On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Pablo Alvarez wrote: > Calin Culianu wrote: > > >The kernel has it's own UNIQUE and DISTINCT set of > > 'library' functions that are sort of compiled into it. Things for > > managing memory, working with strings, abusing its own data structures, > > dealing with user space, fennagling interrupts, etc... Some of these > > library routines have the same name as the conventional c library > > routines.. (strncpy() is one example that comes to mind, there are > > others). However, that's where the similarities end. The kernel is it's > > own programming environment. Apart from the fact that you are using C, > > forget everything you ever knew about using C and the C library when you > > are solving programmatic problems in the kernel (ok.. that's a bit > > strong.. a lot of the kernel library resembles the user-space library > > stuff so yeah, it helps to have the background just so you can quickly > > learn the way the kernel does things). But the main reason for the above > > rant is this: Open yourself up to learning the kernel's library. > > > > That post cleared up a lot of things. I have a question: where do I go to > start learning the kernel's library? Books, man pages, web sites?
Heh, that's a good quetion which I really don't know the complete answer to. There are some books, yes. Recently I purchased "Understanding the Linux Kernel" by Bovet et al. It sucks. Really. Very disorganized and very difficult to find the information you need. It isn't a good reference, and isn't even that fun to read recreationally. It's written by a bunch of University professors who have spent too much time dealing with undergrads that they probably forgot how to relate to actual engineers and computer scientists. :( I heard good things about "Linux Kernel Internals" but that book was recommended by the same guy that told me to buy the other book, so take that with a grain of salt. If you have tons of time on your hands, it's always fun to read the .h files that are in the kernel's include/ directory. They are really cool to read since the kernel developers have devised some devious compiler tricks to do things such as export symbols, etc. Anyway, it takes time to peruse header files and be able to construct meaninful understandings from them, so maybe that isn't for you if you have limited amounts of it (time, that is). At any rate, happy hacking!! :) -Calin > > Thanks, > > Pablo Alvarez > > > -- [rtl] --- To unsubscribe: echo "unsubscribe rtl" | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR echo "unsubscribe rtl <Your_email>" | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- For more information on Real-Time Linux see: http://www.rtlinux.org/
