Linux Kernel Programming: A comprehensive guide to kernel internals, writing kernel modules, and kernel synchronization

Learn how to write high-quality kernel module code, solve common Linux kernel programming issues, and understand the fundamentals of Linux kernel internals

Key Features

• Discover how to write kernel code using the Loadable Kernel Module framework
• Explore industry-grade techniques to perform efficient memory allocation and data synchronization within the kernel
• Understand the essentials of key internals topics such as kernel architecture, memory management, CPU scheduling, and kernel synchronization

Book Description

Linux Kernel Programming is a comprehensive introduction for those new to Linux kernel and module development. This easy-to-follow guide will have you up and running with writing kernel code in next-to-no time. This book uses the latest 5.4 Long-Term Support (LTS) Linux kernel, which will be maintained from November 2019 through to December 2025. By working with the 5.4 LTS kernel throughout the book, you can be confident that your knowledge will continue to be valid for years to come.

You’ll start the journey by learning how to build the kernel from the source. Next, you’ll write your first kernel module using the powerful Loadable Kernel Module (LKM) framework. The following chapters will cover key kernel internals topics including Linux kernel architecture, memory management, and CPU scheduling.

During the course of this book, you’ll delve into the fairly complex topic of concurrency within the kernel, understand the issues it can cause, and learn how they can be addressed with various locking technologies (mutexes, spinlocks, atomic, and refcount operators). You’ll also benefit from more advanced material on cache effects, a primer on lock-free techniques within the kernel, deadlock avoidance (with lockdep), and kernel lock debugging techniques.

By the end of this kernel book, you’ll have a detailed understanding of the fundamentals of writing Linux kernel module code for real-world projects and products.

What you will learn

• Write high-quality modular kernel code (LKM framework) for 5.x kernels
• Configure and build a kernel from source
• Explore the Linux kernel architecture
• Get to grips with key internals regarding memory management within the kernel
• Understand and work with various dynamic kernel memory alloc/dealloc APIs
• Discover key internals aspects regarding CPU scheduling within the kernel
• Gain an understanding of kernel concurrency issues
• Find out how to work with key kernel synchronization primitives

Who this book is for

This book is for Linux programmers beginning to find their way with Linux kernel development. If you’re a Linux kernel and driver developer looking to overcome frequent and common kernel development issues, or understand kernel intervals, you’ll find plenty of useful information.

You’ll need a solid foundation of Linux CLI and C programming before you can jump in.

Table of Contents

1. Kernel Workspace Setup
2. Building the 5.0 Linux kernel from Source, Part 1
3. Building the 5.0 Linux kernel from Source, Part 2
4. Writing your First Kernel Module, Part 1
5. Writing your First Kernel Module - Part 2
6. Kernel Internals Essentials - Processes and Threads
7. Memory Management Internals - Essentials
8. Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors, Part 1
9. Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors - Part 2
10. The CPU Scheduler - Part 1
11. The CPU Scheduler - Part 2
12. Kernel Synchronization - Part 1
13. Kernel Synchronization - Part 2

Kaiwan N Billimoria taught himself BASIC programming on his dad's IBM PC back in 1983. He was programming in C and Assembly on DOS until he discovered the joys of Unix, and by around 1997, Linux!

Kaiwan has worked on many aspects of the Linux system programming stack, including Bash scripting, system programming in C, kernel internals, device drivers, and embedded Linux work. He has actively worked on several commercial/FOSS projects. His contributions include drivers to the mainline Linux OS and many smaller projects hosted on GitHub. His Linux passion feeds well into his passion for teaching these topics to engineers, which he has done for well over two decades now. He's also the author of Hands-On System Programming with Linux. It doesn't hurt that he is a recreational ultrarunner too.