How do _you_ read the linux source?

Milton Krutt milton at krutt.org
Mon Apr 20 20:16:49 EDT 2015


> On Sun, Apr 19, 2015 at 06:57:49PM -0700, r00nk at simplecpu.com wrote:
> > 	The problem a lot of newbies are having is in 'separating the trunk
> > from the leaves.' So my question is this: Experienced kernel developers, how
> > do _you_ read source code? How do you separate the trunk from the leaves?
> > What do you do when you read code you're not familiar with? How do you learn?
> > What's your algorithm?

Maybe it could help to firstly focus on data structures/types rather than functions;
and I would discourage to read code like a book, I mean from left to right and
from top to bottom. And, take a subsystem/part (even if it's very small) of interest
and just focus on it. For instance, I guess there is plenty of documentation on how
linux boots up: read it, and search through the source where what you have read is done.

compile your own kernel, if you haven't done it yet!

HTH



More information about the Kernelnewbies mailing list