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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periodically retire resources as they become obsolete or outdated; with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.
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.
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: The Linux Memory Manager
Author:
Lorenzo Stoakes
Publisher:
No Starch Press
Date:
February 2025
Pages:
1300
ISBN:
978-1718504462
Notes:
Memory management. Full draft available as early access for
pre-order, full release scheduled for Fall 2025. See
https://nostarch.com/linux-memory-manager for further info.
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 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 (Second Edition published in 2024)
Pages:
754
ISBN:
978-1789953435 (Second Edition ISBN is 978-1803232225)
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: Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition
Authors:
Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman
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.
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!
#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
The Linux Foundation uploads video recordings of their
collaborative events, Linux conferences including LinuxCon, and
other original research and content related to Linux and software
development.
From the website: "Rust for Linux is the project adding
support for the Rust language to the Linux kernel. This website is
intended as a hub of links, documentation and resources related to
the project".
From the website: "LRtDW is a series of articles
putting Rust features in context for low-level C programmers who
maybe don’t have a formal CS background — the sort of people who
work on firmware, game engines, OS kernels, and the like.
Basically, people like me.". It illustrates line-by-line
conversions from C to Rust.
Title: The Rust Book
Author:
Steve Klabnik and Carol Nichols, with contributions from the
Rust community
From the website: "This book fully embraces the
potential of Rust to empower its users. It’s a friendly and
approachable text intended to help you level up not just your
knowledge of Rust, but also your reach and confidence as a
programmer in general. So dive in, get ready to learn—and welcome
to the Rust community!".
From the website: "There are many guides and
introductions to Rust. This one is something different: it is
intended for the experienced programmer who already knows many
other programming languages. I try to be comprehensive enough to be
a starting point for any area of Rust, but to avoid going into too
much detail except where things are not as you might expect. Also
this guide is not entirely free of opinion, including
recommendations of libraries (crates), tooling, etc.".
From the website: "I make articles and videos about how
computers work. My content is long-form, didactic and exploratory
— and often an excuse to teach Rust!".
From the website: "This is a podcast about learning
the programming language Rust—from scratch! Apart from this spiffy
landing page, all the site content is built with Rust's own
documentation tools.".
From the README: "The opsem team is the successor of
the unsafe-code-guidelines working group and responsible for
answering many of the difficult questions about the semantics of
unsafe Rust".
This thesis focuses on Rust's ownership system, which
ensures memory safety by controlling data manipulation and
lifetime, while also highlighting its limitations and comparing it
to similar systems in Cyclone and C++.
Name: Linux Plumbers (LPC) 2024 Rust presentations