linux-kernel - Re: API documentation (was [PATCH] Replace completions with semaphores)

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Date:	Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:33:15 +0200
From:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To:	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
Cc:	Bart Van Assche <bart.vanassche@...il.com>,
	Matthew Wilcox <matthew@....cx>,
	Roland Dreier <rdreier@...co.com>,
	Ingo Oeser <ioe-lkml@...eria.de>,
	Daniel Walker <dwalker@...sta.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...l.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
Subject: Re: API documentation (was [PATCH] Replace completions with
	semaphores)

On Mon, 2008-04-14 at 11:12 -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> Bart Van Assche <bart.vanassche@...il.com> wrote:
> 
> > The LWN book is getting outdated after all the 2.6 kernel API changes,
> > and the page with 2.6 kernel API changes was last updated six months
> > ago. Where can a kernel developer find up to date information about
> > kernel programming ?
> 
> The failure to update the API changes page is just me not managing to
> get around to it.  I'll do my best to take care of that in the next few
> days.  Apologies for that.
> 
> Updating LDD (which isn't really "the LWN book" though it's hosted here)
> will take a little longer.  I'd like to find a way to produce an LDD4
> with quality at least as good as LDD3, but which doesn't fill the world
> with immediately-obsolete bricks of dead trees.  Still working on it...

Books should only be used to obtain the general picture, any details
will be instantly-obsolete, esp at the pace Linux changes.

Most of the concepts from LDD3 are still valid, many of the details are
dead wrong.

Can't we make LDD4 a high level book, explcitly mentioning how people
should go about obtaining details? Like go ask on #kernelnewbies and the
sorts.

The thing I always tell #kernelnewbies people is to look at a related
driver (of course that kite doesn't always fly). Another good way to
learn stuff is to just read the implementation.

A 'trick' that is often useful is to look in git to see how something
was changed, provided you knew how to do it some time in the past.

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