Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel¶
Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>
The need for a document like this one became apparent in the linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers to information, appeared again and again.
Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to start. And, even if they exist, there was no “well-known” place which kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference books are also mentioned.
PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document, send me an e-mail, and I’ll include a reference to it here. Any corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed.
The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are cataloged with the following fields: the document’s “Title”, the “Author”/s, the “URL” where they can be found, some “Keywords” helpful when searching for specific topics, and a brief “Description” of the Document.
Enjoy!
Note
The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its published date, from the newest to the oldest.
Docs at the Linux Kernel tree¶
The Sphinx books should be built with make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}.
Name: linux/Documentation
- Author
Many.
- Location
Documentation/
- Keywords
text files, Sphinx.
- Description
Documentation that comes with the kernel sources, inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might be more up to date than the web version.
On-line docs¶
Title: Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary
- Author
various
- URL
- Date
rolling version
- Keywords
glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
- Description
From the introduction: “This glossary is intended as a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear during discussion of the Linux kernel”.
Title: Tracing the Way of Data in a TCP Connection through the Linux Kernel
- Author
Richard Sailer
- URL
https://archive.org/details/linux_kernel_data_flow_short_paper
- Date
2016
- Keywords
Linux Kernel Networking, TCP, tracing, ftrace
- Description
A seminar paper explaining ftrace and how to use it for understanding linux kernel internals, illustrated at tracing the way of a TCP packet through the kernel.
- Abstract
This short paper outlines the usage of ftrace a tracing framework as a tool to understand a running Linux system. Having obtained a trace-log a kernel hacker can read and understand source code more determined and with context. In a detailed example this approach is demonstrated in tracing and the way of data in a TCP Connection through the kernel. Finally this trace-log is used as base for more a exact conceptual exploration and description of the Linux TCP/IP implementation.
Title: On submitting kernel Patches
- Author
Andi Kleen
- URL
- Date
2008
- Keywords
patches, review process, types of submissions, basic rules, case studies
- Description
This paper gives several experience values on what types of patches there are and how likely they get merged.
- Abstract
[…]. This paper examines some common problems for submitting larger changes and some strategies to avoid problems.
Title: Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition
- Author
Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman
- URL
- Date
2005
- Description
A 600-page book covering the (2.6.10) driver programming API and kernel hacking in general. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
- note
You can also purchase a copy from O’Reilly or elsewhere.
Title: Writing an ALSA Driver
- Author
Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
- URL
http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
- Date
2005
- Keywords
ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
- Description
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers, both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
Title: Linux PCMCIA Programmer’s Guide
- Author
David Hinds.
- URL
- Date
2003
- Keywords
PCMCIA.
- Description
“This document describes how to write kernel device drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with Card Services.
Title: The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide
- Author
Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram, Jim Huang.
- URL
- Date
2021
- Keywords
modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls, interrupt handlers .
- Description
A very nice GPL book on the topic of modules programming. Lots of examples. Currently the new version is being actively maintained at https://github.com/sysprog21/lkmpg.
Title: Global spinlock list and usage
- Author
Rick Lindsley.
- URL
- Date
2001
- Keywords
spinlock.
- Description
This is an attempt to document both the existence and usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held…
Title: A Linux vm README
- Author
Kanoj Sarcar.
- URL
- Date
2001
- Keywords
virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page cache, swap cache, kswapd.
- Description
Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
Title: Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
2000
- Keywords
video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, camera driver.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
2000
- Keywords
video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack.
- Author
Glenn Herrin.
- URL
- Date
2000
- Keywords
network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection, socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets, modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
- Description
Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking, explaining anything from the kernel’s to the user space configuration tools’ code. Very good to get a general overview of the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps packets follow from the time they are received at the network device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet dropper example.
Title: How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power Macintosh
- Author
Paul Mackerras.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: An Introduction to SCSI Drivers
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
SCSI, device, driver.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: Writing Linux Mouse Drivers
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
mouse, driver, gpm.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: More on Mouse Drivers
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
- Description
The title still says it all.
Title: Writing Video4linux Radio Driver
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
- Description
The title says it all.
Title: I/O Event Handling Under Linux
- Author
Richard Gooch.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness event queues.
- Description
From the Introduction: “I/O Event handling is about how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage”.
Title: (nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system administrators.
- Author
pragmatic/THC.
- URL
- Date
1999
- Keywords
syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
- Description
Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in order to intercept and modify syscalls, make files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys, write kernel modules based virus… and solutions for admins to avoid all those abuses.
- Notes
For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x kernels.
Name: Linux Virtual File System
- Author
Peter J. Braam.
- URL
- Date
1998
- Keywords
slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
- Description
Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the dcache.
Title: The Venus kernel interface
- Author
Peter J. Braam.
- URL
http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html
- Date
1998
- Keywords
coda, filesystem, venus, cache manager.
- Description
“This document describes the communication between Venus and kernel level file system code needed for the operation of the Coda filesystem. This version document is meant to describe the current interface (version 1.0) as well as improvements we envisage”.
Title: Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem
- Author
Rémy Card, Theodore Ts’o, Stephen Tweedie.
- URL
- Date
1998
- Keywords
ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices, VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library, ext2fs tools, e2fsck.
- Description
Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers. Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features, design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks, e2fsck’s passes description… A must read!
- Notes
This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9.
Title: The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code
- Author
Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
- URL
- Date
1997
- Keywords
RAID, MD driver.
- Description
Linux Journal Kernel Korner article.
- Abstract
A description of the implementation of the RAID-1, RAID-4 and RAID-5 personalities of the MD device driver in the Linux kernel, providing users with high performance and reliable, secondary-storage capability using software.
Title: Linux Kernel Hackers’ Guide
- Author
Michael K. Johnson.
- URL
- Date
1997
- Keywords
device drivers, files, VFS, kernel interface, character vs block devices, hardware interrupts, scsi, DMA, access to user memory, memory allocation, timers.
- Description
A guide designed to help you get up to speed on the concepts that are not intuitively obvious, and to document the internal structures of Linux.
Title: Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers
- Author
Alessandro Rubini.
- URL
- Date
1996
- Keywords
device driver, module, loading/unloading modules, allocating resources.
- Description
Linux Journal Kernel Korner article.
- Abstract
This is the first of a series of four articles co-authored by Alessandro Rubini and Georg Zezchwitz which present a practical approach to writing Linux device drivers as kernel loadable modules. This installment presents an introduction to the topic, preparing the reader to understand next month’s installment.
Title: Dynamic Kernels: Discovery
- Author
Alessandro Rubini.
- URL
- Date
1996
- Keywords
character driver, init_module, clean_up module, autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations, open(), close().
- Description
Linux Journal Kernel Korner article.
- Abstract
This article, the second of four, introduces part of the actual code to create custom module implementing a character device driver. It describes the code for module initialization and cleanup, as well as the open() and close() system calls.
Title: The Devil’s in the Details
- Author
Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
- URL
- Date
1996
- Keywords
read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non blocking mode, interrupt handler.
- Description
Linux Journal Kernel Korner article.
- Abstract
This article, the third of four on writing character device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using ioctl-calls.
Title: Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA
- Author
Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
- URL
- Date
1996
- Keywords
interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues.
- Description
Linux Journal Kernel Korner article.
- Abstract
This is the fourth in a series of articles about writing character device drivers as loadable kernel modules. This month, we further investigate the field of interrupt handling. Though it is conceptually simple, practical limitations and constraints make this an ‘’interesting’’ part of device driver writing, and several different facilities have been provided for different situations. We also investigate the complex topic of DMA.
Title: Device Drivers Concluded
- Author
Georg v. Zezschwitz.
- URL
- Date
1996
- Keywords
address spaces, pages, pagination, page management, demand loading, swapping, memory protection, memory mapping, mmap, virtual memory areas (VMAs), vremap, PCI.
- Description
Finally, the above turned out into a five articles series. This latest one’s introduction reads: “This is the last of five articles about character device drivers. In this final section, Georg deals with memory mapping devices, beginning with an overall description of the Linux memory management concepts”.
Title: Network Buffers And Memory Management
- Author
Alan Cox.
- URL
- Date
1996
- Keywords
sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive, configuration, multicast.
- Description
Linux Journal Kernel Korner.
- Abstract
Writing a network device driver for Linux is fundamentally simple—most of the complexity (other than talking to the hardware) involves managing network packets in memory.
Title: Analysis of the Ext2fs structure
- Author
Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
- URL
- Date
1994
- Keywords
ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
- Description
Description of ext2’s blocks, directories, inodes, bitmaps, invariants…
Published books¶
Title: Linux Treiber entwickeln
- Author
Jürgen Quade, Eva-Katharina Kunst
- Publisher
dpunkt.verlag
- Date
Oct 2015 (4th edition)
- Pages
688
- ISBN
978-3-86490-288-8
- Note
German. The third edition from 2011 is much cheaper and still quite up-to-date.
Title: Linux Kernel Networking: Implementation and Theory
- Author
Rami Rosen
- Publisher
Apress
- Date
December 22, 2013
- Pages
648
- ISBN
978-1430261964
Title: Embedded Linux Primer: A practical Real-World Approach, 2nd Edition
- Author
Christopher Hallinan
- Publisher
Pearson
- Date
November, 2010
- Pages
656
- ISBN
978-0137017836
Title: Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition
- Author
Robert Love
- Publisher
Addison-Wesley
- Date
July, 2010
- Pages
440
- ISBN
978-0672329463
Title: Essential Linux Device Drivers
- Author
Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran
- Published
Prentice Hall
- Date
April, 2008
- Pages
744
- ISBN
978-0132396554
Title: Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition
- Authors
Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
- Publisher
O’Reilly & Associates
- Date
2005
- Pages
636
- ISBN
0-596-00590-3
- Notes
Further information in http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/ PDF format, URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
Title: Linux Kernel Internals
- Author
Michael Beck
- Publisher
Addison-Wesley
- Date
1997
- ISBN
0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
Title: Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du noyau
- Author
Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel
- Publisher
Eyrolles
- Date
1997
- Pages
520
- ISBN
2-212-08932-5
- Notes
French
Title: The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX Operating System
- Author
Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, John S. Quarterman
- Publisher
Addison-Wesley
- Date
1996
- ISBN
0-201-54979-4
Title: Unix internals – the new frontiers
- Author
Uresh Vahalia
- Publisher
Prentice Hall
- Date
1996
- Pages
600
- ISBN
0-13-101908-2
Title: Programming for the real world - POSIX.4
- Author
Bill O. Gallmeister
- Publisher
O’Reilly & Associates, Inc
- Date
1995
- Pages
552
- ISBN
I-56592-074-0
- Notes
Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be POSIX. Good reference.
Title: UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers
- Author
Curt Schimmel
- Publisher
Addison Wesley
- Date
June, 1994
- Pages
432
- ISBN
0-201-63338-8
Title: The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System
- Author
Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J Karels, John S. Quarterman
- Publisher
Addison-Wesley
- Date
1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990)
- ISBN
0-201-06196-1
Title: The Design of the UNIX Operating System
- Author
Maurice J. Bach
- Publisher
Prentice Hall
- Date
1986
- Pages
471
- ISBN
0-13-201757-1
Miscellaneous¶
Name: Cross-Referencing Linux
- URL
- Keywords
Browsing source code.
- Description
Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser. Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see where they are defined and where they are used.
Name: Linux Weekly News
- URL
- Keywords
latest kernel news.
- Description
The title says it all. There’s a fixed kernel section summarizing developers’ work, bug fixes, new features and versions produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
Name: The home page of Linux-MM
- Author
The Linux-MM team.
- URL
- Keywords
memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs, mailing list.
- Description
Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development. Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers… Don’t miss it if you are interested in memory management development!
Name: Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website
- URL
- Keywords
IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
- Description
#kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net. #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the ‘newbie’ kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel people. #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network. Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies. The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs…
Name: linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines
- URL
- URL
http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
- URL
- Keywords
linux-kernel, archives, search.
- Description
Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If you have a better/another one, please let me know.
Document last updated on Tue 2016-Sep-20
- This document is based on:
https://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html