Newbie help

[Bjørn Mork]

Rishabh Chakrabarti <bassdeveloper at gmail.com> writes:

> Hello all,
>
> Where can I search the archives and other resources for answering the
> following questions:
> 	
> 1. How to dive into the code? i.e. entry points

Wherever your interest is. There are no strict rules.  If you don't know
ahere your interest is, then you should ask yourself why you are
interested in the Linux kernel in the first place.

Out of your areas of interest, try to find a part of the kernel which is
well maintained and have (semi-)sufficient reviewer resources, because
you will need that as a newbie. You may use the Status field in
MAINTAINERS as an initial guide, but only recent mailing list archives
will tell for sure.  Look for comments and feedback on patches.

> 2. What are the pre-requisites for understanding the whole code?

I don't think that is possible...

You should understand the part you want to modify.  You'll need some
knowledge of C, and an ability to learn.  The latter is most important.

> 3. Best books and resource material

I see that Documentation/ and LDD3 is already mentioned. Other than
that: The source code is there, and is much more readable and commented
than most other C projects.  Use it.  Reading code, and trying to figure
out how it works and why it was written like that, is a great way to
learn.

Use the git commit messsages to help understanding if there is something
which isn't obvious (there will be, of course).  Every single commit is
justified and explained and in detail in git.  And you will have to do
the same, so you should familiarize yourself with those messages in any
case.


Bjørn