title", the "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some
25"Keywords" helpful when searching for specific topics, and a brief
26"Description" of the Document.
27
28.. note::
29
30 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its
31 published date, from the newest to the oldest. The maintainer(s) should
32 periodically retire resources as they become obsolte or outdated; with
33 the exception of foundational books.
34
35Docs at the Linux Kernel tree
36-----------------------------
37
38The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``.
39
40 * Name: **linux/Documentation**
41
42 :Author: Many.
43 :Location: Documentation/
44 :Keywords: text files, Sphinx.
45 :Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
46 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
47 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
48 be more up to date than the web version.
49
50On-line docs
51------------
52
53 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary**
54
55 :Author: various
56 :URL: https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary
57 :Date: rolling version
58 :Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
59 :Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
60 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
61 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
62
63 * Title: **The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide**
64
65 :Author: Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram,
66 Jim Huang.
67 :URL: https://sysprog21.github.io/lkmpg/
68 :Date: 2021
69 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
70 interrupt handlers .
71 :Description: A very nice GPL book on the topic of modules
72 programming. Lots of examples. Currently the new version is being
73 actively maintained at https://github.com/sysprog21/lkmpg.
74
75Published books
76---------------
77
78 * Title: **Linux Kernel Programming: A Comprehensive Guide to Kernel Internals, Writing Kernel Modules, and Kernel Synchronization**
79
80 :Author: Kaiwan N. Billimoria
81 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
82 :Date: 2021
83 :Pages: 754
84 :ISBN: 978-1789953435
85
86 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition**
87
88 :Author: Robert Love
89 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
90 :Date: July, 2010
91 :Pages: 440
92 :ISBN: 978-0672329463
93 :Notes: Foundational book
94
95.. _ldd3_published:
96
97 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition**
98
99 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
100 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
101 :Date: 2005
102 :Pages: 636
103 :ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
104 :Notes: Foundational book. Further information in
105 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
106 PDF format, URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
107
108 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System**
109
110 :Author: Maurice J. Bach
111 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
112 :Date: 1986
113 :Pages: 471
114 :ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
115 :Notes: Foundational book
116
117Miscellaneous
118-------------
119
120 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux**
121
122 :URL: https://elixir.bootlin.com/
123 :Keywords: Browsing source code.
124 :Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
125 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
126 where they are defined and where they are used.
127
128 * Name: **Linux Weekly News**
129
130 :URL: https://lwn.net
131 :Keywords: latest kernel news.
132 :Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
133 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
134 produced during the week.
135
136 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM**
137
138 :Author: The Linux-MM team.
139 :URL: https://linux-mm.org/
140 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
141 mailing list.
142 :Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
143 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
144 it if you are interested in memory management development!
145
146 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website**
147
148 :URL: https://www.kernelnewbies.org
149 :Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
150 :Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net.
151 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
152 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
153 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
154 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
155 people.
156 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network.
157 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies.
158 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
159
160 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines**
161
162 :URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
163 :URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
164 :URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
165 :Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
166 :Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
167 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
168
169-------
170
171This document was originally based on:
172
173 https://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html
174
175and written by Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche
1.. _kernel_docs:
2
3Index of Further Kernel Documentation
4=====================================
5
6The need for a document like this one became apparent in the
7linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers
8to information, appeared again and again.
9
10Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more
11get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always
12enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the
13philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
14
15Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to
16start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which
17kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack.
18
19PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
20include a reference to it here, following the kernel's patch submission
21process. Any corrections, ideas or comments are also welcome.
22
23All documents are cataloged with the following fields: the document's
24"Title", the "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some
25"Keywords" helpful when searching for specific topics, and a brief
26"Description" of the Document.
27
28.. note::
29
30 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its
31 published date, from the newest to the oldest. The maintainer(s) should
32 periodically retire resources as they become obsolete or outdated; with
33 the exception of foundational books.
34
35Docs at the Linux Kernel tree
36-----------------------------
37
38The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``.
39
40 * Name: **linux/Documentation**
41
42 :Author: Many.
43 :Location: Documentation/
44 :Keywords: text files, Sphinx.
45 :Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
46 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
47 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
48 be more up to date than the web version.
49
50On-line docs
51------------
52
53 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary**
54
55 :Author: various
56 :URL: https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary
57 :Date: rolling version
58 :Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
59 :Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
60 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
61 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
62
63 * Title: **The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide**
64
65 :Author: Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram,
66 Jim Huang.
67 :URL: https://sysprog21.github.io/lkmpg/
68 :Date: 2021
69 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
70 interrupt handlers .
71 :Description: A very nice GPL book on the topic of modules
72 programming. Lots of examples. Currently the new version is being
73 actively maintained at https://github.com/sysprog21/lkmpg.
74
75Published books
76---------------
77
78 * Title: **Linux Kernel Debugging: Leverage proven tools and advanced techniques to effectively debug Linux kernels and kernel modules**
79
80 :Author: Kaiwan N Billimoria
81 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
82 :Date: August, 2022
83 :Pages: 638
84 :ISBN: 978-1801075039
85 :Notes: Debugging book
86
87 * Title: **Linux Kernel Programming: A Comprehensive Guide to Kernel Internals, Writing Kernel Modules, and Kernel Synchronization**
88
89 :Author: Kaiwan N Billimoria
90 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
91 :Date: March, 2021
92 :Pages: 754
93 :ISBN: 978-1789953435
94
95 * Title: **Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization: Create user-kernel interfaces, work with peripheral I/O, and handle hardware interrupts**
96
97 :Author: Kaiwan N Billimoria
98 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
99 :Date: March, 2021
100 :Pages: 452
101 :ISBN: 978-1801079518
102
103 * Title: **Linux System Programming: Talking Directly to the Kernel and C Library**
104
105 :Author: Robert Love
106 :Publisher: O'Reilly Media
107 :Date: June, 2013
108 :Pages: 456
109 :ISBN: 978-1449339531
110 :Notes: Foundational book
111
112 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition**
113
114 :Author: Robert Love
115 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
116 :Date: July, 2010
117 :Pages: 440
118 :ISBN: 978-0672329463
119 :Notes: Foundational book
120
121 * Title: **Practical Linux System Administration: A Guide to Installation, Configuration, and Management, 1st Edition**
122
123 :Author: Kenneth Hess
124 :Publisher: O'Reilly Media
125 :Date: May, 2023
126 :Pages: 246
127 :ISBN: 978-1098109035
128 :Notes: System administration
129
130.. _ldd3_published:
131
132 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition**
133
134 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
135 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
136 :Date: 2005
137 :Pages: 636
138 :ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
139 :Notes: Foundational book. Further information in
140 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
141 PDF format, URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
142
143 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System**
144
145 :Author: Maurice J. Bach
146 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
147 :Date: 1986
148 :Pages: 471
149 :ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
150 :Notes: Foundational book
151
152Miscellaneous
153-------------
154
155 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux**
156
157 :URL: https://elixir.bootlin.com/
158 :Keywords: Browsing source code.
159 :Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
160 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
161 where they are defined and where they are used.
162
163 * Name: **Linux Weekly News**
164
165 :URL: https://lwn.net
166 :Keywords: latest kernel news.
167 :Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
168 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
169 produced during the week.
170
171 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM**
172
173 :Author: The Linux-MM team.
174 :URL: https://linux-mm.org/
175 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
176 mailing list.
177 :Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
178 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
179 it if you are interested in memory management development!
180
181 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website**
182
183 :URL: https://www.kernelnewbies.org
184 :Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
185 :Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net.
186 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
187 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
188 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
189 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
190 people.
191 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network.
192 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies.
193 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
194
195 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines**
196
197 :URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
198 :URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
199 :URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
200 :Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
201 :Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
202 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
203
204-------
205
206This document was originally based on:
207
208 https://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html
209
210and written by Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche