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1.. _kernel_docs:
2
3Index of Further Kernel Documentation
4=====================================
5
6The need for a document like this one became apparent in the linux-kernel
7mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers to information,
8appeared again and again.
9
10Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more get
11interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always enough. It
12is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the philosophy and
13design decisions behind this code.
14
15Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to start.
16And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which kept track
17of them. These lines try to cover this lack.
18
19PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document,
20include a reference to it here, following the kernel's patch submission
21process. Any corrections, ideas or comments are also welcome.
22
23All documents are cataloged with the following fields: the document's
24"Title", the "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords"
25helpful when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of
26the Document.
27
28.. note::
29
30 The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its
31 published date, from the newest to the oldest. The maintainer(s) should
32 periodically retire resources as they become obsolete or outdated; with
33 the exception of foundational books.
34
35Docs at the Linux Kernel tree
36-----------------------------
37
38The Sphinx books should be built with ``make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}``.
39
40 * Name: **linux/Documentation**
41
42 :Author: Many.
43 :Location: Documentation/
44 :Keywords: text files, Sphinx.
45 :Description: Documentation that comes with the kernel sources,
46 inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document
47 (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might
48 be more up to date than the web version.
49
50On-line docs
51------------
52
53 * Title: **Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary**
54
55 :Author: various
56 :URL: https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary
57 :Date: rolling version
58 :Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
59 :Description: From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as
60 a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear
61 during discussion of the Linux kernel".
62
63 * Title: **The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide**
64
65 :Author: Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram,
66 Jim Huang.
67 :URL: https://sysprog21.github.io/lkmpg/
68 :Date: 2021
69 :Keywords: modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls,
70 interrupt handlers .
71 :Description: A very nice GPL book on the topic of modules
72 programming. Lots of examples. Currently the new version is being
73 actively maintained at https://github.com/sysprog21/lkmpg.
74
75Published books
76---------------
77
78 * Title: **The Linux Memory Manager**
79
80 :Author: Lorenzo Stoakes
81 :Publisher: No Starch Press
82 :Date: February 2025
83 :Pages: 1300
84 :ISBN: 978-1718504462
85 :Notes: Memory management. Full draft available as early access for
86 pre-order, full release scheduled for Fall 2025. See
87 https://nostarch.com/linux-memory-manager for further info.
88
89 * Title: **Practical Linux System Administration: A Guide to Installation, Configuration, and Management, 1st Edition**
90
91 :Author: Kenneth Hess
92 :Publisher: O'Reilly Media
93 :Date: May, 2023
94 :Pages: 246
95 :ISBN: 978-1098109035
96 :Notes: System administration
97
98 * Title: **Linux Kernel Debugging: Leverage proven tools and advanced techniques to effectively debug Linux kernels and kernel modules**
99
100 :Author: Kaiwan N Billimoria
101 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
102 :Date: August, 2022
103 :Pages: 638
104 :ISBN: 978-1801075039
105 :Notes: Debugging book
106
107 * Title: **Linux Kernel Programming: A Comprehensive Guide to Kernel Internals, Writing Kernel Modules, and Kernel Synchronization**
108
109 :Author: Kaiwan N Billimoria
110 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
111 :Date: March, 2021 (Second Edition published in 2024)
112 :Pages: 754
113 :ISBN: 978-1789953435 (Second Edition ISBN is 978-1803232225)
114
115 * Title: **Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization: Create user-kernel interfaces, work with peripheral I/O, and handle hardware interrupts**
116
117 :Author: Kaiwan N Billimoria
118 :Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd
119 :Date: March, 2021
120 :Pages: 452
121 :ISBN: 978-1801079518
122
123 * Title: **Linux System Programming: Talking Directly to the Kernel and C Library**
124
125 :Author: Robert Love
126 :Publisher: O'Reilly Media
127 :Date: June, 2013
128 :Pages: 456
129 :ISBN: 978-1449339531
130 :Notes: Foundational book
131
132 * Title: **Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition**
133
134 :Author: Robert Love
135 :Publisher: Addison-Wesley
136 :Date: July, 2010
137 :Pages: 440
138 :ISBN: 978-0672329463
139 :Notes: Foundational book
140
141.. _ldd3_published:
142
143 * Title: **Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition**
144
145 :Authors: Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
146 :Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
147 :Date: 2005
148 :Pages: 636
149 :ISBN: 0-596-00590-3
150 :Notes: Foundational book. Further information in
151 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/
152 PDF format, URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
153
154 * Title: **The Design of the UNIX Operating System**
155
156 :Author: Maurice J. Bach
157 :Publisher: Prentice Hall
158 :Date: 1986
159 :Pages: 471
160 :ISBN: 0-13-201757-1
161 :Notes: Foundational book
162
163Miscellaneous
164-------------
165
166 * Name: **Cross-Referencing Linux**
167
168 :URL: https://elixir.bootlin.com/
169 :Keywords: Browsing source code.
170 :Description: Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser.
171 Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see
172 where they are defined and where they are used.
173
174 * Name: **Linux Weekly News**
175
176 :URL: https://lwn.net
177 :Keywords: latest kernel news.
178 :Description: The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section
179 summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions
180 produced during the week.
181
182 * Name: **The home page of Linux-MM**
183
184 :Author: The Linux-MM team.
185 :URL: https://linux-mm.org/
186 :Keywords: memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs,
187 mailing list.
188 :Description: Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development.
189 Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss
190 it if you are interested in memory management development!
191
192 * Name: **Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website**
193
194 :URL: https://www.kernelnewbies.org
195 :Keywords: IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
196 :Description: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net.
197 #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie'
198 kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are
199 learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or
200 professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel
201 people.
202 #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network.
203 Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies.
204 The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
205
206 * Name: **linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines**
207
208 :URL: https://subspace.kernel.org
209 :URL: https://lore.kernel.org
210 :Keywords: linux-kernel, archives, search.
211 :Description: Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If
212 you have a better/another one, please let me know.
213
214 * Name: **The Linux Foundation YouTube channel**
215
216 :URL: https://www.youtube.com/user/thelinuxfoundation
217 :Keywords: linux, videos, linux-foundation, youtube.
218 :Description: The Linux Foundation uploads video recordings of their
219 collaborative events, Linux conferences including LinuxCon, and
220 other original research and content related to Linux and software
221 development.
222
223Rust
224----
225
226 * Title: **Rust for Linux**
227
228 :Author: various
229 :URL: https://rust-for-linux.com/
230 :Date: rolling version
231 :Keywords: glossary, terms, linux-kernel, rust.
232 :Description: From the website: "Rust for Linux is the project adding
233 support for the Rust language to the Linux kernel. This website is
234 intended as a hub of links, documentation and resources related to
235 the project".
236
237 * Title: **Learn Rust the Dangerous Way**
238
239 :Author: Cliff L. Biffle
240 :URL: https://cliffle.com/p/dangerust/
241 :Date: Accessed Sep 11 2024
242 :Keywords: rust, blog.
243 :Description: From the website: "LRtDW is a series of articles
244 putting Rust features in context for low-level C programmers who
245 maybe don’t have a formal CS background — the sort of people who
246 work on firmware, game engines, OS kernels, and the like.
247 Basically, people like me.". It illustrates line-by-line
248 conversions from C to Rust.
249
250 * Title: **The Rust Book**
251
252 :Author: Steve Klabnik and Carol Nichols, with contributions from the
253 Rust community
254 :URL: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/
255 :Date: Accessed Sep 11 2024
256 :Keywords: rust, book.
257 :Description: From the website: "This book fully embraces the
258 potential of Rust to empower its users. It’s a friendly and
259 approachable text intended to help you level up not just your
260 knowledge of Rust, but also your reach and confidence as a
261 programmer in general. So dive in, get ready to learn—and welcome
262 to the Rust community!".
263
264 * Title: **Rust for the Polyglot Programmer**
265
266 :Author: Ian Jackson
267 :URL: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ianmdlvl/rust-polyglot/index.html
268 :Date: December 2022
269 :Keywords: rust, blog, tooling.
270 :Description: From the website: "There are many guides and
271 introductions to Rust. This one is something different: it is
272 intended for the experienced programmer who already knows many
273 other programming languages. I try to be comprehensive enough to be
274 a starting point for any area of Rust, but to avoid going into too
275 much detail except where things are not as you might expect. Also
276 this guide is not entirely free of opinion, including
277 recommendations of libraries (crates), tooling, etc.".
278
279 * Title: **Fasterthanli.me**
280
281 :Author: Amos Wenger
282 :URL: https://fasterthanli.me/
283 :Date: Accessed Sep 11 2024
284 :Keywords: rust, blog, news.
285 :Description: From the website: "I make articles and videos about how
286 computers work. My content is long-form, didactic and exploratory
287 — and often an excuse to teach Rust!".
288
289 * Title: **Comprehensive Rust**
290
291 :Author: Android team at Google
292 :URL: https://google.github.io/comprehensive-rust/
293 :Date: Accessed Sep 13 2024
294 :Keywords: rust, blog.
295 :Description: From the website: "The course covers the full spectrum
296 of Rust, from basic syntax to advanced topics like generics and
297 error handling".
298
299 * Title: **The Embedded Rust Book**
300
301 :Author: Multiple contributors, mostly Jorge Aparicio
302 :URL: https://docs.rust-embedded.org/book/
303 :Date: Accessed Sep 13 2024
304 :Keywords: rust, blog.
305 :Description: From the website: "An introductory book about using
306 the Rust Programming Language on "Bare Metal" embedded systems,
307 such as Microcontrollers".
308
309 * Title: **Experiment: Improving the Rust Book**
310
311 :Author: Cognitive Engineering Lab at Brown University
312 :URL: https://rust-book.cs.brown.edu/
313 :Date: Accessed Sep 22 2024
314 :Keywords: rust, blog.
315 :Description: From the website: "The goal of this experiment is to
316 evaluate and improve the content of the Rust Book to help people
317 learn Rust more effectively.".
318
319 * Title: **New Rustacean** (podcast)
320
321 :Author: Chris Krycho
322 :URL: https://newrustacean.com/
323 :Date: Accessed Sep 22 2024
324 :Keywords: rust, podcast.
325 :Description: From the website: "This is a podcast about learning
326 the programming language Rust—from scratch! Apart from this spiffy
327 landing page, all the site content is built with Rust's own
328 documentation tools.".
329
330 * Title: **Opsem-team** (repository)
331
332 :Author: Operational semantics team
333 :URL: https://github.com/rust-lang/opsem-team/tree/main
334 :Date: Accessed Sep 22 2024
335 :Keywords: rust, repository.
336 :Description: From the README: "The opsem team is the successor of
337 the unsafe-code-guidelines working group and responsible for
338 answering many of the difficult questions about the semantics of
339 unsafe Rust".
340
341 * Title: **You Can't Spell Trust Without Rust**
342
343 :Author: Alexis Beingessner
344 :URL: https://repository.library.carleton.ca/downloads/1j92g820w?locale=en
345 :Date: 2015
346 :Keywords: rust, master, thesis.
347 :Description: This thesis focuses on Rust's ownership system, which
348 ensures memory safety by controlling data manipulation and
349 lifetime, while also highlighting its limitations and comparing it
350 to similar systems in Cyclone and C++.
351
352 * Name: **Linux Plumbers (LPC) 2024 Rust presentations**
353
354 :Title: Rust microconference
355 :URL: https://lpc.events/event/18/sessions/186/#20240918
356 :Title: Rust for Linux
357 :URL: https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1912/
358 :Title: Journey of a C kernel engineer starting a Rust driver project
359 :URL: https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1911/
360 :Title: Crafting a Linux kernel scheduler that runs in user-space
361 using Rust
362 :URL: https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1723/
363 :Title: openHCL: A Linux and Rust based paravisor
364 :URL: https://lpc.events/event/18/contributions/1956/
365 :Keywords: rust, lpc, presentations.
366 :Description: A number of LPC talks related to Rust.
367
368 * Name: **The Rustacean Station Podcast**
369
370 :URL: https://rustacean-station.org/
371 :Keywords: rust, podcasts.
372 :Description: A community project for creating podcast content for
373 the Rust programming language.
374
375-------
376
377This document was originally based on:
378
379 https://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html
380
381and written by Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche