Linux Kernel Development

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The author does a wonderful job of explaining everything you need to know. He builds based on the previous chapters to help you understand more complex ideas in future chapters. It's well written and reads like a friend took time to explain it in a way that I understand.

This is a solid book, well worth the purchase price and the time to read it if you want to know the kernel (particularly 2.6.30) in reasonable detail. You really should have the equivalent understanding of a bog-standard undergraduate OS theory class first, though.It's particularly good on the issues of multi-core/multithreaded processors (which are just a special case of SMP, after all). There's basically nothing about the unique aspects of embedded Linux, though (other than a brief description of JFFS2 and a couple of other flash filesystems), so if that's what you're doing, the book is a good intro but you're going to need another book afterward.Gripes:The book is a bit schizophrenic in its expectations of its readers: time, pages, and grams of weight :) are wasted on quickly reiterating some basic OS theory (mutexes, standard deadlock, preemption) that should be very old hat to anybody who is going to be actually doing kernel work.I would have appreciated more on kernel debugging philosophy and tricks, but what is there is good.A fair number of .h files are included in their entirety. IMHO they should have been editted down to just the fields relevant to the discussion in the text; we have The Source when we need the entire .h.It's probably more x86-centric than it really needs to be, but that's certainly a venial sin at most, since the vast majority of non-embedded Linux boxen do run x86.Gripes notwithstanding, this book is a real service to the community. Thanks, Mr. Love.

I wish I had this book when I was going through my Operating Systems undergrad class, or any time after that, but I'm glad I finally discovered it. It clears up so much about Linux that is usually just glossed over in a lot of other documentation. It goes into enough depth to make diving into kernel-level or system-level code less overwhelming. It also does a lot to explain topics that are justExtremely clearly written, with a good amount of detail but not too much. Not only is this a map for many workings of the Linux kernel, but also a great primer to many broader aspects of computer science that relate to the kernel and its functions, such as various data structures, algorithms, mathematical concepts, etc.Even if I wasn't working directly with the Linux kernel, I would be very happy to have read this book and have it in my bookshelf as a reference.

This is a good primer on one of the most complex pieces of software out there. Not sure of the prereq background... probably a solid understanding of C including threading models in UNIX and also basic Linux sysadmin, such as knowing how to find or download the headers for your distro. If you have that down, all the other pieces are probably there.This book is mostly prose. Full functions or even snippets are rare. Kind of different for a non academic book. It's easy to read as it doesn't get bogged down with examples that need to be studied. In fact, after having read it, I wish more practical programming books would do this.Only one minor complaint. There are too many footnotes that aren't footnotes. "Wood stoves had previously burned wood. A homeowner would generally provide the fuel. Steps are fall a tree, cut the wood into manageable pieces, and properly dry the wood... Today we mostly use gas or electric." It seemed these little guys were all over the place.

This is the best book in my opinion for learning about the kernel! Even if you are doing driver development or just embedded system work, I highly recommend this as the text for learning the linux kernel. It goes over the scheduler, how processes are represented, memory management, devices, system calls, and many kernel data structures. Each topic is covered quite well with relevant CODE and information. Very straight-forward. He does an amazing job of explaining the modular structure of kernel and how most things are implemented as modules / pseudo-objects.Really gives the tools you need to know to be an effective developer. This book helps me understand the dryer, wordier, less clear, out-of-date, Linux Device Drivers. Full disclosure: have not completely finished reading the book, but I am more than a third the way through!

I was shopping for a good overview reference book of the Linux kernel, I did not want too much depth into each component, what I wanted was a "brief" overview of all the different components. If you're looking for depth into each module, then this is not the book for you. If you're interested in Linux and want a good overview book that you can finish quickly and have a working knowledge of the different components and how they tie in together then this is a great piece. I think "Linux Device Drivers" by Corbet is a better reference if your interest is strictly device driver and "Understanding Linux Networking Internals" by Benvenuti is better if you want to know more about the IP stack. Overall Robert Love goes through kernel development at a great level for an overview with just enough depth and enough examples. I use the book not every day but I often have it on my desk for reference.

Probably someone starting out can do better with the LPI book, and then jump in here for better understanding.

O livro chegou incrivelmente rápido. Novíssimo. Sensacional!

Muy buen libro para empezar a aprender a entender el codigo fuente de el kernel de linux

Excellent

Easy to read and understand. This isn't a "beginners into to Linux" however so only buy if you are interested in developing work on the kernel (as the title indicates anyway but just to be clear ;) )