Understanding... [Leanpub PDF/iPad/Kindle] by Vladimir Likic, Ph.D.
This book is about Linux from the kernel perspective. This book is intended for an informed Linux enthusiast, one who knows something about Linux (perhaps a great deal in some areas) but is curious about how all the pieces fit together under the control of the kernel. The kernel is highly efficient and designed to be invisible to the untrained eye, and therefore it's easy to miss. This book is intended for those who would like to know how things work "under the hood", but do not necessarily aspire to become kernel developers (so we skip many details, and especially details that do not contribute to understanding of the principles, for example device drivers). We examine how the Linux environment operates, how this relates to the design principles of Unix, and why Linux works exactly the way it does. We experiment on the command line (from the Unix shell), by looking into the representative sections of the kernel source code, and by kernel programming (by writing kernel-loadable modules). Specially prepared Kernel Exercises use kernel modules to play with internal kernel structures and illustrate specific points. The exercises involve writing actual kernel modules, inserting them into a running kernel, and observing the effects or outputs. They are designed so that anyone with a basic knowledge of programming and a working Linux system should be able to execute them. This book is work in progress (currently 196 pages, 81% complete). This is also the opportunity to get the book for the price of $9.99, which entitles you to all the future versions of the book. If you buy the book, please subscribe to notifications, without this you'll miss the release notes (these are rare, once in a few months). Finally, to those who already bought the book, thank you!
Vladimir Likic is the author of the book "Understanding Linux: The Kernel Perspective" available from LeanPub: https://leanpub.com/linuxkernel
