Understanding the Linux Kernel

Linux has increasingly become not only a mission-critical part of many organizations, but a sophisticated display of programming skill. It incorporates many advanced operating system concepts and has proven itself extremely robust and efficient for a wide range of uses. Understanding the Linux Kernel helps readers understand how Linux performs best and how it meets the challenge of different environments. The authors 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), Program execution.