Documentation/kernel-docs.txt

   1
   2     Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or
   3
   4                    Understanding the Linux Kernel.
   5
   6           Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche <jmseyas@dit.upm.es>
   7
   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  */
  12
  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.
  16
  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.
  21
  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.
  27
  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.
  31
  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.
  37
  38    Enjoy!
  39
  40      ON-LINE DOCS:
  41
  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.
  48
  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.
  64
  65      * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition"
  66        Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet.
  67        URL: http://www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book/index.html
  68        Keywords: device drivers, modules, debugging, memory, hardware,
  69        interrupt handling, char drivers, block drivers, kmod, mmap, DMA,
  70        buses.
  71        Description: O'Reilly's popular book, now also on-line under the
  72        GNU Free Documentation License.
  73        Notes: You can also buy it in paper-form from O'Reilly. See below
  74        under BOOKS (Not on-line).
  75
  76      * Title: "Conceptual Architecture of the Linux Kernel"
  77        Author: Ivan T. Bowman.
  78        URL: http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/
  79        Keywords: conceptual software architecture, extracted design,
  80        reverse engineering, system structure.
  81        Description: Conceptual software architecture of the Linux kernel,
  82        automatically extracted from the source code. Very detailed. Good
  83        figures. Gives good overall kernel understanding.
  84
  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/
  88        Keywords: concrete architecture, extracted design, reverse
  89        engineering, system structure, dependencies.
  90        Description: Concrete architecture 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...).
  94
  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/
  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.
 104
 105      * Title: "Overview of the Virtual File System"
 106        Author: Richard Gooch.
 107        URL: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/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.
 114
 115      * Title: "The Linux RAID-1, 4, 5 Code"
 116        Author: Ingo Molnar, Gadi Oxman and Miguel de Icaza.
 117        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2391
 118        Keywords: RAID, MD driver.
 119        Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
 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".
 124
 125      * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Modularized Device Drivers"
 126        Author: Alessandro Rubini.
 127        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1219
 128        Keywords: device driver, module, loading/unloading modules,
 129        allocating resources.
 130        Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
 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".
 137
 138      * Title: "Dynamic Kernels: Discovery"
 139        Author: Alessandro Rubini.
 140        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1220
 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 its
 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".
 149
 150      * Title: "The Devil's in the Details"
 151        Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz and Alessandro Rubini.
 152        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1221
 153        Keywords: read(), write(), select(), ioctl(), blocking/non
 154        blocking mode, interrupt handler.
 155        Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
 156        abstract: "This article, the third of four on writing character
 157        device drivers, introduces concepts of reading, writing, and using
 158        ioctl-calls".
 159
 160      * Title: "Dissecting Interrupts and Browsing DMA"
 161        Author: Alessandro Rubini and Georg v. Zezschwitz.
 162        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1222
 163        Keywords: interrupts, irqs, DMA, bottom halves, task queues.
 164        Description: Linux Journal Kernel Korner article. Here is its
 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".
 173
 174      * Title: "Device Drivers Concluded"
 175        Author: Georg v. Zezschwitz.
 176        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1287
 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".
 185
 186      * Title: "Network Buffers And Memory Management"
 187        Author: Alan Cox.
 188        URL: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=1312
 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".
 196
 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.
 206
 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".
 217
 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.gz
 222        Keywords: PCI, device, busmastering.
 223        Description: 6 pages tutorial on PCI programming under Linux.
 224        Gives the basic concepts on the architecture of the PCI subsystem,
 225        as long as basic functions and macros to read/write the devices
 226        and perform busmastering.
 227
 228      * Title: "Writing Character Device Driver for Linux"
 229        Author: R. Baruch and C. Schroeter.
 230        URL:
 231        ftp://ftp.llp.fu-berlin.de/pub/linux/LINUX-LAB/whitepapers/drivers.ps.gz
 232        Keywords: character device drivers, I/O, signals, DMA, accessing
 233        ports in user space, kernel environment.
 234        Description: 68 pages paper on writing character drivers. A little
 235        bit old (1.993, 1.994) although still useful.
 236
 237      * Title: "Design and Implementation of the Second Extended
 238        Filesystem"
 239        Author: Rémy Card, Theodore Ts'o, Stephen Tweedie.
 240        URL: http://web.mit.edu/tytso/www/linux/ext2intro.html
 241        Keywords: ext2, linux fs history, inode, directory, link, devices,
 242        VFS, physical structure, performance, benchmarks, ext2fs library,
 243        ext2fs tools, e2fsck.
 244        Description: Paper written by three of the top ext2 hackers.
 245        Covers Linux filesystems history, ext2 motivation, ext2 features,
 246        design, physical structure on disk, performance, benchmarks,
 247        e2fsck's passes description... A must read!
 248        Notes: This paper was first published in the Proceedings of the
 249        First Dutch International Symposium on Linux, ISBN 90-367-0385-9.
 250
 251      * Title: "Analysis of the Ext2fs structure"
 252        Author: Louis-Dominique Dubeau.
 253        URL: http://www.nondot.org/sabre/os/files/FileSystems/ext2fs/
 254        Keywords: ext2, filesystem, ext2fs.
 255        Description: Description of ext2's blocks, directories, inodes,
 256        bitmaps, invariants...
 257
 258      * Title: "Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem"
 259        Author: Stephen C. Tweedie.
 260        URL:
 261        ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/journal-design.ps.gz
 262        Keywords: ext3, journaling.
 263        Description: Excellent 8-pages paper explaining the journaling
 264        capabilities added to ext2 by the author, showing different
 265        problems faced and the alternatives chosen.
 266
 267      * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.0 to 2.2"
 268        Author: Richard Gooch.
 269        URL:
 270        http://www.linuxhq.com/guides/LKMPG/node28.html
 271        Keywords: 2.2, changes.
 272        Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
 273        from 2.0.x to 2.2.x.
 274
 275      * Title: "Kernel API changes from 2.2 to 2.4"
 276        Author: Richard Gooch.
 277        Keywords: 2.4, changes.
 278        Description: Kernel functions/structures/variables which changed
 279        from 2.2.x to 2.4.x.
 280
 281      * Title: "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide"
 282        Author: Ori Pomerantz.
 283        URL: http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/index.html
 284        Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
 285        interrupt handlers .
 286        Description: Very nice 92 pages GPL book on the topic of modules
 287        programming. Lots of examples.
 288
 289      * Title: "I/O Event Handling Under Linux"
 290        Author: Richard Gooch.
 291        Keywords: IO, I/O, select(2), poll(2), FDs, aio_read(2), readiness
 292        event queues.
 293        Description: From the Introduction: "I/O Event handling is about
 294        how your Operating System allows you to manage a large number of
 295        open files (file descriptors in UNIX/POSIX, or FDs) in your
 296        application. You want the OS to notify you when FDs become active
 297        (have data ready to be read or are ready for writing). Ideally you
 298        want a mechanism that is scalable. This means a large number of
 299        inactive FDs cost very little in memory and CPU time to manage".
 300
 301      * Title: "The Kernel Hacking HOWTO"
 302        Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
 303        Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-hacking.tmpl
 304        (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
 305        Keywords: HOWTO, kernel contexts, deadlock, locking, modules,
 306        symbols, return conventions.
 307        Description: From the Introduction: "Please understand that I
 308        never wanted to write this document, being grossly underqualified,
 309        but I always wanted to read it, and this was the only way. I
 310        simply explain some best practices, and give reading entry-points
 311        into the kernel sources. I avoid implementation details: that's
 312        what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful
 313        routines. This document assumes familiarity with C, and an
 314        understanding of what the kernel is, and how it is used. It was
 315        originally written for the 2.3 kernels, but nearly all of it
 316        applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly different".
 317
 318      * Title: "Writing an ALSA Driver"
 319        Author: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
 320        URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/writing-an-alsa-driver/index.html
 321        Keywords: ALSA, sound, soundcard, driver, lowlevel, hardware.
 322        Description: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for developers,
 323        both at kernel and user-level sides. ALSA is the Linux kernel
 324        sound architecture in the 2.6 kernel version.
 325
 326      * Title: "Programming Guide for Linux USB Device Drivers"
 327        Author: Detlef Fliegl.
 328        URL: http://usb.in.tum.de/usbdoc/
 329        Keywords: USB, universal serial bus.
 330        Description: A must-read. From the Preface: "This document should
 331        give detailed information about the current state of the USB
 332        subsystem and its API for USB device drivers. The first section
 333        will deal with the basics of USB devices. You will learn about
 334        different types of devices and their properties. Going into detail
 335        you will see how USB devices communicate on the bus. The second
 336        section gives an overview of the Linux USB subsystem [2] and the
 337        device driver framework. Then the API and its data structures will
 338        be explained step by step. The last section of this document
 339        contains a reference of all API calls and their return codes".
 340        Notes: Beware: the main page states: "This document may not be
 341        published, printed or used in excerpts without explicit permission
 342        of the author". Fortunately, it may still be read...
 343
 344      * Title: "Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary"
 345        Author: various
 346        URL: http://kernelnewbies.org/glossary/
 347        Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
 348        Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
 349        a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
 350        during discussion of the Linux kernel".
 351
 352      * Title: "Linux Kernel Locking HOWTO"
 353        Author: Various Talented People, and Rusty.
 354        Location: in kernel tree, Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
 355        (must be built as "make {htmldocs | psdocs | pdfdocs})
 356        Keywords: locks, locking, spinlock, semaphore, atomic, race
 357        condition, bottom halves, tasklets, softirqs.
 358        Description: The title says it all: document describing the
 359        locking system in the Linux Kernel either in uniprocessor or SMP
 360        systems.
 361        Notes: "It was originally written for the later (>2.3.47) 2.3
 362        kernels, but most of it applies to 2.2 too; 2.0 is slightly
 363        different". Freely redistributable under the conditions of the GNU
 364        General Public License.
 365
 366      * Title: "Global spinlock list and usage"
 367        Author: Rick Lindsley.
 368        URL: http://lse.sourceforge.net/lockhier/global-spin-lock
 369        Keywords: spinlock.
 370        Description: This is an attempt to document both the existence and
 371        usage of the spinlocks in the Linux 2.4.5 kernel. Comprehensive
 372        list of spinlocks showing when they are used, which functions
 373        access them, how each lock is acquired, under what conditions it
 374        is held, whether interrupts can occur or not while it is held...
 375
 376      * Title: "Porting Linux 2.0 Drivers To Linux 2.2: Changes and New
 377        Features "
 378        Author: Alan Cox.
 379        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-05/gear_01.html
 380        Keywords: ports, porting.
 381        Description: Article from Linux Magazine on porting from 2.0 to
 382        2.2 kernels.
 383
 384      * Title: "Porting Device Drivers To Linux 2.2: part II"
 385        Author: Alan Cox.
 386        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/238
 387        Keywords: ports, porting.
 388        Description: Second part on porting from 2.0 to 2.2 kernels.
 389
 390      * Title: "How To Make Sure Your Driver Will Work On The Power
 391        Macintosh"
 392        Author: Paul Mackerras.
 393        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/261
 394        Keywords: Mac, Power Macintosh, porting, drivers, compatibility.
 395        Description: The title says it all.
 396
 397      * Title: "An Introduction to SCSI Drivers"
 398        Author: Alan Cox.
 399        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/284
 400        Keywords: SCSI, device, driver.
 401        Description: The title says it all.
 402
 403      * Title: "Advanced SCSI Drivers And Other Tales"
 404        Author: Alan Cox.
 405        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/307
 406        Keywords: SCSI, device, driver, advanced.
 407        Description: The title says it all.
 408
 409      * Title: "Writing Linux Mouse Drivers"
 410        Author: Alan Cox.
 411        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/330
 412        Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm.
 413        Description: The title says it all.
 414
 415      * Title: "More on Mouse Drivers"
 416        Author: Alan Cox.
 417        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/356
 418        Keywords: mouse, driver, gpm, races, asynchronous I/O.
 419        Description: The title still says it all.
 420
 421      * Title: "Writing Video4linux Radio Driver"
 422        Author: Alan Cox.
 423        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/381
 424        Keywords: video4linux, driver, radio, radio devices.
 425        Description: The title says it all.
 426
 427      * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 1: Video-Capture Device"
 428        Author: Alan Cox.
 429        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/406
 430        Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
 431        camera driver.
 432        Description: The title says it all.
 433
 434      * Title: "Video4linux Drivers, Part 2: Video-capture Devices"
 435        Author: Alan Cox.
 436        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/429
 437        Keywords: video4linux, driver, video capture, capture devices,
 438        camera driver, control, query capabilities, capability, facility.
 439        Description: The title says it all.
 440
 441      * Title: "PCI Management in Linux 2.2"
 442        Author: Alan Cox.
 443        URL: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/452
 444        Keywords: PCI, bus, bus-mastering.
 445        Description: The title says it all.
 446
 447      * Title: "Linux 2.4 Kernel Internals"
 448        Author: Tigran Aivazian and Christoph Hellwig.
 449        URL: http://www.moses.uklinux.net/patches/lki.html
 450        Keywords: Linux, kernel, booting, SMB boot, VFS, page cache.
 451        Description: A little book used for a short training course.
 452        Covers building the kernel image, booting (including SMP bootup),
 453        process management, VFS and more.
 454
 455      * Title: "Linux IP Networking. A Guide to the Implementation and
 456        Modification of the Linux Protocol Stack."
 457        Author: Glenn Herrin.
 458        URL: http://www.cs.unh.edu/cnrg/gherrin
 459        Keywords: network, networking, protocol, IP, UDP, TCP, connection,
 460        socket, receiving, transmitting, forwarding, routing, packets,
 461        modules, /proc, sk_buff, FIB, tags.
 462        Description: Excellent paper devoted to the Linux IP Networking,
 463        explaining anything from the kernel's to the user space
 464        configuration tools' code. Very good to get a general overview of
 465        the kernel networking implementation and understand all steps
 466        packets follow from the time they are received at the network
 467        device till they are delivered to applications. The studied kernel
 468        code is from 2.2.14 version. Provides code for a working packet
 469        dropper example.
 470
 471      * Title: "Get those boards talking under Linux."
 472        Author: Alex Ivchenko.
 473        URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46968.html
 474        Keywords: data-acquisition boards, drivers, modules, interrupts,
 475        memory allocation.
 476        Description: Article written for people wishing to make their data
 477        acquisition boards work on their GNU/Linux machines. Gives a basic
 478        overview on writing drivers, from the naming of functions to
 479        interrupt handling.
 480        Notes: Two-parts article. Part II is at
 481        URL: http://www.edn.com/article/CA46998.html
 482
 483      * Title: "Linux PCMCIA Programmer's Guide"
 484        Author: David Hinds.
 485        URL: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-PROG.html
 486        Keywords: PCMCIA.
 487        Description: "This document describes how to write kernel device
 488        drivers for the Linux PCMCIA Card Services interface. It also
 489        describes how to write user-mode utilities for communicating with
 490        Card Services.
 491
 492      * Title: "The Linux Kernel NFSD Implementation"
 493        Author: Neil Brown.
 494        URL:
 495        http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/nfsd.html
 496        Keywords: knfsd, nfsd, NFS, RPC, lockd, mountd, statd.
 497        Description: The title says it all.
 498        Notes: Covers knfsd's version 1.4.7 (patch against 2.2.7 kernel).
 499
 500      * Title: "A Linux vm README"
 501        Author: Kanoj Sarcar.
 502        URL: http://kos.enix.org/pub/linux-vmm.html
 503        Keywords: virtual memory, mm, pgd, vma, page, page flags, page
 504        cache, swap cache, kswapd.
 505        Description: Telegraphic, short descriptions and definitions
 506        relating the Linux virtual memory implementation.
 507
 508      * Title: "(nearly) Complete Linux Loadable Kernel Modules. The
 509        definitive guide for hackers, virus coders and system
 510        administrators."
 511        Author: pragmatic/THC.
 512        URL: http://packetstormsecurity.org/docs/hack/LKM_HACKING.html
 513        Keywords: syscalls, intercept, hide, abuse, symbol table.
 514        Description: Interesting paper on how to abuse the Linux kernel in
 515        order to intercept and modify syscalls, make
 516        files/directories/processes invisible, become root, hijack ttys,
 517        write kernel modules based virus... and solutions for admins to
 518        avoid all those abuses.
 519        Notes: For 2.0.x kernels. Gives guidances to port it to 2.2.x
 520        kernels.
 521
 522      BOOKS: (Not on-line)
 523
 524      * Title: "Linux Device Drivers"
 525        Author: Alessandro Rubini.
 526        Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
 527        Date: 1998.
 528        Pages: 439.
 529        ISBN: 1-56592-292-1
 530
 531      * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 2nd Edition"
 532        Author: Alessandro Rubini and Jonathan Corbet.
 533        Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
 534        Date: 2001.
 535        Pages: 586.
 536        ISBN: 0-59600-008-1
 537        Notes: Further information in
 538        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive2/
 539
 540      * Title: "Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition"
 541        Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
 542        Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
 543        Date: 2005.
 544        Pages: 636.
 545        ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
 546        Notes: Further information in
 547        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
 548        PDF format, URL: http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
 549
 550      * Title: "Linux Kernel Internals"
 551        Author: Michael Beck.
 552        Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
 553        Date: 1997.
 554        ISBN: 0-201-33143-8 (second edition)
 555
 556      * Title: "The Design of the UNIX Operating System"
 557        Author: Maurice J. Bach.
 558        Publisher: Prentice Hall.
 559        Date: 1986.
 560        Pages: 471.
 561        ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
 562
 563      * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD UNIX
 564        Operating System"
 565        Author: Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J.
 566        Karels, John S. Quarterman.
 567        Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
 568        Date: 1989 (reprinted with corrections on October, 1990).
 569        ISBN: 0-201-06196-1
 570
 571      * Title: "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD UNIX
 572        Operating System"
 573        Author: Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels,
 574        John S. Quarterman.
 575        Publisher: Addison-Wesley.
 576        Date: 1996.
 577        ISBN: 0-201-54979-4
 578
 579      * Title: "Programmation Linux 2.0 API systeme et fonctionnement du
 580        noyau"
 581        Author: Remy Card, Eric Dumas, Franck Mevel.
 582        Publisher: Eyrolles.
 583        Date: 1997.
 584        Pages: 520.
 585        ISBN: 2-212-08932-5
 586        Notes: French.
 587
 588      * Title: "Unix internals -- the new frontiers"
 589        Author: Uresh Vahalia.
 590        Publisher: Prentice Hall.
 591        Date: 1996.
 592        Pages: 600.
 593        ISBN: 0-13-101908-2
 594
 595      * Title: "Programming for the real world - POSIX.4"
 596        Author: Bill O. Gallmeister.
 597        Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc..
 598        Date: 1995.
 599        Pages: ???.
 600        ISBN: I-56592-074-0
 601        Notes: Though not being directly about Linux, Linux aims to be
 602        POSIX. Good reference.
 603
 604      * Title:  "UNIX  Systems  for  Modern Architectures: Symmetric
 605        Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers"
 606        Author: Curt Schimmel.
 607        Publisher: Addison Wesley.
 608        Date: June, 1994.
 609        Pages: 432.
 610        ISBN: 0-201-63338-8
 611
 612      MISCELLANEOUS:
 613
 614      * Name: linux/Documentation
 615        Author: Many.
 616        URL: Just look inside your kernel sources.
 617        Keywords: anything, DocBook.
 618        Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
 619        inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
 620        (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
 621        be more up to date than the web version.
 622
 623      * Name: "Linux Kernel Source Reference"
 624        Author: Thomas Graichen.
 625        URL: http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=96446640102205&w=4
 626        Keywords: CVS, web, cvsweb, browsing source code.
 627        Description: Web interface to a CVS server with the kernel
 628        sources. "Here you can have a look at any file of the Linux kernel
 629        sources of any version starting from 1.0 up to the (daily updated)
 630        current version available. Also you can check the differences
 631        between two versions of a file".
 632
 633      * Name: "Cross-Referencing Linux"
 634        URL: http://lxr.linux.no/source/
 635        Keywords: Browsing source code.
 636        Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
 637        Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
 638        where they are defined and where they are used.
 639
 640      * Name: "Linux Weekly News"
 641        URL: http://lwn.net
 642        Keywords: latest kernel news.
 643        Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
 644        summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
 645        produced during the week. Published every Thursday.
 646
 647      * Name: "Kernel Traffic"
 648        URL: http://kt.earth.li/kernel-traffic/index.html
 649        Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list, weekly kernel news.
 650        Description: Weekly newsletter covering the most relevant
 651        discussions of the linux-kernel mailing list.
 652
 653      * Name: "CuTTiNG.eDGe.LiNuX"
 654        URL: http://edge.kernelnotes.org
 655        Keywords: changelist.
 656        Description: Site which provides the changelist for every kernel
 657        release. What's new, what's better, what's changed. Myrdraal reads
 658        the patches and describes them. Pointers to the patches are there,
 659        too.
 660
 661      * Name: "New linux-kernel Mailing List FAQ"
 662        URL: http://www.tux.org/lkml/
 663        Keywords: linux-kernel mailing list FAQ.
 664        Description: linux-kernel is a mailing list for developers to
 665        communicate. This FAQ builds on the previous linux-kernel mailing
 666        list FAQ maintained by Frohwalt Egerer, who no longer maintains
 667        it. Read it to see how to join the mailing list. Dozens of
 668        interesting questions regarding the list, Linux, developers (who
 669        is ...?), terms (what is...?) are answered here too. Just read it.
 670
 671      * Name: "Linux Virtual File System"
 672        Author: Peter J. Braam.
 673        URL: http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/doc/talks/linuxvfs/
 674        Keywords: slides, VFS, inode, superblock, dentry, dcache.
 675        Description: Set of slides, presumably from a presentation on the
 676        Linux VFS layer. Covers version 2.1.x, with dentries and the
 677        dcache.
 678
 679      * Name: "Gary's Encyclopedia - The Linux Kernel"
 680        Author: Gary (I suppose...).
 681        URL: http://slencyclopedia.berlios.de/index.html
 682        Keywords: linux, community, everything!
 683        Description: Gary's Encyclopedia exists to allow the rapid finding
 684        of documentation and other information of interest to GNU/Linux
 685        users. It has about 4000 links to external pages in 150 major
 686        categories. This link is for kernel-specific links, documents,
 687        sites...  This list is now hosted by developer.Berlios.de,
 688        but seems not to have been updated since sometime in 1999.
 689
 690      * Name: "The home page of Linux-MM"
 691        Author: The Linux-MM team.
 692        URL: http://linux-mm.org/
 693        Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
 694        mailing list.
 695        Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
 696        Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
 697        it if you are interested in memory management development!
 698
 699      * Name: "Kernel Newbies IRC Channel"
 700        URL: http://www.kernelnewbies.org
 701        Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
 702        Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.openprojects.net. From the web
 703        page: "#kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
 704        kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
 705        learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
 706        professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
 707        people. [...] #kernelnewbies is on the Open Projects IRC Network,
 708        try irc.openprojects.net or irc.<country>.openprojects.net as your
 709        server and then /join #kernelnewbies". It also hosts articles,
 710        documents, FAQs...
 711
 712      * Name: "linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines"
 713        URL: http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
 714        URL: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
 715        URL: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel
 716        URL: http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
 717        URL: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/
 718        URL: http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/
 719        Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
 720        Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
 721        you have a better/another one, please let me know.
 722      _________________________________________________________________
 723
 724    Document last updated on Sat 2005-NOV-19