Linux Kernel Development

L.Jenkins

I've been looking at the Kernel in depth from a code point of view, which I'm sure you all know is written in C. I downloaded a copy from github, just to have a look and I must say, it's quiet extensive. I mean, to figure out what's actually going on at a code level, I could probably spend the guts of a few weeks analysing the code, to see how everything interacts, drawing up a few diagrams just as a visual aid.

Has anyone else had a look at the code for the Kernel and almost went half daft while briefly scanning through it? I'll figure it out in my own time, but it seems like a bit of a daunting task at the moment.

Johnboy1951

Itzy wrote: »

I've been looking at the Kernel in depth from a code point of view, which I'm sure you all know is written in C. I downloaded a copy from github, just to have a look and I must say, it's quiet extensive. I mean, to figure out what's actually going on at a code level, I could probably spend the guts of a few weeks analysing the code, to see how everything interacts, drawing up a few diagrams just as a visual aid.

Has anyone else had a look at the code for the Kernel and almost went half daft while briefly scanning through it? I'll figure it out in my own time, but it seems like a bit of a daunting task at the moment.

I thought everyone who delved into the kernel code was half daft!

PrzemoF

Don't try to understand the whole thing. Get a high level overview, get familiar with kernel coding style [1], git, checkpatch.pl [2], get_maintainer.pl [3] and you're ready for development. Don't analyse [2] and [3] - just learn how to use them. Understanding how the kernel works from scratch by analysing code is IMHO impossible - the kernel is too big and it's getting bigger.

P.S. Have you seen this: [4]

[1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/CodingStyle
[2] https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/scripts/checkpatch.pl
[3] https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/scripts/get_maintainer.pl
[4] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Linux_kernel_map.png

L.Jenkins

That actually looks pretty useful stuff. Thanks PrzemoF.