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1 | 8: FOR MORE INFORMATION | ||
2 | |||
3 | There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and | ||
4 | related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation | ||
5 | directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level HOWTO | ||
6 | file is an important starting point; SubmittingPatches and | ||
7 | SubmittingDrivers are also something which all kernel developers should | ||
8 | read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc | ||
9 | mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those | ||
10 | documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some | ||
11 | distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents | ||
12 | properly). | ||
13 | |||
14 | Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your | ||
15 | author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source; | ||
16 | information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel | ||
17 | index at: | ||
18 | |||
19 | http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/ | ||
20 | |||
21 | Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is: | ||
22 | |||
23 | http://kernelnewbies.org/ | ||
24 | |||
25 | Information about the linux-next tree gathers at: | ||
26 | |||
27 | http://linux.f-seidel.de/linux-next/pmwiki/ | ||
28 | |||
29 | And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive | ||
30 | location for kernel release information. | ||
31 | |||
32 | There are a number of books on kernel development: | ||
33 | |||
34 | Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro | ||
35 | Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at | ||
36 | http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/. | ||
37 | |||
38 | Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love). | ||
39 | |||
40 | Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati). | ||
41 | |||
42 | All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be | ||
43 | somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on | ||
44 | the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good | ||
45 | information to be found there. | ||
46 | |||
47 | Documentation for git can be found at: | ||
48 | |||
49 | http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/ | ||
50 | |||
51 | http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html | ||
52 | |||
53 | |||
54 | 9: CONCLUSION | ||
55 | |||
56 | Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded | ||
57 | document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the | ||
58 | Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process. | ||
59 | |||
60 | In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software | ||
61 | project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The | ||
62 | Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has | ||
63 | been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are | ||
64 | working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be | ||
65 | done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal. | ||
66 | |||
67 | The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There | ||
68 | is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other | ||
69 | participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the | ||
70 | kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality, | ||
71 | lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over | ||
72 | the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where | ||
73 | everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be | ||
74 | more than welcome. | ||