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2 Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or
4 Understanding the Linux Kernel.
6 Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>
8 /*
9 * The latest version of this document may be found at:
10 * http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html
11 */
13 The need for a document like this one became apparent in the
14 linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers
15 to information, appeared again and again.
17 Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more
18 get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always
19 enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the
20 philosophy and design decisions behind this code.
22 Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to
23 start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which
24 kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents
25 available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference
26 books are also mentioned.
28 PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
29 send me an e-mail, and I'll include a reference to it here. Any
30 corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed.
32 The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are
33 cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the
34 "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful
35 when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the
36 Document.
38 Enjoy!
40 ON-LINE DOCS:
42 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition"
43 Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman
44 URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
45 Description: A 600-page book covering the (2.6.10) driver
46 programming API and kernel hacking in general. Available under the
47 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
49 * Title: "The Linux Kernel"
50 Author: David A. Rusling.
51 URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/tlk/tlk.html
52 Keywords: everything!, book.
53 Description: On line, 200 pages book describing most aspects of
54 the Linux Kernel. Probably, the first reference for beginners.
55 Lots of illustrations explaining data structures use and
56 relationships in the purest Richard W. Stevens' style. Contents:
57 "1.-Hardware Basics, 2.-Software Basics, 3.-Memory Management,
58 4.-Processes, 5.-Interprocess Communication Mechanisms, 6.-PCI,
59 7.-Interrupts and Interrupt Handling, 8.-Device Drivers, 9.-The
60 File system, 10.-Networks, 11.-Kernel Mechanisms, 12.-Modules,
61 13.-The Linux Kernel Sources, A.-Linux Data Structures, B.-The
62 Alpha AXP Processor, C.-Useful Web and FTP Sites, D.-The GNU
63 General Public License, Glossary". In short: a must have.
65 * Title: "The Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide"
66 Author: Michael K.Johnson and others.
67 URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html
68 Keywords: everything!
69 Description: No more Postscript book-like version. Only HTML now.
70 Many people have contributed. The interface is similar to web
71 available mailing lists archives. You can find some articles and
72 then some mails asking questions about them and/or complementing
73 previous contributions. A little bit anarchic in this aspect, but
74 with some valuable information in some cases.
76 * Title: "Conceptual Architecture of the Linux Kernel"
77 Author: Ivan T. Bowman.
78 URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~itbowman/papers/CS746G-a1.html
79 Keywords: conceptual software arquitecture, extracted design,
80 reverse engineering, system structure.
81 Description: Conceptual software arquitecture of the Linux kernel,
82 automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good
83 figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding.
85 * Title: "Concrete Architecture of the Linux Kernel"
86 Author: Ivan T. Bowman, Saheem Siddiqi, and Meyer C. Tanuan.
87 URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~itbowman/papers/CS746G-a2.html
88 Keywords: concrete arquitecture, extracted design, reverse
89 engineering, system structure, dependencies.
90 Description: Concrete arquitecture of the Linux kernel,
91 automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good
92 figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding. This papers
93 focus on lower details than its predecessor (files, variables...).
95 * Title: "Linux as a Case Study: Its Extracted Software
96 Architecture"
97 Author: Ivan T. Bowman, Richard C. Holt and Neil V. Brewster.
98 URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~itbowman/papers/linuxcase.html
99 Keywords: software architecture, architecture recovery,
100 redocumentation.
101 Description: Paper appeared at ICSE'99, Los Angeles, May 16-22,
102 1999. A mixture of the previous two documents from the same
103 author.
105 * Title: "Overview of the Virtual File System"
106 Author: Richard Gooch.
107 URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/vfs.txt
108 Keywords: VFS, File System, mounting filesystems, opening files,
109 dentries, dcache.
110 Description: Brief introduction to the Linux Virtual File System.
111 What is it, how it works, operations taken when opening a file or
112 mounting a file system and description of important data
113 structures explaining the purpose of each of their entries.
115 * Title: "The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code"
116 Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
117 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue44/2391.html
118 Keywords: RAID, MD driver.
119 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's
120 abstract: "A description of the implementation of the RAID-1,
121 RAID-4 and RAID-5 personalities of the MD device driver in the
122 Linux kernel, providing users with high performance and reliable,
123 secondary-storage capability using software".
125 * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers"
126 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
127 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue23/1219.html
128 Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules,
129 allocating resources.
130 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's
131 abstract: "This is the first of a series of four articles
132 co-authored by Alessandro Rubini and Georg Zezchwitz which present
133 a practical approach to writing Linux device drivers as kernel
134 loadable modules. This installment presents an introduction to the
135 topic, preparing the reader to understand next month's
136 installment".
138 * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Discovery"
139 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
140 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue24/1220.html
141 Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module,
142 autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations,
143 open(), close().
144 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's
145 abstract: "This article, the second of four, introduces part of
146 the actual code to create custom module implementing a character
147 device driver. It describes the code for module initialization and
148 cleanup, as well as the open() and close() system calls".
150 * Title: "The Devil's in the Details"
151 Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
152 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue25/1221.html
153 Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non
154 blocking mode, interrupt handler.
155 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's
156 abstract: "This article, the third of four on writing character
157 device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using
158 ioctl-calls".
160 * Title: "Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA"
161 Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
162 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue26/1222.html
163 Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues.
164 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is it's
165 abstract: "This is the fourth in a series of articles about
166 writing character device drivers as loadable kernel modules. This
167 month, we further investigate the field of interrupt handling.
168 Though it is conceptually simple, practical limitations and
169 constraints make this an ``interesting'' part of device driver
170 writing, and several different facilities have been provided for
171 different situations. We also investigate the complex topic of
172 DMA".
174 * Title: "Device Drivers Concluded"
175 Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz.
176 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue28/1287.html
177 Keywords: address spaces, pages, pagination, page management,
178 demand loading, swapping, memory protection, memory mapping, mmap,
179 virtual memory areas (VMAs), vremap, PCI.
180 Description: Finally, the above turned out into a five articles
181 series. This latest one's introduction reads: "This is the last of
182 five articles about character device drivers. In this final
183 section, Georg deals with memory mapping devices, beginning with
184 an overall description of the Linux memory management concepts".
186 * Title: "Network Buffers And Memory Management"
187 Author: Alan Cox.
188 URL: http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue30/1312.html
189 Keywords: sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer
190 variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive,
191 configuration, multicast.
192 Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner. Here is the abstract:
193 "Writing a network device driver for Linux is fundamentally
194 simple---most of the complexity (other than talking to the
195 hardware) involves managing network packets in memory".
197 * Title: "Writing Linux Device Drivers"
198 Author: Michael K. Johnson.
199 URL: http://users.evitech.fi/~tk/rtos/writing_linux_device_d.html
200 Keywords: files, VFS, file operations, kernel interface, character
201 vs block devices, I/O access, hardware interrupts, DMA, access to
202 user memory, memory allocation, timers.
203 Description: Introductory 50-minutes (sic) tutorial on writing
204 device drivers. 12 pages written by the same author of the "Kernel
205 Hackers' Guide" which give a very good overview of the topic.
207 * Title: "The Venus kernel interface"
208 Author: Peter J. Braam.
209 URL:
210 http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html
211 Keywords: coda, filesystem, venus, cache manager.
212 Description: "This document describes the communication between
213 Venus and kernel level file system code needed for the operation
214 of the Coda filesystem. This version document is meant to describe
215 the current interface (version 1.0) as well as improvements we
216 envisage".
218 * Title: "Programming PCI-Devices under Linux"
219 Author: Claus Schroeter.
220 URL:
221 ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/pcip.ps
222 .gz
223 Keywords: PCI, device, busmastering.
224 Description: 6 pages tutorial on PCI programming under Linux.
225 Gives the basic concepts on the architecture of the PCI subsystem,
226 as long as basic functions and macros to read/write the devices
227 and perform busmastering.
229 * Title: "Writing Character Device Driver for Linux"
230 Author: R. Baruch and C. Schroeter.
231 URL:
232 ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/drivers
233 .ps.gz
234 Keywords: character device drivers, I/O, signals, DMA, accessing
235 ports in user space, kernel environment.
236 Description: 68 pages paper on writing character drivers. A little
237 bit old (1.993, 1.994) although still useful.
239 * Title: "Design and Implementation of the Second Extended
240 Filesystem"
241 Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
242 URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html
243 Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices,
244 VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library,
245 ext2fs tools, e2fsck.
246 Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers.
247 Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features,
248 design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks,
249 e2fsck's passes description... A must read!
250 Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the
251 First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9.
253 * Title: "Analysis of the Ext2fs structure"
254 Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
255 URL: http://step.polymtl.ca/~ldd/ext2fs/ext2fs_toc.html
256 Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
257 Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes,
258 bitmaps, invariants...
260 * Title: "Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem"
261 Author: Stephen C. Tweedie.
262 URL:
263 ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/journal-design.ps.gz
264 Keywords: ext3, journaling.
265 Description: Excellent 8-pages paper explaining the journaling
266 capabilities added to ext2 by the author, showing different
267 problems faced and the alternatives chosen.
269 * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.0 to 2.2"
270 Author: Richard Gooch.
271 URL:
272 http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/porting-to-2.2.html
273 Keywords: 2.2, changes.
274 Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
275 from 2.0.x to 2.2.x.
277 * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.2 to 2.4"
278 Author: Richard Gooch.
279 URL:
280 http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/porting-to-2.4.html
281 Keywords: 2.4, changes.
282 Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
283 from 2.2.x to 2.4.x.
285 * Title: "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide"
286 Author: Ori Pomerantz.
287 URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
288 Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
289 interrupt handlers .
290 Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
291 programming. Lots of examples.
293 * Title: "Device File System (devfs) Overview"
294 Author: Richard Gooch.
295 URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rgooch/linux/docs/devfs.html
296 Keywords: filesystem, /dev, devfs, dynamic devices, major/minor
297 allocation, device management.
298 Description: Document describing Richard Gooch's controversial
299 devfs, which allows for dynamic devices, only shows present
300 devices in /dev, gets rid of major/minor numbers allocation
301 problems, and allows for hundreds of identical devices (which some
302 USB systems might demand soon).
304 * Title: "I/O Event Handling Under Linux"
305 Author: Richard Gooch.
306 URL: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/docs/io-events.html
307 Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
308 event queues.
309 Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about
310 how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of
311 open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your
312 application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active
313 (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you
314 want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of
315 inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage".
317 * Title: "The Kernel Hacking HOWTO"
318 Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
319 Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking/
320 (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
321 Keywords: HOWTO, kernel contexts, deadlock, locking, modules,
322 symbols, return conventions.
323 Description: From the Introduction: "Please understand that I
324 never wanted to write this document, being grossly underqualified,
325 but I always wanted to read it, and this was the only way. I
326 simply explain some best practices, and give reading entry-points
327 into the kernel sources. I avoid implementation details: that's
328 what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful
329 routines. This document assumes familiarity with C, and an
330 understanding of what the kernel is, and how it is used. It was
331 originally written for the 2.3 kernels, but nearly all of it
332 applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly different".
334 * Title: "Writing an ALSA Driver"
335 Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
336 URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
337 Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
338 Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers,
339 both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel
340 sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
342 * Title: "Programming Guide for Linux USB Device Drivers"
343 Author: Detlef Fliegl.
344 URL: http://usb.in.tum.de/usbdoc/
345 Keywords: USB, universal serial bus.
346 Description: A must-read. From the Preface: "This document should
347 give detailed information about the current state of the USB
348 subsystem and its API for USB device drivers. The first section
349 will deal with the basics of USB devices. You will learn about
350 different types of devices and their properties. Going into detail
351 you will see how USB devices communicate on the bus. The second
352 section gives an overview of the Linux USB subsystem [2] and the
353 device driver framework. Then the API and its data structures will
354 be explained step by step. The last section of this document
355 contains a reference of all API calls and their return codes".
356 Notes: Beware: the main page states: "This document may not be
357 published, printed or used in excerpts without explicit permission
358 of the author". Fortunately, it may still be read...
360 * Title: "Tour Of the Linux Kernel Source"
361 Author: Vijo Cherian.
362 URL: http://www.geocities.com/vijoc/tolks/tolks.html
363 Keywords: .
364 Description: A classic of this page! Was lost for a while and is
365 back again. Thanks Vijo! TOLKS: the name says it all. A tour of
366 the sources, describing directories, files, variables, data
367 structures... It covers general stuff, device drivers,
368 filesystems, IPC and Networking Code.
370 * Title: "Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary"
371 Author: various
372 URL: http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/
373 Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
374 Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
375 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
376 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
378 * Title: "Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO"
379 Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
380 Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking/
381 (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
382 Keywords: locks, locking, spinlock, semaphore, atomic, race
383 condition, bottom halves, tasklets, softirqs.
384 Description: The title says it all: document describing the
385 locking system in the Linux Kernel either in uniprocessor or SMP
386 systems.
387 Notes: "It was originally written for the later (>2.3.47) 2.3
388 kernels, but most of it applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly
389 different". Freely redistributable under the conditions of the GNU
390 General Public License.
392 * Title: "Porting Linux 2.0 Drivers To Linux 2.2: Changes and New
393 Features "
394 Author: Alan Cox.
395 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-05/gear_01.html
396 Keywords: ports, porting.
397 Description: Article from Linux Magazine on porting from 2.0 to
398 2.2 kernels.
400 * Title: "Porting Device Drivers To Linux 2.2: part II"
401 Author: Alan Cox.
402 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-06/gear_01.html
403 Keywords: ports, porting.
404 Description: Second part on porting from 2.0 to 2.2 kernels.
406 * Title: "How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power
407 Macintosh"
408 Author: Paul Mackerras.
409 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-07/gear_01.html
410 Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
411 Description: The title says it all.
413 * Title: "An Introduction to SCSI Drivers"
414 Author: Alan Cox.
415 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-08/gear_01.html
416 Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
417 Description: The title says it all.
419 * Title: "Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales"
420 Author: Alan Cox.
421 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-09/gear_01.html
422 Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
423 Description: The title says it all.
425 * Title: "Writing Linux Mouse Drivers"
426 Author: Alan Cox.
427 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-10/gear_01.html
428 Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
429 Description: The title says it all.
431 * Title: "More on Mouse Drivers"
432 Author: Alan Cox.
433 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-11/gear_01.html
434 Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
435 Description: The title still says it all.
437 * Title: "Writing Video4linux Radio Driver"
438 Author: Alan Cox.
439 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-12/gear_01.html
440 Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
441 Description: The title says it all.
443 * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device"
444 Author: Alan Cox.
445 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-01/gear_01.html
446 Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
447 camera driver.
448 Description: The title says it all.
450 * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices"
451 Author: Alan Cox.
452 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-02/gear_01.html
453 Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
454 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
455 Description: The title says it all.
457 * Title: "PCI Management in Linux 2.2"
458 Author: Alan Cox.
459 URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-03/gear_01.html
460 Keywords: PCI, bus, bus-mastering.
461 Description: The title says it all.
463 * Title: "Linux 2.4 Kernel Internals"
464 Author: Tigran Aivazian and Christoph Hellwig.
465 URL: http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/lki.html
466 Keywords: Linux, kernel, booting, SMB boot, VFS, page cache.
467 Description: A little book used for a short training course.
468 Covers building the kernel image, booting (including SMP bootup),
469 process management, VFS and more.
471 * Title: "Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and
472 Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack."
473 Author: Glenn Herrin.
474 URL:
475 http://kernelnewbies.org/documents/ipnetworking/linuxipnetworking.
476 html
477 Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection,
478 socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets,
479 modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
480 Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking,
481 explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space
482 configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of
483 the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps
484 packets follow from the time they are received at the network
485 device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel
486 code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet
487 dropper example.
489 * Title: "Get those boards talking under Linux."
490 Author: Alex Ivchenko.
491 URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46968.html
492 Keywords: data-acquisition boards, drivers, modules, interrupts,
493 memory allocation.
494 Description: Article written for people wishing to make their data
495 acquisition boards work on their GNU/Linux machines. Gives a basic
496 overview on writing drivers, from the naming of functions to
497 interrupt handling.
498 Notes: Two-parts article. Part II is at
499 URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46998.html
501 * Title: "Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide"
502 Author: David Hinds.
503 URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
504 Keywords: PCMCIA.
505 Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device
506 drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also
507 describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with
508 Card Services.
510 * Title: "The Linux Kernel NFSD Implementation"
511 Author: Neil Brown.
512 URL:
513 http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/nfsd.html
514 Keywords: knfsd, nfsd, NFS, RPC, lockd, mountd, statd.
515 Description: The title says it all.
516 Notes: Covers knfsd's version 1.4.7 (patch against 2.2.7 kernel).
518 * Title: "A Linux vm README"
519 Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
520 URL: http://reality.sgi.com/kanoj_engr/vm229.html
521 Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page
522 cache, swap cache, kswapd.
523 Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions
524 relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
526 * Title: "(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The
527 definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system
528 administrators."
529 Author: pragmatic/THC.
530 URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
531 Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
532 Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in
533 order to intercept and modify syscalls, make
534 files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys,
535 write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to
536 avoid all those abuses.
537 Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x
538 kernels.
540 BOOKS: (Not on-line)
542 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers"
543 Author: Alessandro Rubini.
544 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
545 Date: 1998.
546 Pages: 439.
547 ISBN: 1-56592-292-1
549 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition"
550 Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet.
551 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
552 Date: 2001.
553 Pages: 586.
554 ISBN: 0-59600-008-1
555 Notes: Further information in
556 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/
558 * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 3nd Edition"
559 Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
560 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
561 Date: 2005.
562 Pages: 636.
563 ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
564 Notes: Further information in
565 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
566 PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
568 * Title: "Linux Kernel Internals"
569 Author: Michael Beck.
570 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
571 Date: 1997.
572 ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
574 * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System"
575 Author: Maurice J. Bach.
576 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
577 Date: 1986.
578 Pages: 471.
579 ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
581 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX
582 Operating System"
583 Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J.
584 Karels, John S. Quarterman.
585 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
586 Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990).
587 ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
589 * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX
590 Operating System"
591 Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
592 John S. Quarterman.
593 Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
594 Date: 1996.
595 ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
597 * Title: "Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du
598 noyau"
599 Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel.
600 Publisher: Eyrolles.
601 Date: 1997.
602 Pages: 520.
603 ISBN: 2-212-08932-5
604 Notes: French.
606 * Title: "The Linux Kernel Book"
607 Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel.
608 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons.
609 Date: 1998.
610 ISBN: 0-471-98141-9
611 Notes: English translation.
613 * Title: "Linux 2.0"
614 Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel.
615 Publisher: Gestión 2000.
616 Date: 1997.
617 Pages: 501.
618 ISBN: 8-480-88208-5
619 Notes: Spanish translation.
621 * Title: "Unix internals -- the new frontiers"
622 Author: Uresh Vahalia.
623 Publisher: Prentice Hall.
624 Date: 1996.
625 Pages: 600.
626 ISBN: 0-13-101908-2
628 * Title: "Linux Core Kernel Commentary. Guide to Insider's Knowledge
629 on the Core Kernel of the Linux Code"
630 Author: Scott Maxwell.
631 Publisher: Coriolis.
632 Date: 1999.
633 Pages: 592.
634 ISBN: 1-57610-469-9
635 Notes: CD-ROM included. Line by line commentary of the kernel
636 code.
638 * Title: "Linux IP Stacks Commentary"
639 Author: Stephen Satchell and HBJ Clifford.
640 Publisher: Coriolis.
641 Date: 2000.
642 Pages: ???.
643 ISBN: 1-57610-470-2
644 Notes: Line by line source code commentary book.
646 * Title: "Programming for the real world - POSIX.4"
647 Author: Bill O. Gallmeister.
648 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc..
649 Date: 1995.
650 Pages: ???.
651 ISBN: I-56592-074-0
652 Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
653 POSIX. Good reference.
655 * Title: "Understanding the Linux Kernel"
656 Author: Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati.
657 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc..
658 Date: 2000.
659 Pages: 702.
660 ISBN: 0-596-00002-2
661 Notes: Further information in
662 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxkernel/
664 MISCELLANEOUS:
666 * Name: linux/Documentation
667 Author: Many.
668 URL: Just look inside your kernel sources.
669 Keywords: anything, DocBook.
670 Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
671 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
672 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
673 be more up to date than the web version.
675 * Name: "Linux Source Driver"
676 URL: http://lsd.linux.cz
677 Keywords: Browsing source code.
678 Description: "Linux Source Driver (LSD) is an application, which
679 can make browsing source codes of Linux kernel easier than you can
680 imagine. You can select between multiple versions of kernel (e.g.
681 0.01, 1.0.0, 2.0.33, 2.0.34pre13, 2.0.0, 2.1.101 etc.). With LSD
682 you can search Linux kernel (fulltext, macros, types, functions
683 and variables) and LSD can generate patches for you on the fly
684 (files, directories or kernel)".
686 * Name: "Linux Kernel Source Reference"
687 Author: Thomas Graichen.
688 URL: http://innominate.org/~graichen/projects/lksr/
689 Keywords: CVS, web, cvsweb, browsing source code.
690 Description: Web interface to a CVS server with the kernel
691 sources. "Here you can have a look at any file of the Linux kernel
692 sources of any version starting from 1.0 up to the (daily updated)
693 current version available. Also you can check the differences
694 between two versions of a file".
696 * Name: "Cross-Referencing Linux"
697 URL: http://lxr.linux.no/source/
698 Keywords: Browsing source code.
699 Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
700 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
701 where they are defined and where they are used.
703 * Name: "Linux Weekly News"
704 URL: http://lwn.net
705 Keywords: latest kernel news.
706 Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
707 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
708 produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
710 * Name: "Kernel Traffic"
711 URL: http://www.kerneltraffic.org/kernel-traffic/
712 Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list, weekly kernel news.
713 Description: Weekly newsletter covering the most relevant
714 discussions of the linux-kernel mailing list.
716 * Name: "CuTTiNG.eDGe.LiNuX"
717 URL: http://edge.kernelnotes.org
718 Keywords: changelist.
719 Description: Site which provides the changelist for every kernel
720 release. What's new, what's better, what's changed. Myrdraal reads
721 the patches and describes them. Pointers to the patches are there,
722 too.
724 * Name: "New linux-kernel Mailing List FAQ"
725 URL: http://www.tux.org/lkml/
726 Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list FAQ.
727 Description: linux-kernel is a mailing list for developers to
728 communicate. This FAQ builds on the previous linux-kernel mailing
729 list FAQ maintained by Frohwalt Egerer, who no longer maintains
730 it. Read it to see how to join the mailing list. Dozens of
731 interesting questions regarding the list, Linux, developers (who
732 is ...?), terms (what is...?) are answered here too. Just read it.
734 * Name: "Linux Virtual File System"
735 Author: Peter J. Braam.
736 URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
737 Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
738 Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the
739 Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the
740 dcache.
742 * Name: "Gary's Encyclopedia - The Linux Kernel"
743 Author: Gary (I suppose...).
744 URL: http://members.aa.net/~swear/pedia/kernel.html
745 Keywords: links, not found here?.
746 Description: Gary's Encyclopedia exists to allow the rapid finding
747 of documentation and other information of interest to GNU/Linux
748 users. It has about 4000 links to external pages in 150 major
749 categories. This link is for kernel-specific links, documents,
750 sites... Look there if you could not find here what you were
751 looking for.
753 * Name: "The home page of Linux-MM"
754 Author: The Linux-MM team.
755 URL: http://linux-mm.org/
756 Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
757 mailing list.
758 Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
759 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
760 it if you are interested in memory management development!
762 * Name: "Kernel Newbies IRC Channel"
763 URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org
764 Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
765 Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.openprojects.net. From the web
766 page: "#kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
767 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
768 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
769 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
770 people. [...] #kernelnewbies is on the Open Projects IRC Network,
771 try irc.openprojects.net or irc.<country>.openprojects.net as your
772 server and then /join #kernelnewbies". It also hosts articles,
773 documents, FAQs...
775 * Name: "linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines"
776 URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
777 URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
778 URL: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel
779 URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
780 URL: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/
781 URL: http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/
782 Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
783 Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
784 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
785 _________________________________________________________________
787 Document last updated on Sat 2005-NOV-19