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Index of Further Kernel Documentation

The need for a document like this one became apparent in the linux-kernel mailing list as the same questions, asking for pointers to information, appeared again and again.

Fortunately, as more and more people get to GNU/Linux, more and more get interested in the Kernel. But reading the sources is not always enough. It is easy to understand the code, but miss the concepts, the philosophy and design decisions behind this code.

Unfortunately, not many documents are available for beginners to start. And, even if they exist, there was no "well-known" place which kept track of them. These lines try to cover this lack.

PLEASE, if you know any paper not listed here or write a new document, include a reference to it here, following the kernel's patch submission process. Any corrections, ideas or comments are also welcome.

All documents are cataloged with the following fields: the document's "Title", the "Author"/s, the "URL" where they can be found, some "Keywords" helpful when searching for specific topics, and a brief "Description" of the Document.

Note

The documents on each section of this document are ordered by its published date, from the newest to the oldest. The maintainer(s) should periodically retire resources as they become obsolete or outdated; with the exception of foundational books.

Docs at the Linux Kernel tree

The Sphinx books should be built with make {htmldocs | pdfdocs | epubdocs}.

  • Name: linux/Documentation
    Author:Many.
    Location:Documentation/
    Keywords:text files, Sphinx.
    Description:Documentation that comes with the kernel sources, inside the Documentation directory. Some pages from this document (including this document itself) have been moved there, and might be more up to date than the web version.

On-line docs

  • Title: Linux Kernel Mailing List Glossary
    Author:various
    URL:https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelGlossary
    Date:rolling version
    Keywords:glossary, terms, linux-kernel.
    Description:From the introduction: "This glossary is intended as a brief description of some of the acronyms and terms you may hear during discussion of the Linux kernel".
  • Title: The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide
    Author:Peter Jay Salzman, Michael Burian, Ori Pomerantz, Bob Mottram, Jim Huang.
    URL:https://sysprog21.github.io/lkmpg/
    Date:2021
    Keywords:modules, GPL book, /proc, ioctls, system calls, interrupt handlers .
    Description:A very nice GPL book on the topic of modules programming. Lots of examples. Currently the new version is being actively maintained at https://github.com/sysprog21/lkmpg.

Published books

  • Title: Linux Kernel Debugging: Leverage proven tools and advanced techniques to effectively debug Linux kernels and kernel modules
    Author:Kaiwan N Billimoria
    Publisher:Packt Publishing Ltd
    Date:August, 2022
    Pages:638
    ISBN:978-1801075039
    Notes:Debugging book
  • Title: Linux Kernel Programming: A Comprehensive Guide to Kernel Internals, Writing Kernel Modules, and Kernel Synchronization
    Author:Kaiwan N Billimoria
    Publisher:Packt Publishing Ltd
    Date:March, 2021
    Pages:754
    ISBN:978-1789953435
  • 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
    Author:Kaiwan N Billimoria
    Publisher:Packt Publishing Ltd
    Date:March, 2021
    Pages:452
    ISBN:978-1801079518
  • Title: Linux System Programming: Talking Directly to the Kernel and C Library
    Author:Robert Love
    Publisher:O'Reilly Media
    Date:June, 2013
    Pages:456
    ISBN:978-1449339531
    Notes:Foundational book
  • Title: Linux Kernel Development, 3rd Edition
    Author:Robert Love
    Publisher:Addison-Wesley
    Date:July, 2010
    Pages:440
    ISBN:978-0672329463
    Notes:Foundational book
  • Title: Practical Linux System Administration: A Guide to Installation, Configuration, and Management, 1st Edition
    Author:Kenneth Hess
    Publisher:O'Reilly Media
    Date:May, 2023
    Pages:246
    ISBN:978-1098109035
    Notes:System administration
  • Title: Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition
    Authors:Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
    Publisher:O'Reilly & Associates
    Date:2005
    Pages:636
    ISBN:0-596-00590-3
    Notes:Foundational book. Further information in http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdrive3/ PDF format, URL: https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
  • Title: The Design of the UNIX Operating System
    Author:Maurice J. Bach
    Publisher:Prentice Hall
    Date:1986
    Pages:471
    ISBN:0-13-201757-1
    Notes:Foundational book

Miscellaneous

  • Name: Cross-Referencing Linux
    URL:https://elixir.bootlin.com/
    Keywords:Browsing source code.
    Description:Another web-based Linux kernel source code browser. Lots of cross references to variables and functions. You can see where they are defined and where they are used.
  • Name: Linux Weekly News
    URL:https://lwn.net
    Keywords:latest kernel news.
    Description:The title says it all. There's a fixed kernel section summarizing developers' work, bug fixes, new features and versions produced during the week.
  • Name: The home page of Linux-MM
    Author:The Linux-MM team.
    URL:https://linux-mm.org/
    Keywords:memory management, Linux-MM, mm patches, TODO, docs, mailing list.
    Description:Site devoted to Linux Memory Management development. Memory related patches, HOWTOs, links, mm developers... Don't miss it if you are interested in memory management development!
  • Name: Kernel Newbies IRC Channel and Website
    URL:https://www.kernelnewbies.org
    Keywords:IRC, newbies, channel, asking doubts.
    Description:#kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net. #kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the 'newbie' kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists of people who are learning about the kernel, working on kernel projects or professional kernel hackers that want to help less seasoned kernel people. #kernelnewbies is on the OFTC IRC Network. Try irc.oftc.net as your server and then /join #kernelnewbies. The kernelnewbies website also hosts articles, documents, FAQs...
  • Name: linux-kernel mailing list archives and search engines
    URL:http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
    URL:http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/index.html
    URL:http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel
    Keywords:linux-kernel, archives, search.
    Description:Some of the linux-kernel mailing list archivers. If you have a better/another one, please let me know.

This document was originally based on:

https://www.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/linux/kernel/hackers-docs.html

and written by Juan-Mariano de Goyeneche