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 The maintainer(s) should 32 periodically retire resources as they become obsolete or outdated; with 33 the exception of foundational books. 34 35Docs at the Linux Kernel tree 36----------------------------- 37 38The Sphinx books should be built with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 382