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authorJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2008-09-30 15:15:56 -0600
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2008-10-16 11:51:30 -0600
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treed22b040f9acdf242e5facf3ec491fcf932a5ca36 /Documentation/development-process/8.Conclusion
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This is an extended document intended to help interested developers, their managers, and their employers work with the kernel development process. This work was supported by the Linux Foundation. Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
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+8: FOR MORE INFORMATION
+
+There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
+related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation
+directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level HOWTO
+file is an important starting point; SubmittingPatches and
+SubmittingDrivers are also something which all kernel developers should
+read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc
+mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those
+documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some
+distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents
+properly).
+
+Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your
+author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source;
+information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
+index at:
+
+ http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
+
+Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
+
+ http://kernelnewbies.org/
+
+Information about the linux-next tree gathers at:
+
+ http://linux.f-seidel.de/linux-next/pmwiki/
+
+And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive
+location for kernel release information.
+
+There are a number of books on kernel development:
+
+ Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
+ Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at
+ http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
+
+ Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
+
+ Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
+
+All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
+somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
+the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good
+information to be found there.
+
+Documentation for git can be found at:
+
+ http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
+
+ http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
+
+
+9: CONCLUSION
+
+Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
+document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
+Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
+
+In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software
+project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The
+Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
+been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
+working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be
+done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
+
+The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There
+is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other
+participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
+kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
+lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
+the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where
+everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
+more than welcome.