Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[Eric Altendorf]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for reading 
material to introduce the Linux kernel, design & code.

I haven't found any online documentation that is as complete and 
introductory as I like (obviously the kernel code itself is complete, 
but... :-)

I've seen one book: Linux Kernel Programming by Beck (and about 6 
other authors).  It looks good, but before I shell out $50 I'd like 
to know if there are any other options.  Any suggestions would be 
appreciated.

Thanks, Eric

-- 
"First they ignore you.  Then they laugh at you.
 Then they fight you.  And then you win."             -Gandhi

Re: Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[Jonathan Corbet]

> I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for reading 
> material to introduce the Linux kernel, design & code.

I can't let this go by without recommending "Linux Device Drivers", which
covers much of the kernel API.  Available at your favorite bookstore, or
online (under the FDL) at: http://www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book/index.html.
Of course, I'm a little biased on that one...

Other worthwhile books include "Understanding the Linux Kernel," also
published by O'Reilly (though it's a little behind the times now), and
"ia-64 Linux Kernel," which is well worthwhile even if you have no interest
in the ia-64 architecture.

jon

Jonathan Corbet
Executive editor, LWN.net
corbet@lwn.net

Re: Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[David Lloyd]

Jon et al,

> Other worthwhile books include "Understanding the Linux Kernel," also
> published by O'Reilly (though it's a little behind the times now), and
> "ia-64 Linux Kernel," which is well worthwhile even if you have no
> interest in the ia-64 architecture.

Nonetheless even though "Understanding the Linux Kernel" is behind the
times it seems to give enough information for informed programmers
(or hacker ;-P) to find their way around the source.


DSL

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Re: Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[Jonathan Corbet]

> Nonetheless even though "Understanding the Linux Kernel" is behind the
> times it seems to give enough information for informed programmers
> (or hacker ;-P) to find their way around the source.

Indeed - I *did* recommend it for a reason...

jon

Re: Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[dijital1]

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I'd also recommend "Unix Internals: The New Frontiers". The sections on
memory management, particularly the slab allocator is worth understand
seeing as how the linux's current slab allocator is based on the concepts
discussed in that book.

Ron Henry

"the illiterate of the future are not those who can neither read
or write; but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn..."

On Sun, 20 Oct 2002, it was written:

> Hi Eric,
>
> > I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for reading
> > material to introduce the Linux kernel, design & code.
>
> I recommend you the book 'Understanding the Linux kernel' from O'Reilly,
> though it's mainly based in 2.2 kernel, with some comments on new features
> in 2.4, still contains a lot o good information about how the kernel 'guts' ;)
> work. A book that you shouldn't miss.
>
> --
> David Gómez
>
> "The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of
>  whether submarines can swim." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra
> -
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Re: Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[David =?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=F3mez=22?= <david@pleyades.net>]

Hi Eric,

> I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for reading 
> material to introduce the Linux kernel, design & code.

I recommend you the book 'Understanding the Linux kernel' from O'Reilly,
though it's mainly based in 2.2 kernel, with some comments on new features
in 2.4, still contains a lot o good information about how the kernel 'guts' ;)
work. A book that you shouldn't miss.

-- 
David Gómez

"The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of
 whether submarines can swim." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Re: Question: Favorite Linux kernel book?

[Alan Cox]

On Thu, 2002-10-17 at 18:33, Eric Altendorf wrote:
> I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for reading 
> material to introduce the Linux kernel, design & code.
> 
> I haven't found any online documentation that is as complete and 
> introductory as I like (obviously the kernel code itself is complete, 
> but... :-)

Also two other books - Linux device drivers is good. If you are new to
kernels and hardware the best book on Linux is in some ways Andy
Tanenbaum's Operating Systems. Its not about Linux but its one of the
best intros to the whole topic.