Based on kernel version 4.9. Page generated on 2016-12-21 14:28 EST.
1 .. _development_conclusion: 2 3 For more information 4 ==================== 5 6 There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and 7 related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation 8 directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level HOWTO 9 file is an important starting point; SubmittingPatches and 10 SubmittingDrivers are also something which all kernel developers should 11 read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc 12 mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those 13 documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some 14 distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents 15 properly). 16 17 Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your 18 author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source; 19 information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel 20 index at: 21 22 http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/ 23 24 Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is: 25 26 http://kernelnewbies.org/ 27 28 And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive 29 location for kernel release information. 30 31 There are a number of books on kernel development: 32 33 Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro 34 Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at 35 http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/. 36 37 Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love). 38 39 Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati). 40 41 All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be 42 somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on 43 the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good 44 information to be found there. 45 46 Documentation for git can be found at: 47 48 http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/ 49 50 http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html 51 52 53 Conclusion 54 ========== 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.