Book review: Linux Kernel Development, third edition
Dec 29, 2010, 19:02 (1 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Jonathan Corbet)
"It has been well over five years since LWN reviewed the second
edition of Robert Love's Linux Kernel Development. Needless to say,
things have changed a little since the 2.6.10 release covered by
that edition. As it happens, the third edition has been out for a
few months now; your editor has finally had a chance to read
through his copy and put together a review. In summary, the third
edition is a much-needed update, and Linux Kernel Development
remains a valuable resource, but there are some disappointments to
be found as well.
"One has to dig a little bit to figure out which kernel version
is covered by the third edition; according to the preface, the
target is 2.6.34. Robert, ever the optimist, suggests that it will
be good for a long time: "As the Linux kernel matures, there is a
greater chance of a snapshot of the kernel remaining representative
long into the future." Time will tell.
"The third edition has been extensively updated, but it retains
the same structure as its predecessors. The preface talks of
"all-new" chapters, but the number of chapters remains the same.
The scheduler discussion has been updated to reflect the merging of
the completely fair scheduler. Other relatively recent kernel
changes (mutexes, for example) have been added, [book cover] and
there are changes throughout to reflect what has happened over the
last 24 kernel releases. There is a new chapter on kernel data
structures; it contains the linked list discussion previously found
in Appendix A, along with coverage of FIFOs, red-black trees, and
the idr subsystem."
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