Date: 27 Jan 2001 16:51:28 +0100 From: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@ofug.org> To: Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net> Cc: GLOBALLINK2001@aol.com, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Kernel Hacking (i tried not to make it lame) Message-ID: <xzpg0i5gfi7.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> In-Reply-To: Alfred Perlstein's message of "Fri, 26 Jan 2001 01:10:53 -0800" References: <8c.189517c.27a24307@aol.com> <20010126011053.C26076@fw.wintelcom.net>
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Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net> writes: > * GLOBALLINK2001@aol.com <GLOBALLINK2001@aol.com> [010125 19:04] wrote: > > 2.) you should know some basic stuff about FreeBSD internels (i am planning > > on getting The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System > > Well more than 'basic' hopefully. :) > > Good choice on a book, others to look at are: > "UNIX Internals 'the new frontiers'" Vahalia > "The Basic Kernel Source Secrets" Jolitz I haven't read Vahalia, so I can't comment on that one, but both McKusick et al. and Jolitz are seriously outdated - you can basically forget anything they tell you about memory management (particularly virtual memory), interrupt handling, spls, and probably scheduling as well; and none of them tell you much about writing device drivers (which is what kernel newbies most often want to do). On the other hand, the Daemon book (McKusick et al.) still has some fairly relevant sections (some of part 2, about half of part 3 and most of part 4), and does a good job of demystifying the kernel on a psychological level, i.e. teaching you that most of it really isn't deep voodoo and you can understand it if you try. In my experience, this psychological block is a much bigger obstacle to overcome than actual technical complexity. (hmm, I must remember to drop by Mustang Jack next time I'm in NYC) DES -- Dag-Erling Smorgrav - des@ofug.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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