3 Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel
4 =============================================================================================
6 Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>
8 The need for a document like this one became apparent in the
9 linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers
10 to information, appeared again and again.
12 Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more
13 get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always
14 enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the
15 philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
17 Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to
18 start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which
19 kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents
20 available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference
21 books are also mentioned.
23 PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
24 send me an e-mail, and I'll include a reference to it here. Any
25 corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed.
27 The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are
28 cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the
29 "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful
30 when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the
37 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its
38 published date, from the newest to the oldest.
40 Docs at the Linux Kernel tree
41 -----------------------------
43 The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``.
45 * Name: **linux/Documentation**
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.
58 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary**
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".
68 * Title: **Tracing the Way of Data in a TCP Connection through the Linux Kernel**
70 :Author: Richard Sailer
71 :URL: https://archive.org/details/linux_kernel_data_flow_short_paper
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.*
86 * Title: **On submitting kernel Patches**
89 :URL: http://halobates.de/on-submitting-kernel-patches.pdf
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.
95 [...]. This paper examines some common problems for
96 submitting larger changes and some strategies to avoid problems.
98 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition**
100 :Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman
101 :URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
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>`.
108 * Title: **Writing an ALSA Driver**
110 :Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
111 :URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
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.
118 * Title: **Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide**
120 :Author: David Hinds.
121 :URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
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
129 * Title: **Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide**
131 :Author: Ori Pomerantz.
132 :URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
134 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
136 :Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
137 programming. Lots of examples.
139 * Title: **Global spinlock list and usage**
141 :Author: Rick Lindsley.
142 :URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
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...
151 * Title: **A Linux vm README**
153 :Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
154 :URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html
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.
161 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device**
164 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406
166 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
168 :Description: The title says it all.
170 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices**
173 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429
175 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
176 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
177 :Description: The title says it all.
179 * Title: **Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack.**
181 :Author: Glenn Herrin.
182 :URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin
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
196 * Title: **How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power Macintosh**
198 :Author: Paul Mackerras.
199 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261
201 :Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
202 :Description: The title says it all.
204 * Title: **An Introduction to SCSI Drivers**
207 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284
209 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
210 :Description: The title says it all.
212 * Title: **Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales**
215 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307
217 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
218 :Description: The title says it all.
220 * Title: **Writing Linux Mouse Drivers**
223 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330
225 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
226 :Description: The title says it all.
228 * Title: **More on Mouse Drivers**
231 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356
233 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
234 :Description: The title still says it all.
236 * Title: **Writing Video4linux Radio Driver**
239 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381
241 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
242 :Description: The title says it all.
244 * Title: **I/O Event Handling Under Linux**
246 :Author: Richard Gooch.
247 :URL: http://web.mit.edu/~yandros/doc/io-events.html
249 :Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
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".
259 * Title: **(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system administrators.**
261 :Author: pragmatic/THC.
262 :URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
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
273 * Name: **Linux Virtual File System**
275 :Author: Peter J. Braam.
276 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
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
283 * Title: **The Venus kernel interface**
285 :Author: Peter J. Braam.
286 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html
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
295 * Title: **Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem**
297 :Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
298 :URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html
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.
310 * Title: **The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code**
312 :Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
313 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391
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*.
322 * Title: **Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide**
324 :Author: Michael K. Johnson.
325 :URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html
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
334 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers**
336 :Author: Alessandro Rubini.
337 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219
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
349 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Discovery**
351 :Author: Alessandro Rubini.
352 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220
354 :Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module,
355 autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations,
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*.
363 * Title: **The Devil's in the Details**
365 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
366 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221
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
375 * Title: **Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA**
377 :Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
378 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222
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
391 * Title: **Device Drivers Concluded**
393 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz.
394 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287
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".
405 * Title: **Network Buffers And Memory Management**
408 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312
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*.
418 * Title: **Analysis of the Ext2fs structure**
420 :Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
421 :URL: http://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS2002/fs-ext2/
423 :Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
424 :Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes,
425 bitmaps, invariants...
430 * Title: **Linux Treiber entwickeln**
432 :Author: Jürgen Quade, Eva-Katharina Kunst
433 :Publisher: dpunkt.verlag
434 :Date: Oct 2015 (4th edition)
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.
440 * Title: **Linux Kernel Networking: Implementation and Theory**
444 :Date: December 22, 2013
446 :ISBN: 978-1430261964
448 * Title: **Embedded Linux Primer: A practical Real-World Approach, 2nd Edition**
450 :Author: Christopher Hallinan
452 :Date: November, 2010
454 :ISBN: 978-0137017836
456 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition**
459 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
462 :ISBN: 978-0672329463
464 * Title: **Essential Linux Device Drivers**
466 :Author: Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran
467 :Published: Prentice Hall
470 :ISBN: 978-0132396554
474 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition**
476 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
477 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
481 :Notes: Further information in
482 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
483 PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
485 * Title: **Linux Kernel Internals**
487 :Author: Michael Beck
488 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
490 :ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
492 * Title: **Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du noyau**
494 :Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel
501 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX Operating System**
503 :Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
505 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
509 * Title: **Unix internals -- the new frontiers**
511 :Author: Uresh Vahalia
512 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
517 * Title: **Programming for the real world - POSIX.4**
519 :Author: Bill O. Gallmeister
520 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc
524 :Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
525 POSIX. Good reference.
527 * Title: **UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers**
529 :Author: Curt Schimmel
530 :Publisher: Addison Wesley
535 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System**
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)
543 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System**
545 :Author: Maurice J. Bach
546 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
554 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux**
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.
562 * Name: **Linux Weekly News**
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.
570 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM**
572 :Author: The Linux-MM team.
573 :URL: http://linux-mm.org/
574 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
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!
580 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website**
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
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...
594 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines**
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.
605 Document last updated on Tue 2016-Sep-20
607 This document is based on:
608 http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html