作者：Daniel P. Bovet, Marco Cesati
出版日期：November 2005
出版社：O'Reilly
页数：942
ISBN：0596005652
文件格式：CHM


Inorder to thoroughly understand what makes Linux tick and why it worksso well on a wide variety of systems, you need to delve deep into theheart of the kernel. The kernel handles all interactions between theCPU and the external world, and determines which programs will shareprocessor time, in what order. It manages limited memory so well thathundreds of processes can share the system efficiently, and expertlyorganizes data transfers so that the CPU isn’t kept waiting any longerthan necessary for the relatively slow disks.The third edition of Understanding the Linux Kerneltakes you on a guided tour of the most significant data structures,algorithms, and programming tricks used in the kernel. Probing beyondsuperficial features, the authors offer valuable insights to people whowant to know how things really work inside their machine. ImportantIntel-specific features are discussed. Relevant segments of code aredissected line by line. But the book covers more than just thefunctioning of the code; it explains the theoretical underpinnings ofwhy Linux does things the way it does.
This edition of the book covers Version 2.6, which has seensignificant changes to nearly every kernel subsystem, particularly inthe areas of memory management and block devices. The book focuses onthe following topics:
Memory management, including file buffering, process swapping, and Direct memory Access (DMA)The Virtual Filesystem layer and the Second and Third Extended FilesystemsProcess creation and schedulingSignals, interrupts, and the essential interfaces to device driversTimingSynchronization within the kernelInterprocess Communication (IPC)Program executionUnderstanding the Linux Kernel will acquaint you with allthe inner workings of Linux, but it’s more than just an academicexercise. You’ll learn what conditions bring out Linux’s bestperformance, and you’ll see how it meets the challenge of providinggood system response during process scheduling, file access, and memorymanagement in a wide variety of environments. This book will help youmake the most of your Linux system.