Linux Device Drivers (Nutshell Handbook) by Alessandro Rubini

Understanding the Linux Kernel (2nd Edition) by Daniel P. Bovet  (13)

Understanding the Linux Kernel, Third Edition by Daniel Bovet  (15)  $32.97

Linux Kernel Programming (3rd Edition) by Michael Beck  (28)  $59.39

Understanding Linux Network Internals by Christian Benvenuti  (2)  $32.97

› Explore similar items : Books (7)

Amazon.com
Understanding the Linux Kernel is intended to be read by those who are happy to check points off against the source code. The first thing you learn is how Linux, released from commercial constraints, is able to take advantage of the best ideas from other systems, implemented in wonderfully flexible ways. A good example is the Virtual File System (VFS), which has made it easy to add support for file systems from almost every other OS. It's fascinating to find out how such features are implemented. Then, there are loadable modules, I/O, scheduling, multitasking, multiprocessing, interrupts, spin locks, semaphores, and all of the other goodies that are involved in making a kernel work.

The authors are concerned primarily with the Linux 2.2 kernel. They discuss how Linus Torvald's decisions on kernel issues translate into architecture; for example, how the Linux memory management uses a slab allocator on top of a buddy system for greater efficiency. Similarly, at the cost of a little complexity, the decision to use three-level memory paging, when two work fine on 32-bit systems, makes it possible to port to 64-bit processors without changes. The tradeoffs between complexity and efficiency are discussed for most kernel features, and each chapter finishes with related new features in kernel 2.4.

Despite the lucid and knowledgeable writing, you'll come up against some brain-stretching complexity. Nevertheless, this book is an important addition to the Linux canon. --Steve Patient, Amazon.co.uk

Product Description
Why is Linux so efficient? Is it the right operating system for a particular application? What can be learned from looking at the kernel source code? These are the kinds of questions that Understanding the Linux Kernel takes in stride in this guided tour of the code that forms the core of all Linux operating systems.

Linux is presented too often as a casual hacker experiment. It has increasingly become not only a mission-critical part of many organizations, but a sophisticated display of programming skill. It incorporates many advanced operating system concepts and has proven itself extremely robust and efficient for a wide range of uses.

Understanding the Linux Kernel helps readers understand how Linux performs best and how it meets the challenge of different environments. The authors introduce each topic by explaining its importance, and show how kernel operations relate to the utilities that are familiar to Unix programmers and users.

Major topics include:

• Memory management, including file buffering, process swapping, and Direct Memory Access (DMA)
• The Virtual File System and the Second Extended File System
• Process creation and scheduling
• Signals, interrupts, and the essential interfaces to device drivers
• Timing
• Synchronization in the kernel
• Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
• Program execution

See all Editorial Reviews

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can make it available as an eBook on Amazon.com. Learn more

I own it Not rated Your rating Don't like it < > I love it! Save your rating    ? 1 2 3 4 5

17 Reviews 5 star:  (8) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (3) 2 star:  (2) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review (17 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   106 of 110 people found the following review helpful: A landmark book for Linux Kernel !!, December 7, 2000 By  Geoffrey Kong (Mountain View, CA, USA) - See all my reviews Can a professional OS book feature both easy to read and detailed/accurate in technical level? The answer is 'yes' for this book. I have been looking for this kind of book for years. Now I have it. This book delayed publishing for 3 months, the waiting is worthwhile. I spent 3 weeks to read this book very carefully. I got tons of my uncertain question marks about kernel in mind answered. I have explored the kernel for years. I should say, I have browsered almost all documents/books I could find from websites and bookstores. This book is the best one (not one of the best) in this topic I could find on this planet. Besides the 'tranditional' subjets, like, process,memory, interrupt,signals,IPC, it also depicts 'file system' in very details which is rarely done by other kernel books. The most outstanding trait is that it is so 'user friendly' for you to read. Its style always remind me of my own jotting in my note book, but of course, it is much more complete, accurate and super well organised. Its narration is brief and simple enough for you to udnerstand and remember; meanwhile, it never loses the technical details and accuracy for your further adventure. If there is any 'complaints', I should say, I like to see some general I/O subjects, like, tty console, display, network and etc, to be discuss, maybe in another book. However, I'd like to say that this book is a great contribution to linux kernel community. Thanks authors, this book deserve a 6 stars mark!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?