understand linux kernel memory management

hkonok · 07-22-2012, 11:04 AM

hi,
i am new in linux kernel development field. I am trying to understand the kernel memory management functions and codes. Any suggestion regarding this topic would be very helpful for me.

thanks in advance.
konok

syg00 · 07-22-2012, 07:52 PM

Good luck.
Best sites to start are probably linux-mm.org and kernelnewbies.org

There isn't a lot of good (current) overview material out there (that I could find). Diving into the code drove me to drink - the code is convoluted and a reasonable amount is (in-line) assembler. Not an easy assignment, although in my case it was a side-issue to what I was really looking for at the time.

frankbell · 07-22-2012, 09:39 PM

You might find the Interactive Kernel Map useful: http://www.makelinux.net/kernel_map/

salasi · 07-23-2012, 07:14 AM

There is a book available called 'Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager' by Mel Gorman. part of the Bruce Perens/Prentice-Hall Open Source series There are a number of pluses and minuses

It is free, as a pdf
If you are lucky, if you look on distrowatch, you'll get a link from which to download it; otherwise a search?
Easier and better organised (for this purpose) than the RTFS solution

OTOH

It is a little dated (2.6 just...the details will have had some changes, but the fundamentals will be the same)
It is not exactly a trivial, fun, read....but then it wouldn't be

I don't know if there is a more up-to-date, paid for/dead-tree-ware version available, but there might be.