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From: greg@kroah.com (Greg KH)
To: kernelnewbies@lists.kernelnewbies.org
Subject: How do _you_ read the linux source?
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:51:54 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20150420145154.GC7261@kroah.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <fa949b690a18215d0551df1eab7edf1d.squirrel@webmail.simplecpu.com>

On Sun, Apr 19, 2015 at 06:57:49PM -0700, r00nk at simplecpu.com wrote:
> 	The problem a lot of newbies are having is in 'separating the trunk
> from the leaves.' So my question is this: Experienced kernel developers, how
> do _you_ read source code? How do you separate the trunk from the leaves?
> What do you do when you read code you're not familiar with? How do you learn?
> What's your algorithm?

I print out the source code, using a huge font as to take up lots of
space, bind it all together, and relax in a bathtub full of warm bubbles
and drink wine while reading the code and scribbling comments in the
margins with a colored soap shard.  After falling asleep due to the wine
and warm bath, wake up in a few hours freezing cold, surrounded by soggy
pieces of paper with all of the ink washed off.  But my brain has
absorbed it all and I can then resume coding from where I left off.

</sarcasm>

I use vgrep[1], that's it, no ctags needed.

Reality isn't romantic, there is no magic solution to hard tasks.

greg k-h

[1] https://github.com/vrothberg/vgrep

  parent reply	other threads:[~2015-04-20 14:51 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-04-20  1:57 How do _you_ read the linux source? r00nk at simplecpu.com
2015-04-20  3:11 ` nick
2015-04-20  5:45   ` Christoffer Holmstedt
2015-04-20 12:47     ` nick
2015-04-20 15:45     ` Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu
2015-04-20 12:04   ` Robert P. J. Day
2015-04-21  0:46     ` r00nk at simplecpu.com
2015-04-21 16:45       ` John de la Garza
2015-04-21  1:08     ` Miles Fidelman
2015-04-20 14:51 ` Greg KH [this message]
2015-04-21  0:16   ` Milton Krutt
2015-04-21  0:38     ` Ruben Safir
2015-04-20 16:32 ` Jeff Haran
2015-04-20 16:43   ` Ruben Safir

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