|  |  | 
|  | Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or | 
|  |  | 
|  | Understanding the Linux Kernel. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es> | 
|  |  | 
|  | /* | 
|  | * The latest version of this document may be found at: | 
|  | *   http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html | 
|  | */ | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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! | 
|  |  | 
|  | ON-LINE DOCS: | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition" | 
|  | Author: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman | 
|  | URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ | 
|  | 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. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "The Linux Kernel" | 
|  | Author: David A. Rusling. | 
|  | URL: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/tlk/tlk.html | 
|  | Keywords: everything!, book. | 
|  | Description: On line, 200 pages book describing most aspects of | 
|  | the Linux Kernel. Probably, the first reference for beginners. | 
|  | Lots of illustrations explaining data structures use and | 
|  | relationships in the purest Richard W. Stevens' style. Contents: | 
|  | "1.-Hardware Basics, 2.-Software Basics, 3.-Memory Management, | 
|  | 4.-Processes, 5.-Interprocess Communication Mechanisms, 6.-PCI, | 
|  | 7.-Interrupts and Interrupt Handling, 8.-Device Drivers, 9.-The | 
|  | File system, 10.-Networks, 11.-Kernel Mechanisms, 12.-Modules, | 
|  | 13.-The Linux Kernel Sources, A.-Linux Data Structures, B.-The | 
|  | Alpha AXP Processor, C.-Useful Web and FTP Sites, D.-The GNU | 
|  | General Public License, Glossary". In short: a must have. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition" | 
|  | Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet. | 
|  | URL: http://www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book/index.html | 
|  | Keywords: device drivers, modules, debugging, memory, hardware, | 
|  | interrupt handling, char drivers, block drivers, kmod, mmap, DMA, | 
|  | buses. | 
|  | Description: O'Reilly's popular book, now also on-line under the | 
|  | GNU Free Documentation License. | 
|  | Notes: You can also buy it in paper-form from O'Reilly. See below | 
|  | under BOOKS (Not on-line). | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Conceptual Architecture of the Linux Kernel" | 
|  | Author: Ivan T. Bowman. | 
|  | URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/ | 
|  | Keywords: conceptual software architecture, extracted design, | 
|  | reverse engineering, system structure. | 
|  | Description: Conceptual software architecture of the Linux kernel, | 
|  | automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good | 
|  | figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Concrete Architecture of the Linux Kernel" | 
|  | Author: Ivan T. Bowman, Saheem Siddiqi, and Meyer C. Tanuan. | 
|  | URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/ | 
|  | Keywords: concrete architecture, extracted design, reverse | 
|  | engineering, system structure, dependencies. | 
|  | Description: Concrete architecture of the Linux kernel, | 
|  | automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good | 
|  | figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding. This papers | 
|  | focus on lower details than its predecessor (files, variables...). | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux as a Case Study: Its Extracted Software | 
|  | Architecture" | 
|  | Author: Ivan T. Bowman, Richard C. Holt and Neil V. Brewster. | 
|  | URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/ | 
|  | Keywords: software architecture, architecture recovery, | 
|  | redocumentation. | 
|  | Description: Paper appeared at ICSE'99, Los Angeles, May 16-22, | 
|  | 1999. A mixture of the previous two documents from the same | 
|  | author. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Overview of the Virtual File System" | 
|  | Author: Richard Gooch. | 
|  | URL: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt | 
|  | Keywords: VFS, File System, mounting filesystems, opening files, | 
|  | dentries, dcache. | 
|  | Description: Brief introduction to the Linux Virtual File System. | 
|  | What is it, how it works, operations taken when opening a file or | 
|  | mounting a file system and description of important data | 
|  | structures explaining the purpose of each of their entries. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code" | 
|  | Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391 | 
|  | Keywords: RAID, MD driver. | 
|  | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its | 
|  | 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: "Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Alessandro Rubini. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219 | 
|  | Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules, | 
|  | allocating resources. | 
|  | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its | 
|  | 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: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220 | 
|  | Keywords: character driver, init_module, clean_up module, | 
|  | autodetection, mayor number, minor number, file operations, | 
|  | open(), close(). | 
|  | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its | 
|  | 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: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221 | 
|  | Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non | 
|  | blocking mode, interrupt handler. | 
|  | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its | 
|  | 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: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222 | 
|  | Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues. | 
|  | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its | 
|  | 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: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287 | 
|  | 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: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312 | 
|  | Keywords: sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer | 
|  | variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive, | 
|  | configuration, multicast. | 
|  | Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner. Here is the 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: "Writing Linux Device Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Michael K. Johnson. | 
|  | URL: http://users.evitech.fi/~tk/rtos/writing_linux_device_d.html | 
|  | Keywords: files, VFS, file operations, kernel interface, character | 
|  | vs block devices, I/O access, hardware interrupts, DMA, access to | 
|  | user memory, memory allocation, timers. | 
|  | Description: Introductory 50-minutes (sic) tutorial on writing | 
|  | device drivers. 12 pages written by the same author of the "Kernel | 
|  | Hackers' Guide" which give a very good overview of the topic. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "The Venus kernel interface" | 
|  | Author: Peter J. Braam. | 
|  | URL: | 
|  | http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html | 
|  | 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: "Programming PCI-Devices under Linux" | 
|  | Author: Claus Schroeter. | 
|  | URL: | 
|  | ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/pcip.ps.gz | 
|  | Keywords: PCI, device, busmastering. | 
|  | Description: 6 pages tutorial on PCI programming under Linux. | 
|  | Gives the basic concepts on the architecture of the PCI subsystem, | 
|  | as long as basic functions and macros to read/write the devices | 
|  | and perform busmastering. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Writing Character Device Driver for Linux" | 
|  | Author: R. Baruch and C. Schroeter. | 
|  | URL: | 
|  | ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/drivers.ps.gz | 
|  | Keywords: character device drivers, I/O, signals, DMA, accessing | 
|  | ports in user space, kernel environment. | 
|  | Description: 68 pages paper on writing character drivers. A little | 
|  | bit old (1.993, 1.994) although still useful. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Design and Implementation of the Second Extended | 
|  | Filesystem" | 
|  | Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie. | 
|  | URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html | 
|  | 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: "Analysis of the Ext2fs structure" | 
|  | Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau. | 
|  | URL: http://www.nondot.org/sabre/os/files/FileSystems/ext2fs/ | 
|  | Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs. | 
|  | Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes, | 
|  | bitmaps, invariants... | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem" | 
|  | Author: Stephen C. Tweedie. | 
|  | URL: | 
|  | ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/journal-design.ps.gz | 
|  | Keywords: ext3, journaling. | 
|  | Description: Excellent 8-pages paper explaining the journaling | 
|  | capabilities added to ext2 by the author, showing different | 
|  | problems faced and the alternatives chosen. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.0 to 2.2" | 
|  | Author: Richard Gooch. | 
|  | URL: | 
|  | http://www.linuxhq.com/guides/LKMPG/node28.html | 
|  | Keywords: 2.2, changes. | 
|  | Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed | 
|  | from 2.0.x to 2.2.x. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.2 to 2.4" | 
|  | Author: Richard Gooch. | 
|  | Keywords: 2.4, changes. | 
|  | Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed | 
|  | from 2.2.x to 2.4.x. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide" | 
|  | Author: Ori Pomerantz. | 
|  | URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html | 
|  | Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls, | 
|  | interrupt handlers . | 
|  | Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules | 
|  | programming. Lots of examples. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "I/O Event Handling Under Linux" | 
|  | Author: Richard Gooch. | 
|  | 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: "The Kernel Hacking HOWTO" | 
|  | Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty. | 
|  | Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking/ | 
|  | (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs}) | 
|  | Keywords: HOWTO, kernel contexts, deadlock, locking, modules, | 
|  | symbols, return conventions. | 
|  | Description: From the Introduction: "Please understand that I | 
|  | never wanted to write this document, being grossly underqualified, | 
|  | but I always wanted to read it, and this was the only way. I | 
|  | simply explain some best practices, and give reading entry-points | 
|  | into the kernel sources. I avoid implementation details: that's | 
|  | what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful | 
|  | routines. This document assumes familiarity with C, and an | 
|  | understanding of what the kernel is, and how it is used. It was | 
|  | originally written for the 2.3 kernels, but nearly all of it | 
|  | applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly different". | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Writing an ALSA Driver" | 
|  | Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> | 
|  | URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html | 
|  | 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: "Programming Guide for Linux USB Device Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Detlef Fliegl. | 
|  | URL: http://usb.in.tum.de/usbdoc/ | 
|  | Keywords: USB, universal serial bus. | 
|  | Description: A must-read. From the Preface: "This document should | 
|  | give detailed information about the current state of the USB | 
|  | subsystem and its API for USB device drivers. The first section | 
|  | will deal with the basics of USB devices. You will learn about | 
|  | different types of devices and their properties. Going into detail | 
|  | you will see how USB devices communicate on the bus. The second | 
|  | section gives an overview of the Linux USB subsystem [2] and the | 
|  | device driver framework. Then the API and its data structures will | 
|  | be explained step by step. The last section of this document | 
|  | contains a reference of all API calls and their return codes". | 
|  | Notes: Beware: the main page states: "This document may not be | 
|  | published, printed or used in excerpts without explicit permission | 
|  | of the author". Fortunately, it may still be read... | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary" | 
|  | Author: various | 
|  | URL: http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/ | 
|  | 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: "Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO" | 
|  | Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty. | 
|  | Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking/ | 
|  | (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs}) | 
|  | Keywords: locks, locking, spinlock, semaphore, atomic, race | 
|  | condition, bottom halves, tasklets, softirqs. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all: document describing the | 
|  | locking system in the Linux Kernel either in uniprocessor or SMP | 
|  | systems. | 
|  | Notes: "It was originally written for the later (>2.3.47) 2.3 | 
|  | kernels, but most of it applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly | 
|  | different". Freely redistributable under the conditions of the GNU | 
|  | General Public License. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Global spinlock list and usage" | 
|  | Author: Rick Lindsley. | 
|  | URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock | 
|  | 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: "Porting Linux 2.0 Drivers To Linux 2.2: Changes and New | 
|  | Features " | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-05/gear_01.html | 
|  | Keywords: ports, porting. | 
|  | Description: Article from Linux Magazine on porting from 2.0 to | 
|  | 2.2 kernels. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Porting Device Drivers To Linux 2.2: part II" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/238 | 
|  | Keywords: ports, porting. | 
|  | Description: Second part on porting from 2.0 to 2.2 kernels. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power | 
|  | Macintosh" | 
|  | Author: Paul Mackerras. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261 | 
|  | Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "An Introduction to SCSI Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284 | 
|  | Keywords: SCSI, device, driver. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307 | 
|  | Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Writing Linux Mouse Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330 | 
|  | Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "More on Mouse Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356 | 
|  | Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O. | 
|  | Description: The title still says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Writing Video4linux Radio Driver" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381 | 
|  | Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406 | 
|  | 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: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429 | 
|  | Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, | 
|  | camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "PCI Management in Linux 2.2" | 
|  | Author: Alan Cox. | 
|  | URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/452 | 
|  | Keywords: PCI, bus, bus-mastering. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux 2.4 Kernel Internals" | 
|  | Author: Tigran Aivazian and Christoph Hellwig. | 
|  | URL: http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/lki.html | 
|  | Keywords: Linux, kernel, booting, SMB boot, VFS, page cache. | 
|  | Description: A little book used for a short training course. | 
|  | Covers building the kernel image, booting (including SMP bootup), | 
|  | process management, VFS and more. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and | 
|  | Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack." | 
|  | Author: Glenn Herrin. | 
|  | URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin | 
|  | 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: "Get those boards talking under Linux." | 
|  | Author: Alex Ivchenko. | 
|  | URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46968.html | 
|  | Keywords: data-acquisition boards, drivers, modules, interrupts, | 
|  | memory allocation. | 
|  | Description: Article written for people wishing to make their data | 
|  | acquisition boards work on their GNU/Linux machines. Gives a basic | 
|  | overview on writing drivers, from the naming of functions to | 
|  | interrupt handling. | 
|  | Notes: Two-parts article. Part II is at | 
|  | URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46998.html | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide" | 
|  | Author: David Hinds. | 
|  | URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html | 
|  | 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 NFSD Implementation" | 
|  | Author: Neil Brown. | 
|  | URL: | 
|  | http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/nfsd.html | 
|  | Keywords: knfsd, nfsd, NFS, RPC, lockd, mountd, statd. | 
|  | Description: The title says it all. | 
|  | Notes: Covers knfsd's version 1.4.7 (patch against 2.2.7 kernel). | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "A Linux vm README" | 
|  | Author: Kanoj Sarcar. | 
|  | URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html | 
|  | 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: "(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The | 
|  | definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system | 
|  | administrators." | 
|  | Author: pragmatic/THC. | 
|  | URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html | 
|  | 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. | 
|  |  | 
|  | BOOKS: (Not on-line) | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers" | 
|  | Author: Alessandro Rubini. | 
|  | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates. | 
|  | Date: 1998. | 
|  | Pages: 439. | 
|  | ISBN: 1-56592-292-1 | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition" | 
|  | Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet. | 
|  | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates. | 
|  | Date: 2001. | 
|  | Pages: 586. | 
|  | ISBN: 0-59600-008-1 | 
|  | Notes: Further information in | 
|  | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/ | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 3nd 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: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "Linux Kernel Internals" | 
|  | Author: Michael Beck. | 
|  | Publisher: Addison-Wesley. | 
|  | Date: 1997. | 
|  | ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition) | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" | 
|  | Author: Maurice J. Bach. | 
|  | Publisher: Prentice Hall. | 
|  | Date: 1986. | 
|  | Pages: 471. | 
|  | ISBN: 0-13-201757-1 | 
|  |  | 
|  | * 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 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: "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: "Unix internals -- the new frontiers" | 
|  | Author: Uresh Vahalia. | 
|  | Publisher: Prentice Hall. | 
|  | Date: 1996. | 
|  | Pages: 600. | 
|  | ISBN: 0-13-101908-2 | 
|  |  | 
|  | * 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: "Programming for the real world - POSIX.4" | 
|  | Author: Bill O. Gallmeister. | 
|  | Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.. | 
|  | Date: 1995. | 
|  | Pages: ???. | 
|  | 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 | 
|  | Multiprocesssing 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: linux/Documentation | 
|  | Author: Many. | 
|  | URL: Just look inside your kernel sources. | 
|  | Keywords: anything, DocBook. | 
|  | 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. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "Linux Source Driver" | 
|  | URL: http://lsd.linux.cz | 
|  | Keywords: Browsing source code. | 
|  | Description: "Linux Source Driver (LSD) is an application, which | 
|  | can make browsing source codes of Linux kernel easier than you can | 
|  | imagine. You can select between multiple versions of kernel (e.g. | 
|  | 0.01, 1.0.0, 2.0.33, 2.0.34pre13, 2.0.0, 2.1.101 etc.). With LSD | 
|  | you can search Linux kernel (fulltext, macros, types, functions | 
|  | and variables) and LSD can generate patches for you on the fly | 
|  | (files, directories or kernel)". | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "Linux Kernel Source Reference" | 
|  | Author: Thomas Graichen. | 
|  | URL: http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=96446640102205&w=4 | 
|  | Keywords: CVS, web, cvsweb, browsing source code. | 
|  | Description: Web interface to a CVS server with the kernel | 
|  | sources. "Here you can have a look at any file of the Linux kernel | 
|  | sources of any version starting from 1.0 up to the (daily updated) | 
|  | current version available. Also you can check the differences | 
|  | between two versions of a file". | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "Cross-Referencing Linux" | 
|  | URL: http://lxr.linux.no/source/ | 
|  | 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: http://lwn.net | 
|  | 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: "Kernel Traffic" | 
|  | URL: http://kt.earth.li/kernel-traffic/index.html | 
|  | Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list, weekly kernel news. | 
|  | Description: Weekly newsletter covering the most relevant | 
|  | discussions of the linux-kernel mailing list. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "CuTTiNG.eDGe.LiNuX" | 
|  | URL: http://edge.kernelnotes.org | 
|  | Keywords: changelist. | 
|  | Description: Site which provides the changelist for every kernel | 
|  | release. What's new, what's better, what's changed. Myrdraal reads | 
|  | the patches and describes them. Pointers to the patches are there, | 
|  | too. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "New linux-kernel Mailing List FAQ" | 
|  | URL: http://www.tux.org/lkml/ | 
|  | Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list FAQ. | 
|  | Description: linux-kernel is a mailing list for developers to | 
|  | communicate. This FAQ builds on the previous linux-kernel mailing | 
|  | list FAQ maintained by Frohwalt Egerer, who no longer maintains | 
|  | it. Read it to see how to join the mailing list. Dozens of | 
|  | interesting questions regarding the list, Linux, developers (who | 
|  | is ...?), terms (what is...?) are answered here too. Just read it. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "Linux Virtual File System" | 
|  | Author: Peter J. Braam. | 
|  | URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/ | 
|  | 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. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "Gary's Encyclopedia - The Linux Kernel" | 
|  | Author: Gary (I suppose...). | 
|  | URL: http://slencyclopedia.berlios.de/index.html | 
|  | Keywords: linux, community, everything! | 
|  | Description: Gary's Encyclopedia exists to allow the rapid finding | 
|  | of documentation and other information of interest to GNU/Linux | 
|  | users. It has about 4000 links to external pages in 150 major | 
|  | categories. This link is for kernel-specific links, documents, | 
|  | sites...  This list is now hosted by developer.Berlios.de, | 
|  | but seems not to have been updated since sometime in 1999. | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "The home page of Linux-MM" | 
|  | Author: The Linux-MM team. | 
|  | URL: http://linux-mm.org/ | 
|  | 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" | 
|  | URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org | 
|  | Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts. | 
|  | Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.openprojects.net. From the web | 
|  | page: "#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 Open Projects IRC Network, | 
|  | try irc.openprojects.net or irc.<country>.openprojects.net as your | 
|  | server and then /join #kernelnewbies". It also hosts articles, | 
|  | documents, FAQs... | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Name: "linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines" | 
|  | URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html | 
|  | URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html | 
|  | URL: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel | 
|  | URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel | 
|  | URL: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/ | 
|  | URL: http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/ | 
|  | 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 Sat 2005-NOV-19 |