The Linux Kernel documentation

This is the top level of the kernel’s documentation tree. Kernel documentation, like the kernel itself, is very much a work in progress; that is especially true as we work to integrate our many scattered documents into a coherent whole. Please note that improvements to the documentation are welcome; join the linux-doc list at vger.kernel.org if you want to help out.

Licensing documentation

The following describes the license of the Linux kernel source code (GPLv2), how to properly mark the license of individual files in the source tree, as well as links to the full license text.

Application-developer documentation

The user-space API manual gathers together documents describing aspects of the kernel interface as seen by application developers.

Introduction to kernel development

These manuals contain overall information about how to develop the kernel. The kernel community is quite large, with thousands of developers contributing over the course of a year. As with any large community, knowing how things are done will make the process of getting your changes merged much easier.

Kernel API documentation

These books get into the details of how specific kernel subsystems work from the point of view of a kernel developer. Much of the information here is taken directly from the kernel source, with supplemental material added as needed (or at least as we managed to add it — probably not all that is needed).

Architecture-specific documentation

These books provide programming details about architecture-specific implementation.

Filesystem Documentation

The documentation in this section are provided by specific filesystem subprojects.

Indices and tables