xref: /linux/Documentation/index.rst (revision 63307d015b91e626c97bb82e88054af3d0b74643)
1.. The Linux Kernel documentation master file, created by
2   sphinx-quickstart on Fri Feb 12 13:51:46 2016.
3   You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
4   contain the root `toctree` directive.
5
6.. _linux_doc:
7
8The Linux Kernel documentation
9==============================
10
11This is the top level of the kernel's documentation tree.  Kernel
12documentation, like the kernel itself, is very much a work in progress;
13that is especially true as we work to integrate our many scattered
14documents into a coherent whole.  Please note that improvements to the
15documentation are welcome; join the linux-doc list at vger.kernel.org if
16you want to help out.
17
18Licensing documentation
19-----------------------
20
21The following describes the license of the Linux kernel source code
22(GPLv2), how to properly mark the license of individual files in the source
23tree, as well as links to the full license text.
24
25* :ref:`kernel_licensing`
26
27User-oriented documentation
28---------------------------
29
30The following manuals are written for *users* of the kernel — those who are
31trying to get it to work optimally on a given system.
32
33.. toctree::
34   :maxdepth: 2
35
36   admin-guide/index
37
38Firmware-related documentation
39------------------------------
40The following holds information on the kernel's expectations regarding the
41platform firmwares.
42
43.. toctree::
44   :maxdepth: 2
45
46   firmware-guide/index
47
48Application-developer documentation
49-----------------------------------
50
51The user-space API manual gathers together documents describing aspects of
52the kernel interface as seen by application developers.
53
54.. toctree::
55   :maxdepth: 2
56
57   userspace-api/index
58
59
60Introduction to kernel development
61----------------------------------
62
63These manuals contain overall information about how to develop the kernel.
64The kernel community is quite large, with thousands of developers
65contributing over the course of a year.  As with any large community,
66knowing how things are done will make the process of getting your changes
67merged much easier.
68
69.. toctree::
70   :maxdepth: 2
71
72   process/index
73   dev-tools/index
74   doc-guide/index
75   kernel-hacking/index
76   trace/index
77   maintainer/index
78
79Kernel API documentation
80------------------------
81
82These books get into the details of how specific kernel subsystems work
83from the point of view of a kernel developer.  Much of the information here
84is taken directly from the kernel source, with supplemental material added
85as needed (or at least as we managed to add it — probably *not* all that is
86needed).
87
88.. toctree::
89   :maxdepth: 2
90
91   driver-api/index
92   core-api/index
93   media/index
94   networking/index
95   input/index
96   hwmon/index
97   gpu/index
98   security/index
99   sound/index
100   crypto/index
101   filesystems/index
102   vm/index
103   bpf/index
104   misc-devices/index
105
106Architecture-specific documentation
107-----------------------------------
108
109These books provide programming details about architecture-specific
110implementation.
111
112.. toctree::
113   :maxdepth: 2
114
115   x86/index
116   sh/index
117   x86/index
118
119Filesystem Documentation
120------------------------
121
122The documentation in this section are provided by specific filesystem
123subprojects.
124
125.. toctree::
126   :maxdepth: 2
127
128   filesystems/ext4/index
129
130Translations
131------------
132
133.. toctree::
134   :maxdepth: 2
135
136   translations/index
137
138Indices and tables
139==================
140
141* :ref:`genindex`
142