10th
AUG

The Linux(R) Kernel Primer: A Top-Down Approach for x86 and PowerPC Architectures (Prentice Hall Open Source Software Development Series)

Posted by Relaxtubes under Architecture

Review

Link:

http://aplawrence.com/Books/kernel-primer.html

Full Text:

I’ve been less than happy with other kernel books I’ve read. Admittedly,it’s a difficult subject: there’s a lot to cover, and you really need quite a bit of programming and general Unix knowledge before you could even consider jumping into this area. But I have the background,have even written simple Unix drivers, and yet every other kernel programming book has disappointed me.

It’s all so overwhelming: there are conventions and quirks that have developed over time and surely are second nature to the people who have been doing Linux kernels for years, but these things are baffling to the newcomer.

This book tries to get you past that. The authors specifically say that they have tried to cover the things that confused them when they first started looking at the kernel. I’m sure their efforts aren’t perfect, but the effort does definitely show.

The authors present several programming projects to help explore the kernel concepts, and every chapter has review questions to help firm up your understanding. The approach is from user space when possible: the assumption is that you are comfortable with application programming and that is used as the base to lead you down into the work done by the kernel for your programs. There’s plenty of annotated source code here, both for x86 and PowerPC architectures. The inclusion of PowerPC information was an unexpected bonus; other books I’ve read have usually ignored that entirely or glossed it over quickly.

Of course you need a background in C, and while this does try to cover general kernel subjects, it wouldn’t hurt to have at least some prior reading there. A little familiarity with hardware and light assembly language will help also, although the authors do give some coverage there.

I’m looking forward to spending more time exploring this book.

Product Description
Top Reasons people will buy this book: -Covers Linux on PPC -Top-down approach traces functionality from user space into the kernel -Lots of code commentary and examples. It walks you through the actual source code implementation. -Side by side comparison of x86 and PPC -Hands on Examples and Projects -Covers the kernel build system. The “Linux Kernel Primer” offers a comprehensive view of the underpinnings of the Linux kernel. This book starts with a guide of the necessary tools a developer needs to be able to understand and manipulate the source code including cryptic programming fundamentals found throughout the kernel code. It then follows up with an in depth analysis of the major subsystems including process management, memory management, scheduling, I/O, and filesystems. This book also provides information necessary to get started developing on the Linux kernel. The specifics of Intel and PowerPC architecture implementations are covered side by side providing perspective on architecture specific features and how Linux make use of them. Similar in approach to Kernighan’s “Practice of Programming” 020161586X