Customer Reviews

Linux Kernel Development (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is for a reader who is an accomplished C programmer and for someone who wants to learn how to do Linux Kernel Development. The author has been contributing to Linux for more than 15 years and he was a member of the team that developed Android mobile platform's kernel. Although the author explains some of the topics in detail (for example Process Scheduling), he glosses over some of the other topics (for example Process Management). In order to understand some of the theoretical concepts presented in the book, it is better to have a background of Operating Systems. Therefore, it is better to study this book along with a theoretical book on Operating Systems (Silberschatz, Galvin). Having said that, this book can serve as a useful introduction to someone who wants to know the design and implementation of the Linux kernel.

In the first few chapters, the author provides instructions for obtaining the Kernel source code and compiling it. In the rest of the chapters, the author gives details of each of the parts of the Linux kernel. In the chapter on Kernel Data Structures (Chapter 6), the author gives a detailed explanation of the most important data structures that are used in Linux (linked lists, queues, maps and red-black trees). The chapter on Debugging (Chapter 18) is full of useful tips for debugging the Linux Kernel. What I like most about the book is that the author is very practical with his approach and concludes his book by saying that "the only way to start (learning the Linux Kernel) is by reading and writing code".

I am proficient in C but knew very little (or next to nothing) about kernel programming. I tried all the other popular books, websites, blogs, documentation but this book blew them all away.

It is written in a free-flowing fashion, explains concepts first with lots of examples, instances, etc. Only then does it start describing the relevant kernel data structure, the actual implementation, etc. Also, it leaves some of the really complicated stuff out and just mentions it, which is great when you are newbie and dont want to get inundated with a ton of information.

This is the best book on linux kernel programming as of now! Buy it.

Linux is one of these moving targets. Books keep getting out dated.. every day. They have tried to include all the changes in page cache, elevator upto date. It is a very good read for any one who is interested in the linux kernel. If you dont have enough time to read all the release notes and follow mailing lists, this is one concise book to read and understand the 2.6.30+ version of Linux. Very very easy to read, most of them are explained verbally than with code samples. Lot of books waste print space by simply publishing code snippets from the kernel.. Worth the price. Even available in Kindle. There are some formatting issues in kindle, but very well presented most of time. Happy reading

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.

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 bough this book few days back and read the first three chapters. It has amazing clarity and simplicity and you can go along reading this book and trying things on the Linux kernel side by side. Worth the price.

Few books catch up rapidly changing Linux kernel. Love's book is always impressive and this edition is quite new covering new O(log n) scheduler algorithm where Beck's(Linux Kernel Programming, 3e) is lagging behind on 2.4, and Bovet's(Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3e) and Salzberg(Linux Kernel Primer) cover O(1) scheduler. Even though it's concise and gives the gist of the kernel, quite often there need more specific and detailed coverage like in Mauerer's(Professional Linux Kernel Architecture).

This book is a great book, but it has a limited scope. So it is not a programmers reference, and it should not be bought with that in mind.

However, this is a great high level discussion of the kernel and its implementation. And what really makes it great is the fact that you realize that Love know his stuff and he has a great writing style.

He does cover the major system components with a great high level description, and more important, he gives a great analysis of issues, both design and some implementation. His overview of the CFS is the best of any I have seen. And this can be repeated most topics he covers in this book.

The index is excellent.

After reading this book I would love to go to a seminar given by Love. His presentation skills are probably better than his writing skills.

It's a good introduction to Linux kernel programming, yet not so great.

It covers the kernel basic, kernel objects, algorithms (such as linked list, queue, rb-tree), memory pages, interrupt handlers, file structure, synchronize, process and so on.

But it doesn't describe the each one in detailed, a little bit shallow ..
Codes listed in this book are simple introduction for the each part of the set of the kernel functions.

Good Introduction, anyway.

The third updated edition of Robert Love's LINUX KERNEL DEVELOPMENT offers a narrowed focus on the design of the Linux Kernel for programmers seeking a deeper understanding of the operating system so they can tailor coding more specifically to Linux strengths and operations. This newly updated third edition includes details on handlers, coverage of virtual memory, tips on debugging the Linux kernel, and more.