Understanding the LINUX Kernel: From I/O Ports to Process Management

Marco Cesati,Daniel Pierre Bovet

ISBN 10: 0596000022 / ISBN 13: 9780596000028

Published by O'Reilly Media, 2000

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Understanding the LINUX Kernel: From I/O Ports to Process Management
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0596000022
• ISBN 13: 9780596000028
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Why is Linux so efficient? Is it the right operating system for a particular application? What can be learned from looking at the kernel source code? These are the kinds of questions that this text takes in stride in this guided tour of the code that forms the core of all Linux operating systems. The book aims to help readers understand how Linux performs best and how it meets the challenge of different environments. Theauthors introduce each topic by explaining its importance, and show how kernel operations relate to the utilities that are familiar to Unix programmers and users. Major topics include: memory management, including file buffering, process swapping, and direct memory access (DMA); the virtual file system and the second extended file system; process creation and scheduling; signals, interrupts, and the essential interfaces to device drivers; timing; synchronization in the kernel; inter-process communication (IPC); and program execution.

About the Author

Daniel P. Bovet earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science at UCLA in 1968 and is now a full professor at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," Italy. He had to wait more than 25 years before being able to teach an OS course in a proper manner, because of the unavailability of source code for modern, well-designed systems. Now, thanks to cheap PCs and to Linux, Marco and Dan are able to cover all the facets of an operating system from booting to tuning and to hand out tough, satisfying homework to their students. (These young guys working at home on their PC are really spoiled; they never had to fight with punched cards.) In fact, he was so fascinated by the accomplishments of Linus and his followers that he spent the last few years trying to unravel some of Linux's mysteries. It seemed natural after all that work to write a book about what he found out. Marco Cesati got a degree in Mathematics in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Univ. of Rome "La Sapienza") in 1995. He is now a research assistant in the Computer Science Department of the School of Engineering (Univ. of Rome "Tor Vergata"). In the past he was system administrator and Unix programmer for the university (as a Ph.D. student) and for several institutions (as a consultant). During the last three years he has been continuously involved in teaching his students how to change the Linux kernel in strange and funny ways.