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Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization
Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization

Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization: Create user-kernel interfaces, work with peripheral I/O, and handle hardware interrupts

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Profile Icon Kaiwan N. Billimoria
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€29.99
Paperback Mar 2021 452 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€15.99 €23.99
Paperback
€29.99
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Renews at €18.99p/m
Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Kaiwan N. Billimoria
Arrow right icon
€29.99
Paperback Mar 2021 452 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€15.99 €23.99
Paperback
€29.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€15.99 €23.99
Paperback
€29.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m

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Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization

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Key benefits

  • Delve into hardware interrupt handling, threaded IRQs, tasklets, softirqs, and understand which to use when
  • Explore powerful techniques to perform user-kernel interfacing, peripheral I/O and use kernel mechanisms
  • Work with key kernel synchronization primitives to solve kernel concurrency issues

Description

Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 - Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization is an ideal companion guide to the Linux Kernel Programming book. This book provides a comprehensive introduction for those new to Linux device driver development and will have you up and running with writing misc class character device driver code (on the 5.4 LTS Linux kernel) in next to no time. You'll begin by learning how to write a simple and complete misc class character driver before interfacing your driver with user-mode processes via procfs, sysfs, debugfs, netlink sockets, and ioctl. You'll then find out how to work with hardware I/O memory. The book covers working with hardware interrupts in depth and helps you understand interrupt request (IRQ) allocation, threaded IRQ handlers, tasklets, and softirqs. You'll also explore the practical usage of useful kernel mechanisms, setting up delays, timers, kernel threads, and workqueues. Finally, you'll discover how to deal with the complexity of kernel synchronization with locking technologies (mutexes, spinlocks, and atomic/refcount operators), including more advanced topics such as cache effects, a primer on lock-free techniques, deadlock avoidance (with lockdep), and kernel lock debugging techniques. By the end of this Linux kernel book, you'll have learned the fundamentals of writing Linux character device driver code for real-world projects and products.

Who is this book for?

An understanding of the topics covered in the Linux Kernel Programming book is highly recommended to make the most of this book. This book is for Linux programmers beginning to find their way with device driver development. Linux device driver developers looking to overcome frequent and common kernel/driver development issues, as well as perform common driver tasks such as user-kernel interfaces, performing peripheral I/O, handling hardware interrupts, and dealing with concurrency will benefit from this book. A basic understanding of Linux kernel internals (and common APIs), kernel module development, and C programming is required.

What you will learn

  • Get to grips with the basics of the modern Linux Device Model (LDM)
  • Write a simple yet complete misc class character device driver
  • Perform user-kernel interfacing using popular methods
  • Understand and handle hardware interrupts confidently
  • Perform I/O on peripheral hardware chip memory
  • Explore kernel APIs to work with delays, timers, kthreads, and workqueues
  • Understand kernel concurrency issues
  • Work with key kernel synchronization primitives and discover how to detect and avoid deadlock
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Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Mar 19, 2021
Length: 452 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781801079518
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Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Austria

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Product Details

Publication date : Mar 19, 2021
Length: 452 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781801079518
Tools :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
Section 1: Character Device Driver Basics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Writing a Simple misc Character Device Driver Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
User-Kernel Communication Pathways Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
User-Kernel Communication Pathways
Technical requirements
Approaches to communicating/interfacing a kernel driver with a user space C app
Interfacing via the proc filesystem (procfs)
Understanding the proc filesystem
Directories under /proc
The purpose behind the proc filesystem
procfs is off-bounds to driver authors
Using procfs to interface with the user space
Basic procfs APIs
The four procfs files we will create
Trying out the dynamic debug_level procfs control
Dynamically controlling debug_level via procfs
A few misc procfs APIs
Interfacing via the sys filesystem (sysfs)
Creating a sysfs (pseudo) file in code
Creating a simple platform device
Platform devices
Tying it all together – setting up the device attributes and creating the sysfs file
The code for implementing our sysfs file and its callbacks
The "one value per sysfs file" rule
Interfacing via the debug filesystem (debugfs)
Checking for the presence of debugfs
Looking up the debugfs API documentation
An interfacing example with debugfs
Creating and using the first debugfs file
Creating and using the second debugfs file
Helper debugfs APIs for working on numeric globals
Removing the debugfs pseudo file(s)
Seeing a kernel bug – an Oops!
Debugfs – actual users
Interfacing via netlink sockets
Advantages using sockets
Understanding what a netlink socket is
Writing the user space netlink socket application
Writing the kernel-space netlink socket code as a kernel module
Trying out our netlink interfacing project
Interfacing via the ioctl system call
Using ioctl in the user and kernel space
User space – using the ioctl system call
Kernel space – using the ioctl system call
ioctl as a debug interface
Comparing the interfacing methods – a table
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Working with Hardware I/O Memory Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Handling Hardware Interrupts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Handling Hardware Interrupts
Technical requirements
Hardware interrupts and how the kernel handles them
Allocating the hardware IRQ
Allocating your interrupt handler with request_irq()
Freeing the IRQ line
Setting interrupt flags
Understanding level- and edge-triggered interrupts – a brief note
Code view 1 – the IXGB network driver
Implementing the interrupt handler routine
Interrupt context guidelines – what to do and what not to do
Don't block – spotting possibly blocking code paths
Interrupt masking – the defaults and controlling it
Keep it fast
Writing the interrupt handler routine itself
Code view 2 – the i8042 driver's interrupt handler
Code view 3 – the IXGB network driver's interrupt handler
IRQ allocation – the modern way – the managed interrupt facility
Working with the threaded interrupts model
Employing the threaded interrupt model – the API
Employing the managed threaded interrupt model – the recommended way
Code view 4 – the STM32 F7 microcontroller's threaded interrupt handler
Internally implementing the threaded interrupt
Why use threaded interrupts?
Threaded interrupts – to really make it real time
Constraints when using a threaded handler
Working with either hardirq or threaded handlers
Enabling and disabling IRQs
The NMI
Viewing all allocated interrupt (IRQ) lines
Understanding and using top and bottom halves
Specifying and using a tasklet
Initializing the tasklet
Running the tasklet
Understanding the kernel softirq mechanism
Available softirqs and what they are for
Understanding how the kernel runs softirqs
Running tasklets
Employing the ksoftirqd kernel threads
Softirqs and concurrency
Hardirqs, tasklets, and threaded handlers – what to use when
Fully figuring out the context
Viewing the context – examples
How Linux prioritizes activities
A few remaining FAQs answered
Load balancing interrupts and IRQ affinity
Does the kernel maintain separate IRQ stacks?
Measuring metrics and latency
Measuring interrupts with [e]BPF
Measuring time servicing individual hardirqs
Measuring time servicing individual softirqs
Using Ftrace to get a handle on system latencies
Finding the interrupts disabled worst-case time latency with Ftrace
Other tools
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Working with Kernel Timers, Threads, and Workqueues Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Kernel Timers, Threads, and Workqueues
Technical requirements
Delaying for a given time in the kernel
Understanding how to use the *delay() atomic APIs
Understanding how to use the *sleep() blocking APIs
Taking timestamps within kernel code
Let's try it – how long do delays and sleeps really take?
The "sed" drivers – to demo kernel timers, kthreads, and workqueues
Setting up and using kernel timers
Using kernel timers
Our simple kernel timer module – code view 1
Our simple kernel timer module – code view 2
Our simple kernel timer module – running it
sed1 – implementing timeouts with our demo sed1 driver
Deliberately missing the bus
Creating and working with kernel threads
A simple demo – creating a kernel thread
Running the kthread_simple kernel thread demo
The sed2 driver – design and implementation
sed2 – the design
sed2 driver – code implementation
sed2 – trying it out
Querying and setting the scheduling policy/priority of a kernel thread
Using kernel workqueues
The bare minimum workqueue internals
Using the kernel-global workqueue
Initializing the kernel-global workqueue for your task – INIT_WORK()
Having your work task execute – schedule_work()
Variations of scheduling your work task
Cleaning up – canceling or flushing your work task
A quick summary of the workflow
Our simple work queue kernel module – code view
Our simple work queue kernel module – running it
The sed3 mini project – a very brief look
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Section 2: Delving Deeper Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Kernel Synchronization - Part 1 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Kernel Synchronization - Part 2 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon