Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel

Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>

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!

Note

The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its published date, from the newest to the oldest.

Docs at the Linux Kernel tree

The DocBook books should be built with make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs}. The Sphinx books should be built with make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}.

  • Name: linux/Documentation

    Author:Many.
    Location:Documentation/
    Keywords:text files, Sphinx, 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.
  • Title: The Kernel Hacking HOWTO

    Author:Various Talented People, and Rusty.
    Location:Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking.tmpl
    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: Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO

    Author:Various Talented People, and Rusty.
    Location:Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
    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.

On-line docs

  • Title: Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary

    Author:various
    URL:http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/
    Date:rolling version
    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: Tracing the Way of Data in a TCP Connection through the Linux Kernel

    Author:Richard Sailer
    URL:https://archive.org/details/linux_kernel_data_flow_short_paper
    Date:2016
    Keywords:Linux Kernel Networking, TCP, tracing, ftrace
    Description:A seminar paper explaining ftrace and how to use it for understanding linux kernel internals, illustrated at tracing the way of a TCP packet through the kernel.
    Abstract:This short paper outlines the usage of ftrace a tracing framework as a tool to understand a running Linux system. Having obtained a trace-log a kernel hacker can read and understand source code more determined and with context. In a detailed example this approach is demonstrated in tracing and the way of data in a TCP Connection through the kernel. Finally this trace-log is used as base for more a exact conceptual exploration and description of the Linux TCP/IP implementation.
  • Title: On submitting kernel Patches

    Author:Andi Kleen
    URL:http://halobates.de/on-submitting-kernel-patches.pdf
    Date:2008
    Keywords:patches, review process, types of submissions, basic rules, case studies
    Description:This paper gives several experience values on what types of patches there are and how likley they get merged.
    Abstract:[...]. This paper examines some common problems for submitting larger changes and some strategies to avoid problems.
  • Title: Overview of the Virtual File System

    Author:Richard Gooch.
    URL:http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
    Date:2007
    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: Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition

    Author:Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman
    URL:http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
    Date:2005
    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.
    note:You can also purchase a copy from O’Reilly or elsewhere.
  • Title: Writing an ALSA Driver

    Author:Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
    URL:http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
    Date:2005
    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: Linux PCMCIA Programmer’s Guide

    Author:David Hinds.
    URL:http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
    Date:2003
    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: Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide

    Author:Ori Pomerantz.
    URL:http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
    Date:2001
    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: Global spinlock list and usage

    Author:Rick Lindsley.
    URL:http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
    Date:2001
    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: A Linux vm README

    Author:Kanoj Sarcar.
    URL:http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html
    Date:2001
    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: Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device

    Author:Alan Cox.
    URL:http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406
    Date:2000
    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
    Date:2000
    Keywords:video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices, camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
    Description:The title says it all.
  • 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
    Date:2000
    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: How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power Macintosh

    Author:Paul Mackerras.
    URL:http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261
    Date:1999
    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
    Date:1999
    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
    Date:1999
    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
    Date:1999
    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
    Date:1999
    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
    Date:1999
    Keywords:video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
    Description:The title says it all.
  • Title: I/O Event Handling Under Linux

    Author:Richard Gooch.
    URL:http://web.mit.edu/~yandros/doc/io-events.html
    Date:1999
    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: (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
    Date:1999
    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.
  • Name: Linux Virtual File System

    Author:Peter J. Braam.
    URL:http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
    Date:1998
    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.
  • Title: The Venus kernel interface

    Author:Peter J. Braam.
    URL:http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/html/kernel-venus-protocol.html
    Date:1998
    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: 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
    Date:1998
    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: 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
    Date:1997
    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: Linux Kernel Hackers’ Guide

    Author:Michael K. Johnson.
    URL:http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/khg.html
    Date:1997
    Keywords:device drivers, files, VFS, kernel interface, character vs block devices, hardware interrupts, scsi, DMA, access to user memory, memory allocation, timers.
    Description:A guide designed to help you get up to speed on the concepts that are not intuitevly obvious, and to document the internal structures of Linux.
  • Title: Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers

    Author:Alessandro Rubini.
    URL:http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219
    Date:1996
    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
    Date:1996
    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
    Date:1996
    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
    Date:1996
    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
    Date:1996
    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
    Date:1996
    Keywords:sk_buffs, network devices, protocol/link layer variables, network devices flags, transmit, receive, configuration, multicast.
    Description:Linux Journal Kernel Korner.
    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: Analysis of the Ext2fs structure

    Author:Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
    URL:http://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS2002/fs-ext2/
    Date:1994
    Keywords:ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
    Description:Description of ext2’s blocks, directories, inodes, bitmaps, invariants...

Published books

  • Title: Linux Treiber entwickeln

    Author:Jürgen Quade, Eva-Katharina Kunst
    Publisher:dpunkt.verlag
    Date:Oct 2015 (4th edition)
    Pages:688
    ISBN:978-3-86490-288-8
    Note:German. The third edition from 2011 is much cheaper and still quite up-to-date.
  • Title: Linux Kernel Networking: Implementation and Theory

    Author:Rami Rosen
    Publisher:Apress
    Date:December 22, 2013
    Pages:648
    ISBN:978-1430261964
  • Title: Embedded Linux Primer: A practical Real-World Approach, 2nd Edition

    Author:Christopher Hallinan
    Publisher:Pearson
    Date:November, 2010
    Pages:656
    ISBN:978-0137017836
  • Title: Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition

    Author:Robert Love
    Publisher:Addison-Wesley
    Date:July, 2010
    Pages:440
    ISBN:978-0672329463
  • Title: Essential Linux Device Drivers

    Author:Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran
    Published:Prentice Hall
    Date:April, 2008
    Pages:744
    ISBN:978-0132396554
  • Title: Linux Device Drivers, 3rd 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: 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: 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: Unix internals – the new frontiers

    Author:Uresh Vahalia
    Publisher:Prentice Hall
    Date:1996
    Pages:600
    ISBN:0-13-101908-2
  • Title: Programming for the real world - POSIX.4

    Author:Bill O. Gallmeister
    Publisher:O’Reilly & Associates, Inc
    Date:1995
    Pages:552
    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 Multiprocessing 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: Cross-Referencing Linux

    URL:http://lxr.free-electrons.com/
    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: 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 and Website

    URL:http://www.kernelnewbies.org
    Keywords:IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
    Description:#kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net. #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 OFTC IRC Network. Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies. The kernelnewbies website 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://groups.google.com/group/mlist.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 Tue 2016-Sep-20

This document is based on:
http://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html