Linux Kernel Internals (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

~ Michael Beck (Author), Harald Bohme (Author), Mirko Dziadzka (Author), Ulrich Kunitz (Author), Robert Magnus (Author), Dirk Verworner (Author)
Key Phrases: kernel segment, signal handling routine, semaphore array, Linus Torvalds, Speaker Driver (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you intend to write kernel code or a kernel module, or just want to know how the kernel of a Linux system works, this book is an excellent source of information. ... I highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about writing code or who wants to know what is in the Linux kernel." Phil Hughes, Linux Journal

Product Description

Explains the inner mechanisms of Linux from process scheduling to memory management and file systems. CD-ROM included. Paper.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (December 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201331438
• ISBN-13: 978-0201331431
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,353,770 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for programmers familiar with Unix, July 9, 1998

By A Customer

Since I had already taken a course in university on Unix Kernel Architecture, I found this book a good introduction to the Linux implementation. If you can pick up concepts quickly you may find the book adequate on its own, otherwise get another general Operating Systems textbook to help you with things like understanding virtual memory, interrupt service routines, drivers and networking concepts.

The author's goal seems to be to introduce you to a good portion of the kernel source code. Understanding the kernel source tree, the build process and the code itself is much easier once you have read the first few chapters of the book.

The book avoids teaching you or even using examples in assembly language. This may annoy you if you know assembly language, or thrill you if you don't. For example, the extremely time-critical interupt service routines, which are written in hand-optimized assembler, are explained with some C-like pseudo code.

Although the book is quite short, it is well written, and it explains the Linux kernel implementation in sufficient detail. Although it was intentional, some readers may wish that the book included more explanation of the concepts before the implementation is introduced.

A suggested companion text would be Andrew Tannenbaum's "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation".

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too vague to help you understand linux kernel., July 30, 2000

By A Customer

Basically there are two approaches to help you really understand how unix kernel works. The static approach is to look at the code and illustrate how various parts cooperate. The dynamic approach is by showing you how to play with the kernel with various tools the kernel hacker used to debug kernel. This book takes the static approach mostly. I just browsed through the first several chapters and disappointedly found this one did not really help if you don't already know another unix kernel. This book does not cover x86's multitasking support mechnism at all. The kernel memory management chapter is also too vague. It even makes people thinking whether the authors really understand the content at a kernel hacker's level. Though I would rather believe the authors did not have enough time(or due to some other limitations) to illustrate what they know in detail. Unfortunately, to be terse does not work for static approach.

The most sucessful static approach I have seen is Dr. Tanebaum's 1997 book about minx. And the best dynamic approach to me is Pate's Unix Kernel internels: a practical approach. I really hope there will be a linux kernel book that can be comparable to the above two.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly well done...lacking in some areas, February 28, 2000

By	Randall Barrett (Florida) - See all my reviews

The book is well done. There's no way you could please everyone when attempting to explain the kernel of an OS, but I thought they did an outstanding job. It makes "grepping" through the source much more pleasant and understandable. Chapters 1 through 3 present the flow of processes in Linux and introduce the operation of system calls, wait queues,etc. The chapter on the file system was very well done, however, the chapter on memory management left me with more questions than answers...it needs a little more work. The book requires a pretty good knowledge of C and some prior knowledge of OS's in general.