1.. _kernel_docs: 2 3Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel 4============================================================================================= 5 6 Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es> 7 8The need for a document like this one became apparent in the 9linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers 10to information, appeared again and again. 11 12Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more 13get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always 14enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the 15philosophy and design decisions behind this code. 16 17Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to 18start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which 19kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack. All documents 20available on line known by the author are listed, while some reference 21books are also mentioned. 22 23PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document, 24send me an e-mail, and I'll include a reference to it here. Any 25corrections, ideas or comments are also welcomed. 26 27The papers that follow are listed in no particular order. All are 28cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the 29"Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful 30when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the 31Document. 32 33Enjoy! 34 35.. note:: 36 37 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its 38 published date, from the newest to the oldest. 39 40Docs at the Linux Kernel tree 41----------------------------- 42 43The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``. 44 45 * Name: **linux/Documentation** 46 47 :Author: Many. 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. 54 55On-line docs 56------------ 57 58 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary** 59 60 :Author: various 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". 67 68 * Title: **Tracing the Way of Data in a TCP Connection through the Linux Kernel** 69 70 :Author: Richard Sailer 71 :URL: https://archive.org/details/linux_kernel_data_flow_short_paper 72 :Date: 2016 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.* 85 86 * Title: **On submitting kernel Patches** 87 88 :Author: Andi Kleen 89 :URL: http://halobates.de/on-submitting-kernel-patches.pdf 90 :Date: 2008 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 likely they get merged. 94 :Abstract: 95 [...]. This paper examines some common problems for 96 submitting larger changes and some strategies to avoid problems. 97 98 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition** 99 100 :Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman 101 :URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ 102 :Date: 2005 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>`. 107 108 * Title: **Writing an ALSA Driver** 109 110 :Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> 111 :URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html 112 :Date: 2005 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. 117 118 * Title: **Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide** 119 120 :Author: David Hinds. 121 :URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html 122 :Date: 2003 123 :Keywords: PCMCIA. 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 127 Card Services. 128 129 * Title: **The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide** 130 131 :Author: Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram, 132 Jim Huang. 133 :URL: https://sysprog21.github.io/lkmpg/ 134 :Date: 2021 135 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls, 136 interrupt handlers . 137 :Description: A very nice GPL book on the topic of modules 138 programming. Lots of examples. Currently the new version is being 139 actively maintained at https://github.com/sysprog21/lkmpg. 140 141 * Title: **Global spinlock list and usage** 142 143 :Author: Rick Lindsley. 144 :URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock 145 :Date: 2001 146 :Keywords: spinlock. 147 :Description: This is an attempt to document both the existence and 148 usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive 149 list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions 150 access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it 151 is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held... 152 153 * Title: **A Linux vm README** 154 155 :Author: Kanoj Sarcar. 156 :URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html 157 :Date: 2001 158 :Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page 159 cache, swap cache, kswapd. 160 :Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions 161 relating the Linux virtual memory implementation. 162 163 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device** 164 165 :Author: Alan Cox. 166 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406 167 :Date: 2000 168 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, 169 camera driver. 170 :Description: The title says it all. 171 172 * Title: **Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices** 173 174 :Author: Alan Cox. 175 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429 176 :Date: 2000 177 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, 178 camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility. 179 :Description: The title says it all. 180 181 * Title: **Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack.** 182 183 :Author: Glenn Herrin. 184 :URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin 185 :Date: 2000 186 :Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection, 187 socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets, 188 modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags. 189 :Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking, 190 explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space 191 configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of 192 the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps 193 packets follow from the time they are received at the network 194 device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel 195 code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet 196 dropper example. 197 198 * Title: **How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power Macintosh** 199 200 :Author: Paul Mackerras. 201 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261 202 :Date: 1999 203 :Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility. 204 :Description: The title says it all. 205 206 * Title: **An Introduction to SCSI Drivers** 207 208 :Author: Alan Cox. 209 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284 210 :Date: 1999 211 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver. 212 :Description: The title says it all. 213 214 * Title: **Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales** 215 216 :Author: Alan Cox. 217 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307 218 :Date: 1999 219 :Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced. 220 :Description: The title says it all. 221 222 * Title: **Writing Linux Mouse Drivers** 223 224 :Author: Alan Cox. 225 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330 226 :Date: 1999 227 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm. 228 :Description: The title says it all. 229 230 * Title: **More on Mouse Drivers** 231 232 :Author: Alan Cox. 233 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356 234 :Date: 1999 235 :Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O. 236 :Description: The title still says it all. 237 238 * Title: **Writing Video4linux Radio Driver** 239 240 :Author: Alan Cox. 241 :URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381 242 :Date: 1999 243 :Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices. 244 :Description: The title says it all. 245 246 * Title: **I/O Event Handling Under Linux** 247 248 :Author: Richard Gooch. 249 :URL: https://web.mit.edu/~yandros/doc/io-events.html 250 :Date: 1999 251 :Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness 252 event queues. 253 :Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about 254 how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of 255 open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your 256 application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active 257 (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you 258 want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of 259 inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage". 260 261 * Title: **(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system administrators.** 262 263 :Author: pragmatic/THC. 264 :URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html 265 :Date: 1999 266 :Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table. 267 :Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in 268 order to intercept and modify syscalls, make 269 files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys, 270 write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to 271 avoid all those abuses. 272 :Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x 273 kernels. 274 275 * Name: **Linux Virtual File System** 276 277 :Author: Peter J. Braam. 278 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/ 279 :Date: 1998 280 :Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache. 281 :Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the 282 Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the 283 dcache. 284 285 * Title: **The Venus kernel interface** 286 287 :Author: Peter J. Braam. 288 :URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html 289 :Date: 1998 290 :Keywords: coda, filesystem, venus, cache manager. 291 :Description: "This document describes the communication between 292 Venus and kernel level file system code needed for the operation 293 of the Coda filesystem. This version document is meant to describe 294 the current interface (version 1.0) as well as improvements we 295 envisage". 296 297 * Title: **Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem** 298 299 :Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie. 300 :URL: https://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html 301 :Date: 1998 302 :Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices, 303 VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library, 304 ext2fs tools, e2fsck. 305 :Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers. 306 Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features, 307 design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks, 308 e2fsck's passes description... A must read! 309 :Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the 310 First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9. 311 312 * Title: **The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code** 313 314 :Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza. 315 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391 316 :Date: 1997 317 :Keywords: RAID, MD driver. 318 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. 319 :Abstract: *A description of the implementation of the RAID-1, 320 RAID-4 and RAID-5 personalities of the MD device driver in the 321 Linux kernel, providing users with high performance and reliable, 322 secondary-storage capability using software*. 323 324 * Title: **Linux Kernel Hackers' Guide** 325 326 :Author: Michael K. Johnson. 327 :URL: https://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html 328 :Date: 1997 329 :Keywords: device drivers, files, VFS, kernel interface, character vs 330 block devices, hardware interrupts, scsi, DMA, access to user memory, 331 memory allocation, timers. 332 :Description: A guide designed to help you get up to speed on the 333 concepts that are not intuitively obvious, and to document the internal 334 structures of Linux. 335 336 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers** 337 338 :Author: Alessandro Rubini. 339 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219 340 :Date: 1996 341 :Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules, 342 allocating resources. 343 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. 344 :Abstract: *This is the first of a series of four articles 345 co-authored by Alessandro Rubini and Georg Zezchwitz which present 346 a practical approach to writing Linux device drivers as kernel 347 loadable modules. This installment presents an introduction to the 348 topic, preparing the reader to understand next month's 349 installment*. 350 351 * Title: **Dynamic Kernels: Discovery** 352 353 :Author: Alessandro Rubini. 354 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220 355 :Date: 1996 356 :Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module, 357 autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations, 358 open(), close(). 359 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. 360 :Abstract: *This article, the second of four, introduces part of 361 the actual code to create custom module implementing a character 362 device driver. It describes the code for module initialization and 363 cleanup, as well as the open() and close() system calls*. 364 365 * Title: **The Devil's in the Details** 366 367 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini. 368 :URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221 369 :Date: 1996 370 :Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non 371 blocking mode, interrupt handler. 372 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. 373 :Abstract: *This article, the third of four on writing character 374 device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using 375 ioctl-calls*. 376 377 * Title: **Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA** 378 379 :Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz. 380 :URL: https://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222 381 :Date: 1996 382 :Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues. 383 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. 384 :Abstract: *This is the fourth in a series of articles about 385 writing character device drivers as loadable kernel modules. This 386 month, we further investigate the field of interrupt handling. 387 Though it is conceptually simple, practical limitations and 388 constraints make this an ''interesting'' part of device driver 389 writing, and several different facilities have been provided for 390 different situations. We also investigate the complex topic of 391 DMA*. 392 393 * Title: **Device Drivers Concluded** 394 395 :Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz. 396 :URL: https://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287 397 :Date: 1996 398 :Keywords: address spaces, pages, pagination, page management, 399 demand loading, swapping, memory protection, memory mapping, mmap, 400 virtual memory areas (VMAs), vremap, PCI. 401 :Description: Finally, the above turned out into a five articles 402 series. This latest one's introduction reads: "This is the last of 403 five articles about character device drivers. In this final 404 section, Georg deals with memory mapping devices, beginning with 405 an overall description of the Linux memory management concepts". 406 407 * Title: **Network Buffers And Memory Management** 408 409 :Author: Alan Cox. 410 :URL: https://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312 411 :Date: 1996 412 :Keywords: sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer 413 variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive, 414 configuration, multicast. 415 :Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner. 416 :Abstract: *Writing a network device driver for Linux is fundamentally 417 simple---most of the complexity (other than talking to the 418 hardware) involves managing network packets in memory*. 419 420 * Title: **Analysis of the Ext2fs structure** 421 422 :Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau. 423 :URL: https://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS2002/fs-ext2/ 424 :Date: 1994 425 :Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs. 426 :Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes, 427 bitmaps, invariants... 428 429Published books 430--------------- 431 432 * Title: **Linux Treiber entwickeln** 433 434 :Author: Jürgen Quade, Eva-Katharina Kunst 435 :Publisher: dpunkt.verlag 436 :Date: Oct 2015 (4th edition) 437 :Pages: 688 438 :ISBN: 978-3-86490-288-8 439 :Note: German. The third edition from 2011 is 440 much cheaper and still quite up-to-date. 441 442 * Title: **Linux Kernel Networking: Implementation and Theory** 443 444 :Author: Rami Rosen 445 :Publisher: Apress 446 :Date: December 22, 2013 447 :Pages: 648 448 :ISBN: 978-1430261964 449 450 * Title: **Embedded Linux Primer: A practical Real-World Approach, 2nd Edition** 451 452 :Author: Christopher Hallinan 453 :Publisher: Pearson 454 :Date: November, 2010 455 :Pages: 656 456 :ISBN: 978-0137017836 457 458 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition** 459 460 :Author: Robert Love 461 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley 462 :Date: July, 2010 463 :Pages: 440 464 :ISBN: 978-0672329463 465 466 * Title: **Essential Linux Device Drivers** 467 468 :Author: Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran 469 :Published: Prentice Hall 470 :Date: April, 2008 471 :Pages: 744 472 :ISBN: 978-0132396554 473 474.. _ldd3_published: 475 476 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition** 477 478 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman 479 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates 480 :Date: 2005 481 :Pages: 636 482 :ISBN: 0-596-00590-3 483 :Notes: Further information in 484 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/ 485 PDF format, URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ 486 487 * Title: **Linux Kernel Internals** 488 489 :Author: Michael Beck 490 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley 491 :Date: 1997 492 :ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition) 493 494 * Title: **Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du noyau** 495 496 :Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel 497 :Publisher: Eyrolles 498 :Date: 1997 499 :Pages: 520 500 :ISBN: 2-212-08932-5 501 :Notes: French 502 503 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX Operating System** 504 505 :Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, 506 John S. Quarterman 507 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley 508 :Date: 1996 509 :ISBN: 0-201-54979-4 510 511 * Title: **Unix internals -- the new frontiers** 512 513 :Author: Uresh Vahalia 514 :Publisher: Prentice Hall 515 :Date: 1996 516 :Pages: 600 517 :ISBN: 0-13-101908-2 518 519 * Title: **Programming for the real world - POSIX.4** 520 521 :Author: Bill O. Gallmeister 522 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc 523 :Date: 1995 524 :Pages: 552 525 :ISBN: I-56592-074-0 526 :Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be 527 POSIX. Good reference. 528 529 * Title: **UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers** 530 531 :Author: Curt Schimmel 532 :Publisher: Addison Wesley 533 :Date: June, 1994 534 :Pages: 432 535 :ISBN: 0-201-63338-8 536 537 * Title: **The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX Operating System** 538 539 :Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J 540 Karels, John S. Quarterman 541 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley 542 :Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990) 543 :ISBN: 0-201-06196-1 544 545 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System** 546 547 :Author: Maurice J. Bach 548 :Publisher: Prentice Hall 549 :Date: 1986 550 :Pages: 471 551 :ISBN: 0-13-201757-1 552 553Miscellaneous 554------------- 555 556 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux** 557 558 :URL: https://elixir.bootlin.com/ 559 :Keywords: Browsing source code. 560 :Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser. 561 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see 562 where they are defined and where they are used. 563 564 * Name: **Linux Weekly News** 565 566 :URL: https://lwn.net 567 :Keywords: latest kernel news. 568 :Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section 569 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions 570 produced during the week. Published every Thursday. 571 572 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM** 573 574 :Author: The Linux-MM team. 575 :URL: https://linux-mm.org/ 576 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs, 577 mailing list. 578 :Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development. 579 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss 580 it if you are interested in memory management development! 581 582 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website** 583 584 :URL: https://www.kernelnewbies.org 585 :Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts. 586 :Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net. 587 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie' 588 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are 589 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or 590 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel 591 people. 592 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network. 593 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies. 594 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs... 595 596 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines** 597 598 :URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html 599 :URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html 600 :URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel 601 :Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search. 602 :Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If 603 you have a better/another one, please let me know. 604 605------- 606 607Document last updated on Tue 2016-Sep-20 608 609This document is based on: 610 https://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html 611