<div dir="ltr">Specifically regarding (3) and (4), please refer to this: <div><a href="http://unixtravails.blogspot.ch/2012/07/linux-versioning-system-and-development.html">http://unixtravails.blogspot.ch/2012/07/linux-versioning-system-and-development.html</a></div>
<div><br></div><div style>Best Regards</div><div style>Gaurav Jain</div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 12:19 AM, Konstantin Kowalski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kostya-kow@mail.ru" target="_blank">kostya-kow@mail.ru</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hello everyone,<br>
<br>
I am interested in Linux kernel programming (and OS kernels and<br>
general), and I am currently reading several books about Linux kernel. I<br>
have a few questions about it:<br>
<br>
<br>
1.) Currently, I am reading 2 books about Linux kernel: Linux Device<br>
Drivers (3rd edition) and Linux Kernel Development (3rd edition).<br>
<br>
I like both books and I am learning a lot from them.<br>
<br>
I heard that both of this books are outdated, but so far all the<br>
information in this books seems valid and applicable. Is there better<br>
books you would recommend?<br>
<br>
2.) In Linux Device Drivers, it states that module_exit(function) is<br>
discarded if module is built directly into kernel or if kernel is<br>
compiled with option to disallow loadable modules. But what if the<br>
module still has to do something during shutdown? Releasing memory is<br>
unimportant since it does not persist over reboot, but what if the<br>
module has to write something to a disk file, or do some other action?<br>
<br>
3.) What's the deal with different kernel versions? I heard back in the<br>
2.x days, even kernels were stable and odd versions were experimental,<br>
but with 2.6 it changed.<br>
<br>
So with 3.x kernels, are all of them experimental in the beginning and<br>
stable in the end? Also, with 3.x new versions seem to be released more<br>
often than in 2.1-2.5 days. Did the release cycle get smaller or is it<br>
just my imagination? Also, what does rc number mean?<br>
<br>
4.) Currently, I am running linux-next, and it works great. Am I correct<br>
to assume that linux-next is supposed to have newest, shiniest and most<br>
unstable features? `uname -a` says that I am still running 3.8-next, but<br>
there is already 3.9 out. So which version is more experimental and<br>
least stable? Which one is the newest?<br>
<br>
5.) How exactly does make/.config work? When I run `make oldconfig`,<br>
does it use the everything from the previous .config and only ask how to<br>
configure new features? And when I run `make` does it re-use old object<br>
files if nothing was changed in the specific file, or does it re-compile<br>
everything from scratch?<br>
<br>
Thank you,<br>
<br>
Kostyantyn Kovalskyy (Konstantin Kowalski)<br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Gaurav Jain</font><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Associate Software Engineer</font></div>
<div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">VxVM Escalations Team, SAMG<br></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Symantec Software India Pvt. Ltd.</font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
<br></font></div></div>
</div></div>