54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A detailed and comprehensive explanation of the inner workings of the latest 2.6 Linux kernel, February 10, 2006
This review is from: Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition (Paperback)
The book "Undestanding the Linux Kernel",
explains clearly the inner workings of the
current 2.6 Linux kernel.
The presentation is at a considerable level of detail,
the authors fully describe the important data structures,
and the significant chunks of code.
The book is indispensable to any serious
Linux kernel developer.
However, it can be used also at the context
of an "Operating Systems Design" academic course
and the students can learn a lot from the
technologically advanced Linux 2.6 kernel implementation
and can modify/recompile and install their own version!
The level of the book is advanced and I recommend
concurrently with it, the reader to study also the
book:
"Linux kernel development" by Robert Love
that presents the algorithms also very clearly,
but with a more academic view,
without zooming to all the implementation concerns.
I own both books and by studing them, I can have
the significant experience of customizing the source code
of the superior Linux 2.6 kernel.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but not for beginners, August 2, 2006
This review is from: Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition (Paperback)
Understanding the Linux Kernel is an excellent guide for those who have some experience using Linux, and would like to know what's going on under the hood. It's a comprehensive guide that not only describes how Linux boots and initializes itself, and how programs call functions inside the kernel, but actually goes down to the murky depths of interrupts, process switching, inter-process communication, and even memory management down to the level of the 80x86 processor instructions, registers and features (actually if you add it all up, memory management takes up most of the book -- a good thing!). Furthermore there are chapters about essentials such as file systems and device drivers.
The book specifically and explicitly focuses only on the 80x86 PC architecture so if you're interested in Linux on different platforms or if you're looking for a generic Linux kernel book, this one's not for you. Also, if you're just starting out with Linux (whether it be as user, programmer or administrator), there's a lot of information in here that you don't really need to know.
An important part of the kernel that's missing from the book is how networking is implemented. This is understandable, because it would probably require another 900+ pages (that's how thick this one is) to cover in as much detail as what the book DOES cover.
All in all, as an intermediate Linux administrator/user and a novice Linux programmer, I thought this was an excellent addition to my collection, even though I skipped some of the truely low-level parts where the authors go into Pentium registers and stuff like that. The fact that "80x86" is consistently printed as "80 × 86" (notice the multiplication character replacing the letter "x") was not enough of a nuisance to take away any of the 5 stars that I'm giving this one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Messrs Bovet and Cesati's 'Core-Dump' on the LINUX kernel, July 10, 2011
This review is from: Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition (Paperback)
This book deserves three stars for the following reasons:
The three stars come from:
1.) The book does walk you through from the higher level kernel
functions all the way to what happens to x86 register set
during a process switch ( ....these details constitute the
'soul' of an OS IMHO ). So you can gain some insight in how
the 'naked' iron ( x86 ) is made into a higher level
LINUX virtual machine ( using Tannenbaum's analogy ).
2.) The book contains a tremendous wealth of information, far
more than most of the other few and far between titles
on the subject
3.) The book covers the aforementioned info in far more detail
than most of the other few and far between titles on the
subject
The remaining two stars were not given because:
4.) The information in the book is organized in _the_
most haphazard and unorganized way possible....scattered
all over the place with lot's of cross-references.
5.) There is a lack of effort ( or perhaps ability ? ) on the
part of the authors to properly explain things.
The information is presented more akin to a 'core -dump'
of their brains. It's like "here are the facts folks....
...you work it out on your own".
Complex relationships and concepts are explained without
the use of any didactics whatsoever. Each chapter is mostly
just a statement of facts following one after the other
..."here is 'struct task_struct'.. it has member 'sighand'
..." e.t.c.
Sure I worked my way through a lot of the information and `grepped`
a lot of source code and found a lot of additional detail and
info regarding the kernel all by myself..(.but I am an embedded
engineer with 18 years of experience ).
The point is when I pay for a book or pay someone to present / teach
something to me, I don't expect them to dump the information and
expect me to work it out by myself....I expect them at the very least
to put some work into organizing and presenting the material in
a way that helps the student.
I don't expect to be spoon-fed and I don't mind working hard to learn
something however I believe the author / teacher should spend some
effort as well and only after having done their part is the author
entitled to tell the student:
"O.K. I've shown you the way...the rest you go and find out on
your own...put some work and effort in and make what we have presented
you "your own".
The book is therefore extremely inefficient in conveying the
information and detail it contains. It is not easy to read!
The reader is left spending a lot of time grinding along effectively
organising the information on their own. More efficient would
be to help the reader/student to learn enough to begin exploring
and creating on their own.
Just to give others an example of a well-written book on a similar
topic which
1.) Contains lot's of detail
2.) Is very complete in its coverage of topics
3.) Is well organised with an extremely useful 'Index' section
4.) Is written in a way that gets you started on the topic and
gets you involved in doing your own research
I would like to mention
The LINUX Programming Interface
by Michael Kerrisk
I read this book in about 5 weeks and understood enough to be
able to write my own proprietary protocol on top of TCP/IP
as well as a mini-server and lots of other bits and pieces with
literally no previous LINUX programming experience.
I had enough information imparted on me by the author to even
assess the feasibility of embedding my code using u-Clibc and
to make it work on an embedded board with a footprint of
a passport sized photo.
Of course I realize that M.Kerrisk's TLPI has nothing to do
with understanding the LINUX kernel but it nevertheless
serves the purpouse to demonstrate to the authors of
the reviewed title 'Understanding the LINUX Kernel'
how to present a vast and complicated topic to an audience
at a lower technical level of expertise than yourself and
help to raise their knowledge a little closer to your level
in the process.
I believe this is why most of us pay our hard earned cash
for, when buying a technical book.
Finally for those wishing recommendations on books which are
far more readable whilst also shedding insight into the
kernel's inner workings:
- Linux Kernel Development
by Robert Love ( 3rd Ed. )
- Professional LINUX Kernel Architecture
by Wolfgang Mauerer
- LINUX Device Drivers
by J. Corbet, A. Rubini and G. Kroah-Hartman
Regardless of what book you choose to work with, understand
that you still need to browse the source of the kernel
and brush up on your grepping and reg-ex skills.
Work at it and you'll get rewarded.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
