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Considering and size and complexity of the Linux kernel, I don't think any amount of source code comments would help you much, unless you already have a strong

Considering and size and complexity of the Linux kernel, I don't think any amount of source code comments would help you much, unless you already have a strong understanding of the underlying subsystem you want to hack on. "Understanding the Linux kernel", and "Linux device drivers" are pretty good, pragmatic books IMHO to give you a solid understanding of most useful subsystem. As for this kernel building script, I guess it could be handy, but unless you're hacking very frequently I never found the actual build of the kernel to be the more cumbersome part.

synergy20 3y ago
the kernel and device drivers are both a bit out of date unfortunately, hope LF can found new revisions of them.
protomolecule 3y ago
How relevant are these books today? They were both written in 2005.
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  A bit out of date, but not to the point of being useless. I still give them to juniors and interns that want to learn more about kernel work. There's also a much more recent (2022) book called Linux Device Driver Development published by packt. In general, these sorts of books are mainly useful for "what not to do", as general architecture stuff is usually well documented by source code examples and in-kernel docs.
  - protomolecule 3y ago
    Thanks!
bheadmaster 3y ago
> unless you're hacking very frequently I never found the actual build of the kernel to be the more cumbersome part Doesn't kernel use incremental builds? All well-designed C projects that I know of compile .c files into .o files and link them, so a single file modification only requires a single recompilation/relinking.
- chlorion 3y ago
  It does use incremental builds so long as you don't reset everything. I'm not sure that a lot of people who don't work with make realize that it's smart enough to only rebuild what has changed, and that it's not just a command runner!

synergy20 3y ago

the kernel and device drivers are both a bit out of date unfortunately, hope LF can found new revisions of them.

protomolecule 3y ago

How relevant are these books today? They were both written in 2005.

AlotOfReading 3y ago
A bit out of date, but not to the point of being useless. I still give them to juniors and interns that want to learn more about kernel work. There's also a much more recent (2022) book called Linux Device Driver Development published by packt. In general, these sorts of books are mainly useful for "what not to do", as general architecture stuff is usually well documented by source code examples and in-kernel docs.
- protomolecule 3y ago
  Thanks!

bheadmaster 3y ago

> unless you're hacking very frequently I never found the actual build of the kernel to be the more cumbersome part Doesn't kernel use incremental builds? All well-designed C projects that I know of compile .c files into .o files and link them, so a single file modification only requires a single recompilation/relinking.

chlorion 3y ago
It does use incremental builds so long as you don't reset everything. I'm not sure that a lot of people who don't work with make realize that it's smart enough to only rebuild what has changed, and that it's not just a command runner!