Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt
This file describes the rationale behind the conscious decision to
not have a stable API within the kernel, including things like:
- Subsystem shim-layers (for compatibility?)
- Driver portability between Operating Systems.
- Mitigating rapid change within the kernel source tree (or
preventing rapid change)
This document is crucial for understanding the Linux development
philosophy and is very important for people moving to Linux from
development on other Operating Systems.
Documentation/SecurityBugs
If you feel you have found a security problem in the Linux kernel,
please follow the steps in this document to help notify the kernel
developers, and help solve the issue.
Documentation/ManagementStyle
This document describes how Linux kernel maintainers operate and the
shared ethos behind their methodologies. This is important reading
for anyone new to kernel development (or anyone simply curious about
it), as it resolves a lot of common misconceptions and confusion
about the unique behavior of kernel maintainers.
Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt
This file describes the rules on how the stable kernel releases
happen, and what to do if you want to get a change into one of these
releases.
Documentation/kernel-docs.txt
A list of external documentation that pertains to kernel
development. Please consult this list if you do not find what you
are looking for within the in-kernel documentation.
Documentation/applying-patches.txt
A good introduction describing exactly what a patch is and how to
apply it to the different development branches of the kernel.
The kernel also has a large number of documents that can be
automatically generated from the source code itself. This includes a
full description of the in-kernel API, and rules on how to handle
locking properly. The documents will be created in the
Documentation/DocBook/ directory and can be generated as PDF,
Postscript, HTML, and man pages by running:
make pdfdocs
make psdocs
make htmldocs
make mandocs
respectively from the main kernel source directory.
Becoming A Kernel Developer
---------------------------
If you do not know anything about Linux kernel development, you should
look at the Linux KernelNewbies project:
http://kernelnewbies.org
It consists of a helpful mailing list where you can ask almost any type
of basic kernel development question (make sure to search the archives
first, before asking something that has already been answered in the