From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 24 08:38:56 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C647016A4CE for ; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:38:56 +0000 (GMT) Received: from postfix3-1.free.fr (postfix3-1.free.fr [213.228.0.44]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DFFB43D2F for ; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:38:56 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from tataz@tataz.chchile.org) Received: from tatooine.tataz.chchile.org (vol75-8-82-233-239-98.fbx.proxad.net [82.233.239.98]) by postfix3-1.free.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 86662173521; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:38:55 +0100 (CET) Received: by tatooine.tataz.chchile.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CB285407C; Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:38:39 +0100 (CET) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:38:39 +0100 From: Jeremie Le Hen To: klowd9 - Message-ID: <20050324083839.GP54204@obiwan.tataz.chchile.org> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.8i cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Kernel documentation and specification X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:38:56 -0000 Hi, > Where can i find resources about the freebsd kernel? > I read over the developers handbook, and the architecture handbook, and > both provide very little information i need. Kirk McKusick and George Neville-Neil's book << The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System >> is indeed a great book as it has been stated multiple times in this thread. I won't react about the price as I find it not so expensive, but I admit that I'm fortunate enough to live in a country where $60 don't represent a so much significant part of a monthly salary. Tanenbaum has been cited, but in order to be as exhaustive as possible, I have to mention the << Unix Internals - The new frontiers >> from Uresh Vahalia [1] . This is IHMO a very interesting book in that although it's not FreeBSD centric, it brings you a very strong kernel culture by comparing various kernel subsystem implementations among SVR4, 4BSD, Solaris and Mach. Unfortunately this book is as expensive as the first one. > Some questions for instance are the use of sse, mmx, and fpu register and > commands inside the kernel. How is the development organized. Is it just a > jungle where people choose what they want to improve and expand in the > kernel and then submit their code? If you are interested in FreeBSD developpement model, I strongly advice you to read Niklas Saers's thesis << A project model for the FreeBSD Project >> [2] which is the deepest analysis realized until now, at least as far as I know. Best regards, [1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131019082/qid=1111653140/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-1939485-3681741?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 [2] http://niklas.saers.com/thesis/thesis.html -- Jeremie Le Hen < jeremie at le-hen dot org >< ttz at chchile dot org >