RE: vm documentation

RE: vm documentation

[Yan, Noah]

Is there any resources(such as programming guide or referrence book) for the C language grammar in gcc, especially for Kernel? Such as what is _init, 1<<12, asmlinkage, etc?

Thanks
Noah

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Love [mailto:rml@tech9.net]
Sent: 2001?11?2? 15:23
To: David Chow
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: vm documentation


On Fri, 2001-11-02 at 01:53, David Chow wrote:
> Is there any documentation of the recent changes of the vm in the linux
> kernel? Also, is there any source of documentation to get start with the
> linux kernel hacking? It is hard for people to getting start to
> contribute since is is obviously lack of documentation of the kernel
> sources... Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

See http://kernelnewbies.org for some introduction to kernel hacking...

The books "Understanding the Linux Kernel" and "Linux Device Drivers",
both published by O'Reilly, are good starts.

As for the VM, there doesn't seem to be _anything_ yet.  Hopefully soon?

	Robert Love

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Re: vm documentation

[Randy.Dunlap]

"Yan, Noah" wrote:
> 
> Is there any resources(such as programming guide or referrence book) for the C language grammar in gcc, especially for Kernel? Such as what is _init, 1<<12, asmlinkage, etc?
> 
> 
> From: Robert Love [mailto:rml@tech9.net]
> 
> See http://kernelnewbies.org for some introduction to kernel hacking...


Noah,
Lots of your questions are appropriate for kernelnewbies.org .

__init (with 2 underscores) is defined in the header file
  linux/include/linux/init.h
It marks a code (text) segment as being discardable after boot/init
for code that is not in a module (i.e., it is compiled into the
kernel boot image).

"1<<12" is C.  Take the value 1, shift it left 12 times (bits),
giving 0x1000.

~Randy

VM documentation

[Mel Gorman]

Yet another release in the usual places. The main reasons for the release
is a correction on the subject of vmalloc more than anything else and the
rearrangement of chapters to present the material in more logical order. I
am hoping there will only be one, or at most two more releases after this
before it's done and dusted (famous last words).

Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager
PDF:  http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel/projects/vm/guide/pdf/understand.pdf
HTML: http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel/projects/vm/guide/html/understand
Text: http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel/projects/vm/guide/text/understand.txt

Code Commentary
PDF:  http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel/projects/vm/guide/pdf/code.pdf
HTML: http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel/projects/vm/guide/html/code
Text: http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel/projects/vm/guide/text/code.txt

Few important reasons for this release but still, it brings me closer to
just finalising it and releasing it fully.

1. Chapters have been rearranged a little so there should be no forward
   references left and the material is handled in an "easier" order for
   understanding it. Each chapter now has an introduction as well so it
   isn't as clunky to read at parts

2. I messed up the explanation of vmalloc by saying pages are allocated at
   fault time rather than saying that it is just the page tables for the
   faulting process are synced with the master page tables. Pretty serious
   mistake so anyone looking at vmalloc stuff should re-read

3. Minor correction on the explanation of try_to_free_pages() in the code
   commentary. I now explain why it only frees up pages in ZONE_NORMAL

4. Loads of polish like font and grammar corrections. Minor mistake in
   slab where I said /proc/cpuinfo instead of /proc/slabinfo and a few
   others like that

-- 
Mel Gorman
MSc Student, University of Limerick
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~mel

vm documentation

[David Chow]

Dear all,

Is there any documentation of the recent changes of the vm in the linux
kernel? Also, is there any source of documentation to get start with the
linux kernel hacking? It is hard for people to getting start to
contribute since is is obviously lack of documentation of the kernel
sources... Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

regards,

DC

Re: vm documentation

[Robert Love]

On Fri, 2001-11-02 at 01:53, David Chow wrote:
> Is there any documentation of the recent changes of the vm in the linux
> kernel? Also, is there any source of documentation to get start with the
> linux kernel hacking? It is hard for people to getting start to
> contribute since is is obviously lack of documentation of the kernel
> sources... Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

See http://kernelnewbies.org for some introduction to kernel hacking...

The books "Understanding the Linux Kernel" and "Linux Device Drivers",
both published by O'Reilly, are good starts.

As for the VM, there doesn't seem to be _anything_ yet.  Hopefully soon?

	Robert Love

Re: vm documentation

[Neil Brown]

On Friday November 2, davidchow@rcn.com.hk wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> Is there any documentation of the recent changes of the vm in the linux
> kernel? Also, is there any source of documentation to get start with the
> linux kernel hacking? It is hard for people to getting start to
> contribute since is is obviously lack of documentation of the kernel
> sources... Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
> 

I would very seriously suggest that a good way to get started is to
write some documentation yourself.

Pick a piece of the kernel that interests you and start reading
through the code.  Then try to describe how it works in writing.  If
there is some bit that really stumps you,. then ask on some
appropriate mailing list (such as this one).  Try to put together a
reasonably coherent document that describes how that bit of the kernel
works.  Once you have done that:
 a/ you will know how it works
 b/ you will have been exposed to lots of kernel code and have some
    idea of the 'typical' way to do things
 c/ you will probably have identified a number of incongurities or
    errors for which you can submit patches.
 d/ you will have created some documentation that is useful for
    others.
 e/ you will have lots of ideas about what to do next.

There is no easy way to just "start contributing".  You need to put a
lot of work in before your contributions will really be valuable.
Reading code is a great way to start, and documenting it makes sure
that you read it properly.

It's how I started.

NeilBrown