8.Conclusion.rst (3218B)
1.. _development_conclusion: 2 3For more information 4==================== 5 6There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and 7related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation 8directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level :ref:`process/howto.rst <process_howto>` 9file is an important starting point; :ref:`process/submitting-patches.rst <submittingpatches>` 10and :ref:`process/submitting-drivers.rst <submittingdrivers>` 11are also something which all kernel developers should 12read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc 13mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those 14documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some 15distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents 16properly). 17 18Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your 19author would like to humbly suggest https://lwn.net/ as a source; 20information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel 21index at: 22 23 https://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/ 24 25Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is: 26 27 https://kernelnewbies.org/ 28 29And, of course, one should not forget https://kernel.org/, the definitive 30location for kernel release information. 31 32There are a number of books on kernel development: 33 34 Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro 35 Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at 36 https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/. 37 38 Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love). 39 40 Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati). 41 42All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be 43somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on 44the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good 45information to be found there. 46 47Documentation for git can be found at: 48 49 https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/ 50 51 https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html 52 53 54Conclusion 55========== 56 57Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded 58document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the 59Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process. 60 61In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software 62project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The 63Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has 64been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are 65working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be 66done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal. 67 68The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There 69is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other 70participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the 71kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality, 72lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over 73the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where 74everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be 75more than welcome.