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19.1. Books

While the bookstores are full of technical books, there are surprisingly few that are directly relevant to Linux kernel programming. Here is a selection of books found on our shelves.

19.1.1. Linux Kernel

Bovet, Daniel P. and Marco Cesate. Understanding the Linux Kernel, Second Edition. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 2003.

This book covers the design and implementation of the Linux kernel in great detail. It is more oriented toward providing an understanding of the algorithms used than documenting the kernel API. This book covers the 2.4 kernel but still contains a great deal of useful information.

Gorman, Mel. Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 2004.

Developers wanting to know more about the Linux virtual memory subsystem may wish to have a look at this book. It is centered around the 2.4 kernel but contains 2.6 information as well.

Love, Robert. Linux Kernel Development. Indianapolis: Sams Publishing, 2004.

This book covers Linux kernel programming with a broad scope. It is a reference that should be on every Linux hacker's bookshelf.

Yaghmour, Karim. Building Embedded Systems. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 2003.

This book will be useful to those writing Linux code for embedded systems.

19.1.2. Unix Design and Internals

Bach, Maurice. The Design of the Unix Operating System. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1987.

Though quite old, this book covers all the issues related to Unix implementations. It was the main source of inspiration for Linus in the first Linux version.

Stevens, Richard. Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1992.

Every detail of Unix system calls is described herein, which is a good companion when implementing advanced features in the device methods.

Stevens, Richard. Unix Network Programming. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 1990.

Perhaps the definitive book on the Unix network programming API.

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    Poster of Linux kernelThe best gift for a Linux geek