Linux Kernel Development

The book "Linux Kernel Development", explains clearly the inner workings of the current 2.6 Linux kernel. The presentation is at an academic - algorithmic level of detail, the authors describe the main important data structures, and the more significant chunks of code, but they avoid a detailed description of the code. The book is useful to any serious Linux kernel developer, mainly as a first book. The clear exposition of the Linux kernel workings can speed significantly the reader's learning curve. The level of the book is advanced and the reader should have a good C programming and Operating Systems Design background. However, also the book fits very well at the context of an "Operating Systems Design" academic course and the students can learn a lot from the technologically advanced Linux 2.6 kernel implementation. They can modify/recompile and install their own versions of one of the most complex and elegant systems ever built, as the Linux 2.6 kernel!

Everybody should introduce their background before reviewing, since that helps a lot when other people read your opinion. In my case I'm an EE, and never took a course in OS or have a lot of experience in OS design or the like. My work has been in low level design of embedded systems, including HW and SW. We'll be porting the Linux Kernel to our own HW architecture, and bought this book as a reference to understand what to touch. Now on to the book: I think it's great. I haven't got to the point where we touched actual code though. I've read the book and got a great idea of how Linux handles all the tasks an OS should. It also helped me understand a lot about OS design in general, without being a beginner's book (you know, those that have just the basic stuff that you can't do anything with). I believe the idea behind the book is to teach you the philosophy behind the OS, with samples of the algorithms and C cde, and then point you in the right direction (where in the source to go for each thing). After that, you need to dig into the source code yourself. I'd really recommend this book for someone with my background or even for experienced SW types or students who need to get started with the Linux Kernel and want to understand how it is designed. The great thing is that it covers the latest release (2.6) and also talks about how things were done in previous releases. If you'll be implementing a Linux System this book should be complemented with some driver design reference for Linux, since this book only covers the Kernel (and entry points for the drivers, but not driver design).

I just got my order (the 2nd edition) yesterday. This is my second book about Linux Kernel, the other one is "Understanding The Linux Kernel" by Daniel P. Bovet, Marco Cesati. I was having hard time to understand reading the Bovet's book, but when I read this book it was really fun. I even couldn't stop reading it when the time past midnight (wow, it is like reading a thrilling novel book :-). I love the way the author tries to explain in a "human plaintext" language (w/ some humors), and gradually he introduces some jargons w/ clear explanations. The book is intended for intermediate to advanced programmers who now C and have some experience in building their kernel from source code. Although, it still guides readers how to compile, to patch and so on (chapter 2). Another good thing is that, unlike many other Linux Kernel books, the author emphasizes concepts of the Linux Internals. So he tries to minimize a copy-paste of the source code on the book (you can just open the source code and see it, no need to have a book for that). This is what I have been looking for. Besides, when there is a new patch/version, the book will be still relevant long into the future. Here is the list of the chapters: 1. Intro to the Linux Kernel 2. Getting Started w/ the Kernel 3. Process Management 4. Process Scheduling 5. System Calls 6. Interrupts and Interrupt Handlers 7. Bottom Halves and Deferring Work 8. Kernel Synchronization Intro 9. Kernel Synchronization Methods 10. Timers and Time Management 11. Memory Management 12. The Virtual Filesystem 13. The Block I/O Layer 14. The Process Address Space 15. The Page Cache and Page Writeback 16. Modules 17. kobjects and sysfs 18. Debugging 19. Portability 20. Patches, Hacking and the Community Appendix (Linked Lists, Kernel Random Number Generator, Algorithmic Complexity) My suggestion is first read this book thoroughly, then may continue with "UNderstanding The Kernel" and also "Linux Device Drivers", 3rd Edition by Jonathan Corbet. If you want to know more about TCP/IP stack in the kernel, "The Linux TCP/IP stack" by Herbert may be good too (I bought this book too, but I have not read it yet, but from what I saw on the table of content seems it is interesting). The last but not the least, another book about wi-fi "Linux unwired" may also compliment your personal library of Linux.

This is a very easy introduction to hacking on the linux kernel, there is not much discussion about design choices, but it explains how the kernel work, how to program on it and what things one need to look out for.The book is readable for both newbies and uber kernel hackers and through out the book Robert has a great sense of humor that mostother technical books does not have. Highly recomended read.

There are more technical books than Linux Kernel Development, with more code samples and technical jargon, but when it comes to up to date knowledge, and a clear, concise writing style, this volume is one of the best. Robert Love has written a book that is readable for both kernel newbies and those wishing to get a better grasp for what is at the heart of 2.6. However, what I find most appealing about this book is it has a sense of humor that most other technical books seem to have left at home. This is a book you will read cover to cover, instead of using it as a meer reference.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn, or brush up on, the linux kernel.