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74 lines
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.. _development_conclusion:
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For more information
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====================
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There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
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related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation
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directory found in the kernel source distribution. Start with the
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top-level :ref:`process/howto.rst <process_howto>`; also read
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:ref:`process/submitting-patches.rst <submittingpatches>`. Many internal
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kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc mechanism; "make htmldocs"
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or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those documents in HTML or PDF
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format (though the version of TeX shipped by some distributions runs into
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internal limits and fails to process the documents properly).
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Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your
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author would like to humbly suggest https://lwn.net/ as a source;
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information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
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index at:
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https://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
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Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
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https://kernelnewbies.org/
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And, of course, one should not forget https://kernel.org/, the definitive
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location for kernel release information.
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There are a number of books on kernel development:
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Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
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Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at
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https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
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Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
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Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
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All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
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somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
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the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good
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information to be found there.
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Documentation for git can be found at:
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https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
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https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
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Conclusion
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==========
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Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
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document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
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Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
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In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software
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project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The
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Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
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been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
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working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be
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done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
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The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There
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is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other
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participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
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kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
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lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
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the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where
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everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
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more than welcome.
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