What Next After Char, Block, Serial & Parallel Drivers

[Jeff Haran]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sasha Mckinsey [mailto:iamsasha01 at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 11:34 AM
> To: Jeff Haran; kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> Subject: Re: What Next After Char, Block, Serial & Parallel Drivers
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks Jeff! Just a thought. Will it be a good idea to get my hands dirty with
> socket programming (L2,L3,IPsec,TCP/IP) in the user space to get some
> experience & understanding and then perhaps dive into kernel network
> stack at a later stage.
> 
> Thanks for all your help
> 
> Sasha

That is certainly a more typical way to get started. Plus if one of your goals is to get a job in software development, there will probably be more entry level positions doing user space development than in kernel space (a lot of companies don't do anything WRT development in the kernel, there's a good business case for them staying out of it). Do understand that the communications layers you refer to (L2,L3,IPsec,TCP/IP) are typically implemented in the kernel rather than user space, but even in user space development there will usually be plenty of opportunity to learn what's going on in those layers at the protocol level when the code you write doesn't behave the way you expect it to. If they aren't your friends now, tcpdump and Wireshark will be.

Jeff Haran