Linux Kernel Programming: A comprehensive and practical guide to kernel internals, writing modules, and kernel synchronization

Linux Kernel Programming

Second Edition

A comprehensive and practical guide to kernel internals, writing modules, and kernel synchronization

Kaiwan N. Billimoria

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Linux Kernel Programming

Second Edition

Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

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First published: March 2021

Second edition: February 2024

Production reference: 1270224

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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Birmingham

B3 1RB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80323-222-5

www.packt.com

Contributors

About the author

Kaiwan N. Billimoria learned to code on his Dad’s IBM PC (1983). He was programming in C and Assembly on DOS until he discovered Unix, and soon after, Linux! Kaiwan has worked extensively on the Linux system programming stack, including drivers and embedded Linux. He has actively worked on several commercial/FOSS projects. His contributions include drivers on Linux and many smaller projects hosted on GitHub. His passion for Linux helps when teaching these topics to engineers, which he has done for well over two decades now. He considers his major contribution to be his books: Hands-On System Programming with Linux, Linux Kernel Programming (and its Part 2 book), and Linux Kernel Debugging. He is a recreational runner too.

First, to my wonderful family: my parents, Nads and Diana, my wife, Dilshad, my kids, Sheroy and Danesh, my bro, Darius, and the rest of the family. Thanks for being there! The Packt team has shepherded me through this work with patience and excellence, as usual. A special call out to Rianna Rodrigues, Aaron Tanna, and Aniket Shetty – thanks for all your timely support throughout!

About the reviewer

Chi-Thanh Hoang is currently working as a Senior Lead Radio SW Architect at Mavenir Systems, currently developing O-RAN 5G radios. He has over 30 years of software development experience, specializing mostly in embedded networking systems (switches, routers, Wi-Fi, and mobile networks) from chipsets up to communication protocols and of course kernel/RTOS. His first experience with the Linux kernel was in 1993. He still does hands-on debugging inside the kernel. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Sherbrooke University, Canada. He is also an avid tennis player and invariably tinkers with electronics and software.

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Contents

Preface

Who this book is for

What’s been added in the second edition?

What this book covers

Get in touch

Linux Kernel Programming – A Quick Introduction

Kernel workspace setup

Technical requirements

Cloning this book’s code repository

Building the 6.x Linux Kernel from Source – Part 1

Technical requirements

Preliminaries for the kernel build

Understanding the Linux kernel release nomenclature

Fingers-and-toes releases

Kernel development workflow – understanding the basics

Viewing the kernel’s Git log via the command line

Viewing the kernel’s Git log via its GitHub page

The kernel dev workflow in a nutshell

Exercise

Exploring the types of kernel source trees

LTS kernels – the new mandate

Which kernel should I run?

Steps to build the kernel from source

Step 1 – Obtaining a Linux kernel source tree

Downloading a specific kernel tree

Cloning a Git tree

Step 2 – Extracting the kernel source tree

A brief tour of the kernel source tree

Step 3 – Configuring the Linux kernel

Minimally understanding the Kconfig/Kbuild build system

How the Kconfig+Kbuild system works – a minimal take

Arriving at a default configuration

Obtaining a good starting point for kernel configuration

Kernel config using distribution config as a starting point

Tuned kernel config via the localmodconfig approach

Kernel config for typical embedded Linux systems

Seeing all available config options

Getting going with the localmodconfig approach

Tuning our kernel configuration via the make menuconfig UI

Sample usage of the make menuconfig UI

Kernel config – exploring a bit more

Searching within the menuconfig UI

Looking up the differences in configuration

Using the kernel’s config script to view/edit the kernel config

Configuring the kernel for security

Miscellaneous tips – kernel config

Customizing the kernel menu, Kconfig, and adding our own menu item

Understanding the Kconfig* files

Creating a new menu item within the General Setup menu

A few details on the Kconfig language

Summary

Exercise

Questions

Further reading

Building the 6.x Linux Kernel from Source – Part 2

Technical requirements

Step 4 – building the kernel image and modules

Getting over a cert config issue on Ubuntu

Step 5 – installing the kernel modules

Locating the kernel modules within the kernel source

Getting the kernel modules installed

Overriding the default module installation location

Step 6 – generating the initramfs image and bootloader setup

Generating the initramfs image – under the hood

Understanding the initramfs framework

Why the initramfs framework?

Understanding the basics of the boot process on the x86

More on the initramfs framework

Peeking into the initramfs image

Step 7 – customizing the GRUB bootloader

Customizing GRUB – the basics

Selecting the default kernel to boot into

Booting our VM via the GNU GRUB bootloader

Experimenting with the GRUB prompt

Verifying our new kernel’s configuration

Kernel build for the Raspberry Pi

Step 1 – cloning the Raspberry Pi kernel source tree

Step 2 – installing an x86_64-to-AArch64 cross-toolchain

Step 3 – configuring and building the Raspberry Pi AArch64 kernel

Miscellaneous tips on the kernel build

Minimum version requirements

Building a kernel for another site

Watching the kernel build run

A shortcut shell syntax to the build procedure

Dealing with missing OpenSSL development headers

How can I check which distro kernels are installed?

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Writing Your First Kernel Module – Part 1

Technical requirements

Understanding the kernel architecture – part 1

User space and kernel space

Library and system call APIs

Kernel space components

Exploring LKMs

The LKM framework

Kernel modules within the kernel source tree

Writing our very first kernel module

Introducing our Hello, world LKM C code

Breaking it down

Kernel headers

Module macros

Entry and exit points

Return values

Common operations on kernel modules

Building the kernel module

Running the kernel module

A quick first look at the kernel printk()

Listing the live kernel modules

Unloading the module from kernel memory

Our lkm convenience script

Understanding kernel logging and printk

Using the kernel memory ring buffer

Kernel logging and systemd’s journalctl

Using printk log levels

The pr_ convenience macros

Writing to the console

Writing output to the Raspberry Pi console

Turning on debug-level kernel messages

Rate limiting the printk instances

Rate-limiting macros to use

Generating kernel messages from user space

Standardizing printk output via the pr_fmt macro

Portability and the printk format specifiers

Understanding the new printk indexing feature

Understanding the basics of a kernel module Makefile

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Writing Your First Kernel Module – Part 2

Technical requirements

A better Makefile template for your kernel modules

Configuring a debug kernel

Cross-compiling a kernel module

Setting up the system for cross-compilation

Attempt 1 – setting the ARCH and CROSS_COMPILE environment variables

Attempt 2 – pointing the Makefile to the correct kernel source tree for the target

Attempt 3 – cross-compiling our kernel module

Examining Linux kernel ABI compatibility issues

Attempt 4 – cross-compiling our kernel module

Summarizing what went wrong with the module cross-buildd/load and how it was fixed

Gathering minimal system information

Being a bit more security-aware

Licensing kernel modules

Licensing of inline kernel code

Licensing of out-of-tree kernel modules

Emulating library-like features for kernel modules

Performing library emulation via linking multiple source files

Understanding function and variable scope in a kernel module

Understanding module stacking

Trying out module stacking

Emulating ‘library-like’ features – summary and conclusions

Passing parameters to a kernel module

Declaring and using module parameters

Getting/setting module parameters after insertion

Learning module parameter data types and validation

Validating kernel module parameters

Overriding the module parameter’s name

Hardware-related kernel parameters

Floating point not allowed in the kernel

Forcing FP in the kernel

Auto-loading modules on system boot

Module auto-loading – additional details

Kernel modules and security – an overview

Proc filesystem tunables affecting the system log

A quick word on the dmesg_restrict sysctl

A quick word on the kptr_restrict sysctl

Understanding the cryptographic signing of kernel modules

The two module-signing modes

Disabling kernel modules altogether

The kernel lockdown LSM – an introduction

Coding style guidelines for kernel developers

Contributing to the mainline kernel

Getting started with contributing to the kernel

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Kernel Internals Essentials – Processes and Threads

Technical requirements

Understanding process and interrupt contexts

Understanding the basics of the process Virtual Address Space (VAS)

Organizing processes, threads, and their stacks – user and kernel space

Running a small script to see the number of processes and threads alive

User space organization

Kernel space organization

Summarizing the kernel with respect to threads, task structures, and stacks

Viewing the user and kernel stacks

Traditional approach to viewing the stacks

eBPF – the modern approach to viewing both stacks

The 10,000-foot view of the process VAS

Understanding and accessing the kernel task structure

Looking into the task structure

Accessing the task structure with current

Determining the context

Working with the task structure via ‘current’

Built-in kernel helper methods and optimizations

Trying out the kernel module to print process context info

Seeing that the Linux OS is monolithic

Coding for security with printk

Iterating over the kernel’s task lists

Iterating over the task list I – displaying all processes

Iterating over the task list II – displaying all threads

Differentiating between the process and thread – the TGID and the PID

Iterating over the task list III – the code

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Memory Management Internals – Essentials

Technical requirements

Understanding the VM split

Looking under the hood – the Hello, world C program

Going beyond the printf() API

Virtual addressing and address translation

VM split on 64-bit Linux systems

Common VM splits

Understanding the process VAS – the full view

Examining the process VAS

Examining the user VAS in detail

Directly viewing the process memory map using procfs

Frontends to view the process memory map

Understanding VMA basics

Examining the kernel VAS

High memory on 32-bit systems

Writing a kernel module to show information about the kernel VAS

Macros and variables describing the kernel VAS layout

Trying it out – viewing kernel VAS details

The kernel VAS via procmap

Trying it out – the user segment

Viewing kernel documentation on the memory layout

Randomizing the memory layout – KASLR

User memory randomization with ASLR

Kernel memory layout randomization with KASLR

Querying/setting KASLR status with a script

Understanding physical memory organization

Physical RAM organization

Nodes and NUMA

Zones within a node

Direct-mapped RAM and address translation

An introduction to physical memory models

Understanding the sparsemem[-vmemmap] memory model in brief

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors – Part 1

Technical requirements

Introducing kernel memory allocators

Understanding and using the kernel page allocator (or BSA)

The fundamental workings of the page allocator

Understanding the organization of the page allocator freelist

The workings of the page allocator

Working through a few scenarios

Page allocator internals – a few more details

Learning how to use the page allocator APIs

Dealing with the GFP flags

Freeing pages with the page allocator

A few guidelines to observe when (de)allocating kernel memory

Writing a kernel module to demo using the page allocator APIs

Deploying our lowlevel_mem_lkm kernel module

The page allocator and internal fragmentation (wastage)

The GFP flags – digging deeper

Never sleep in interrupt or atomic contexts

Page allocator – pros and cons

Understanding and using the kernel slab allocator

The object caching idea

A few FAQs regarding (slab) memory usage and their answers

Learning how to use the slab allocator APIs

Allocating slab memory

Freeing slab memory

Data structures – a few design tips

The actual slab caches in use for kmalloc

Writing a kernel module to use the basic slab APIs

Size limitations of the kmalloc API

Testing the limits – memory allocation with a single call

Checking via the /proc/buddyinfo pseudofile

Slab allocator – a few additional details

Using the kernel’s resource-managed memory allocation APIs

Additional slab helper APIs

Control groups and memory

Caveats when using the slab allocator

Background details and conclusions

Testing slab allocation with ksize() – case 1

Testing slab allocation with ksize() – case 2

Interpreting the output from case 2

Graphing it

Finding internal fragmentation (wastage) within the kernel

The easy way with slabinfo

More details with alloc_traces and a custom script

Slab layer - pros and cons

Slab layer – a word on its implementations within the kernel

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors – Part 2

Technical requirements

Creating a custom slab cache

Creating and using a custom slab cache within a kernel module

Step 1 – creating a custom slab cache

Step 2 – using our custom slab cache’s memory

Step 3 – destroying our custom cache

Custom slab – a demo kernel module

Extracting useful information regarding slab caches

Understanding slab shrinkers

Summarizing the slab allocator pros and cons

Debugging kernel memory issues – a quick mention

Understanding and using the kernel vmalloc() API

Learning to use the vmalloc family of APIs

Trying out vmalloc()

A brief note on user-mode memory allocations and demand paging

Friends of vmalloc()

Is this vmalloc-ed (or module region) memory?

Unsure which API to use? Try kvmalloc()

Miscellaneous helpers – vmalloc_exec() and vmalloc_user()

Specifying memory protections

The kmalloc() and vmalloc() APIs – a quick comparison

Memory allocation in the kernel – which APIs to use when

Visualizing the kernel memory allocation API set

Selecting an appropriate API for kernel memory allocation

A word on DMA and CMA

Memory reclaim – a key kernel housekeeping task

Zone watermarks and kswapd

The new multi-generational LRU (MGLRU) lists feature

Trying it out – seeing histogram data from MGLRU

A quick introduction to DAMON – the Data Access Monitoring feature

Running a memory workload and visualizing it with DAMON’s damo front-end

Stayin’ alive – the OOM killer

Deliberately invoking the OOM killer

Invoking the OOM killer via Magic SysRq

Invoking the OOM killer with a crazy allocator program

Understanding the three VM overcommit_memory policies

VM overcommit from the viewpoint of the __vm_enough_memory() code

Case 1: vm.overcommit_memory == 0 (the default, OVERCOMMIT_GUESS)

Case 2: vm.overcommit_memory == 2 (VM overcommit turned off, OVERCOMMIT_NEVER) and vm.overcommit_ratio == 50

Demand paging and OOM

The optimized (unmapped) read

Understanding the OOM score

Closing thoughts on the OOM killer and cgroups

Cgroups and memory bandwidth – a note

Summary

Questions

Further reading

The CPU Scheduler – Part 1

Technical requirements

Learning about the CPU scheduling internals – part 1 – essential background

What is the KSE on Linux?

The Linux process state machine

The POSIX scheduling policies

Thread priorities

Visualizing the flow

Using the gnome-system-monitor GUI to visualize the flow

Using perf to visualize the flow

Trying it out – the command-line approach

Trying it out – the graphical approach

Visualizing the flow via alternate approaches

Learning about the CPU scheduling internals – part 2

Understanding modular scheduling classes

A conceptual example to help understand scheduling classes

Asking the scheduling class

The workings of the Completely Fair Scheduling (CFS) class in brief

Scheduling statistics

Querying a given thread’s scheduling policy and priority

Learning about the CPU scheduling internals – part 3

Preemptible kernel

The dynamic preemptible kernel feature

Who runs the scheduler code?

When does schedule() run?

Minimally understanding the thread_info structure

The timer interrupt housekeeping – setting TIF_NEED_RESCHED

The process context part – checking TIF_NEED_RESCHED

CPU scheduler entry points – a summary

The core scheduler code in brief

Summary

Questions

Further reading

The CPU Scheduler – Part 2

Technical requirements

Understanding, querying, and setting the CPU affinity mask

Querying and setting a thread’s CPU affinity mask

Using taskset to perform CPU affinity

Setting the CPU affinity mask on a kernel thread

Querying and setting a thread’s scheduling policy and priority

Setting the policy and priority within the kernel – on a kernel thread

A real-world example – threaded interrupt handlers

An introduction to cgroups

Cgroup controllers

Exploring the cgroups v2 hierarchy

Enabling or disabling controllers

The cgroups within the hierarchy

Systemd and cgroups

Our cgroups v2 explorer script

Trying it out – constraining the CPU resource via cgroups v2

Leveraging systemd to set up CPU resource constraints on a service

The manual way – a cgroups v2 CPU controller

Running Linux as an RTOS – an introduction

Pointers to building RTL for the mainline 6.x kernel (on x86_64)

Miscellaneous scheduling related topics

A few small (kernel space) routines to check out

The ghOSt OS

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Kernel Synchronization – Part 1

Technical requirements

Critical sections, exclusive execution, and atomicity

What is a critical section?

A classic case – the global i ++

Concepts – the lock

Critical sections – a summary of key points

Data races – a more formal definition

Concurrency concerns within the Linux kernel

Multicore SMP systems and data races

Preemptible kernels, blocking I/O, and data races

Hardware interrupts and data races

Locking guidelines and deadlock

Mutex or spinlock? Which to use when

Determining which lock to use – in theory

Determining which lock to use – in practice

Using the mutex lock

Initializing the mutex lock

Correctly using the mutex lock

Mutex lock and unlock APIs and their usage

Mutex lock – via [un]interruptible sleep?

Mutex locking – an example driver

The mutex lock – a few remaining points

Mutex lock API variants

The semaphore and the mutex

Priority inversion and the RT-mutex

Internal design

Using the spinlock

Spinlock – simple usage

Spinlock – an example driver

Test – sleep in an atomic context

Testing the buggy module on a 6.1 debug kernel

Locking and interrupts

Scenario 1 – driver method and hardware interrupt handler run serialized, sequentially

Scenario 2 – driver method and hardware interrupt handler run interleaved

Scenario 2 on a single-core (UP) system

Scenario 2 on a multicore (SMP) system

Solving the issue on UP and SMP with the spin_[un]lock_irq() API variant

Scenario 3 – some interrupts masked, driver method and hardware interrupt handler run interleaved

Interrupt handling, bottom halves, and locking

Interrupt handling on Linux – a summary of key points

Bottom halves and locking

Using spinlocks – a quick summary

Locking – common mistakes and guidelines

Common mistakes

Locking guidelines

Solutions

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Kernel Synchronization – Part 2

Technical requirements

Using the atomic_t and refcount_t interfaces

The newer refcount_t versus older atomic_t interfaces

The simpler atomic_t and refcount_t interfaces

Examples of using refcount_t within the kernel codebase

64-bit atomic integer operators

A note on internal implementation

Using the RMW atomic operators

RMW atomic operations – operating on device registers

Using the RMW bitwise operators

Using bitwise atomic operators – an example

Efficiently searching a bitmask

Using the reader-writer spinlock

Reader-writer spinlock interfaces

Trying out the reader-writer spinlock

Performance issues with reader-writer spinlocks

The reader-writer semaphore

Understanding CPU caching basics, cache effects, and false sharing

An introduction to CPU caches

The risks – cache coherency, performance issues, and false sharing

What is the cache coherency problem?

The false sharing issue

Lock-free programming with per-CPU and RCU

Per-CPU variables

Working with per-CPU variables

Per-CPU – an example kernel module

Per-CPU usage within the kernel

Understanding and using the RCU (Read-Copy-Update) lock-free technology – a primer

How does RCU work?

Trying out RCU

RCU: detailed documentation

RCU usage within the kernel

Lock debugging within the kernel

Configuring a debug kernel for lock debugging

The lock validator lockdep – catching locking issues early

Catching deadlock bugs with lockdep – a few examples

Example 1 – catching a self deadlock bug with lockdep

Example 2 – catching an AB-BA deadlock with lockdep

Brief notes on lockdep – annotations and issues

A note on lockdep annotations

A note on lockdep – known issues

Kernel lock statistics

Viewing and interpreting the kernel lock statistics

Introducing memory barriers

An example of using memory barriers in a device driver

A note on marked accesses

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Other Books You May Enjoy

Index

Landmarks

Cover

Index

Preface

This book, in its second edition now, has been explicitly written with a view to helping you learn Linux kernel development in a practical, hands-on fashion, along with the necessary theoretical background to give you a well-rounded view of this vast and interesting topic area. It deliberately focuses on kernel development via the powerful Loadable Kernel Module (LKM) framework; this is because the vast majority of real-world/industry kernel projects and products, which includes device driver development, are done in this manner.

The focus is kept on both working hands-on with, and understanding at a sufficiently deep level, the internals of the Linux OS. In this regard, we cover everything from building the Linux kernel from source to understanding and working with complex topics such as synchronization within the kernel.

To guide you on this exciting journey, we divide this book into three sections. The first section covers the basics – setting up an appropriate workspace for kernel development, building the modern kernel from source, and writing your first kernel module.

The next section, a key one, will help you understand essential kernel internals details; its coverage includes the Linux kernel architecture, the task structure, user - and kernel-mode stacks, and memory management. Memory management is a key and interesting topic – we devote three whole chapters to it (covering the internals to a sufficient extent, and importantly, how exactly to efficiently allocate and free kernel memory). The internal working and deeper details of CPU (task) scheduling on the Linux OS round off this section.

The last section of the book deals with the more advanced topic of kernel synchronization – a necessity for professional design and code on the Linux kernel. We devote two whole chapters to covering key topics here.

The book uses the kernel community’s 6.1 Long Term Support (LTS) Linux kernel. It’s a kernel that will be maintained (both bug and security fixes) from December 2022 right through to December 2026. Moreover, the CIP (Civil Infrastructure Project) has adopted 6.1 as an SLTS (Super LTS) release and plans to maintain it for 10 years, until August 2033! This is a key point, ensuring that this book’s content remains current and valid for years to come!

We very much believe in a hands-on approach: some 40 kernel modules (besides several user apps and shell scripts, double that of the first edition!) in this book’s GitHub repository make the learning come alive, making it fun, practical, interesting, and useful.

We highly recommend you also make use of this book’s companion guide, Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 – Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization: Create user-kernel interfaces, work with peripheral I/O, and handle hardware interrupts. It’s an excellent industry-aligned beginner’s guide to writing

misc

character drivers, performing I/O on peripheral chip memory, and handling hardware interrupts. You can get this book for free along with your print copy; alternately, you can also find this eBook in the GitHub repository at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Linux-Kernel-Programming/tree/master/Linux-Kernel-Programming-(Part-2).

We really hope you learn from and enjoy this book. Happy reading!

Who this book is for

This book is primarily for those of you beginning your journey in the vast arena of learning and understanding modern Linux kernel architecture and internals, Linux kernel module development and, to some extent, Linux device driver development. It’s also very much targeted at those of you who have already been working on Linux modules and/or drivers, who wish to gain a much deeper, well-structured understanding of Linux kernel architecture, memory management, task scheduling, cgroups, and synchronization. This level of knowledge about the underlying OS, covered in a properly structured manner, will help you no end when you face difficult-to-debug real-world situations.

What’s been added in the second edition?

A pretty huge amount of new material has been added into this, the Second Edition of the Linux Kernel Programming book. As well, being based on the very recent (as of this writing) 6.1 LTS release, its information and even code will remain industry-relevant for many, many years to come.

Here’s a quick chapter-wise summarization of what’s new in this second edition:

Materials updated for the 6.1 LTS kernel, maintained until December 2026, and until August 2033 via the CLP (6.1 SLTS)!

Updated, new, and working code for the 6.1 LTS kernel

Several new info-rich sections added to most chapters, many new diagrams, and new code examples to help explain concepts better

Chapter 1, Linux Kernel Programming – A Quick Introduction

Introduction to the book

Chapter 2, Building the 6.x Linux Kernel from Source – Part 1

The new LTS kernel lifetime mandate

More details on the kernel’s Kconfig+Kbuild system

Updated approaches on configuring the kernel

Chapter 3, Building the 6.x Linux Kernel from Source – Part 2

More details on the

initramfs

(

initrd

) image

Cross-compiling the kernel on an x86_64 host to an AArch64 target

Chapter 4, Writing Your First Kernel Module – Part 1

new-ish

printk

indexing feature covered

Powerful kernel dynamic debug feature introduced

Rate-limiting macros updated (deprecated ones not used)

Chapter 5, Writing Your First Kernel Module – Part 2

A better, ‘better’ Makefile (v0.2)

Chapter 6, Kernel Internals Essentials – Processes and Threads

New linked list demo module

Chapter 7, Memory Management Internals – Essentials

New coverage on how address translation works (including diagrams)

Chapter 8, Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors – Part 1

Coverage on using the exact page allocator API pair

FAQs regarding (slab) memory usage and their answers

The graphing demo (via

gnuplot

) is now automated and even saved to an image file, via a helper script

Finding internal fragmentation (wastage) within the kernel

Chapter 9, Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors – Part 2

Extracting useful information regarding slab caches

A word on slab shrinkers

Better coverage on the OOM killer (and

systemd-oomd

) and how it’s triggered; includes a flowchart depicting demand-paging and possible OOM killer invocation

Better coverage on kernel page reclaim, as well as the new MGLRU and DAMON technologies

Chapter 10, The CPU Scheduler – Part 1

New coverage on CFS scheduling period and timeslice. Coverage on the thread_info structure as well

New: the preempt dynamic feature

Enhanced coverage on exactly how and when

schedule()

is invoked

Chapter 11, The CPU Scheduler – Part 2

Much more depth in the powerful cgroups (v2) coverage plus an interesting script to let you explore its content

Leveraging the cgroups v2 CPU controller via both

systemd

and manually to perform CPU bandwidth allocation

A note on Google’s ghOSt OS

Chapter 12, Kernel Synchronization – Part 1

A new intro to the LKMM (Linux Kernel Memory Model)

More on locking plus deadlock avoidance guidelines

Chapter 13, Kernel Synchronization – Part 2

Expanded coverage on CPU caching and cache effects

New coverage on the powerful lock-free RCU synchronization technology

Online Chapter, Kernel Workspace Setup

Fixed errors in package names and versions

Ubuntu-based helper script that auto-installs all required packages

Most (if not all) earlier code errors, typos, and URLs are now fixed, based on prompt feedback, raising Issues/PRs on the book’s GitHub repo, from you, our wonderful readers!

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Linux Kernel Programming – A Quick Introduction, briefs you about the exciting journey in the sections of the book, which cover everything from building the Linux kernel from source to understanding and working with complex topics such as synchronization within the kernel.

Chapter 2, Building the 6.x Linux Kernel from Source – Part 1, is the first part of explaining how to build the modern Linux kernel from scratch with its source code. In this part, you will first be given necessary background information – the kernel version nomenclature, the different source trees, and the layout of the kernel source. Next, you will be shown in detail how exactly to download a stable vanilla Linux kernel source tree onto your Linux VM (Virtual Machine). We shall then learn a little regarding the layout of the kernel source code, getting, in effect, a 10,000-foot view of the kernel code base. The actual work of extracting and configuring the Linux kernel then follows. Creating and using a custom menu entry for kernel configuration is also explained in detail.

Chapter 3, Building the 6.x Linux Kernel from Source – Part 2, is the second part on performing kernel builds from source code. In this part, you will continue from the previous chapter, now actually building the kernel, installing kernel modules, understanding what exactly the

initramfs

(

initrd

) image is and how to generate it, and setting up the bootloader (for the x86_64). Also, as a valuable add-on, this chapter then explains how to cross-compile the kernel for a typical embedded ARM target (using the popular Raspberry Pi 4 64-bit as a target device). Several tips and tricks on kernel builds, and even kernel security (hardening) tips, are detailed.

Chapter 4, Writing Your First Kernel Module – Part 1, is the first of two parts that cover a fundamental aspect of Linux kernel development – the LKM framework and how it is to be understood and used by you, the module user, the kernel module or device driver programmer. It covers the basics of the Linux kernel architecture and then, in great detail, every step involved in writing a simple Hello, world kernel module, compiling, inserting, checking, and removing it from kernel space.

We also cover kernel logging via the ubiquitous

printk

API in detail. This edition also covers

printk

indexing and introduces the powerful dynamic debug feature.

Chapter 5, Writing Your First Kernel Module – Part 2, is the second part that covers the LKM framework. Here, we begin with something critical – learning how to use a better Makefile, which will help you generate more robust code (this so-called ‘better’ Makefile helps by having several targets for code-checking, code-style correction, static analysis, and so on. This edition has a superior version of it). We then show in detail the steps to successfully cross-compile a kernel module for an alternate architecture, how to emulate library-like code in the kernel (via both the linking and module-stacking approaches), and how to pass parameters to your kernel module. Additional topics include how to perform auto-loading of modules at boot, important security guidelines, and some information on the kernel coding style and upstream contribution. Several example kernel modules make the learning more interesting.

Chapter 6, Kernel Internals Essentials – Processes and Threads, delves into some essential kernel internals topics. We begin with what is meant by the execution of kernel code in process and interrupt contexts, and minimal but required coverage of the process user virtual address space (VAS) layout. This sets the stage for you; you’ll then learn about Linux kernel architecture in more depth, focusing on the organization of process/thread task structures and their corresponding stacks – user- and kernel-mode. We then show you more on the kernel task structure (a root data structure), how to practically glean information from it (via the powerful ‘current’ macro), and even how to iterate over various (task) lists (there’s sample code too!). Several kernel modules make the topic come alive.

Chapter 7, Memory Management Internals – Essentials, a key chapter, delves into essential internals of the Linux memory management subsystem, to the level of detail required for the typical module author or driver developer. This coverage is thus necessarily more theoretical in nature; nevertheless, the knowledge gained here is crucial to you, the kernel developer, both for deep understanding and usage of appropriate kernel memory APIs, as well as for performing meaningful debugging at the level of the kernel. We cover the VM split (and how it’s defined on various actual architectures), gaining deep insight into the user VAS as well as the kernel VAS (our

procmap

utility will prove to be an eye-opener here!). We also cover more on how address translation works. We then briefly delve into the security technique of memory layout randomization ([K]ASLR), and end this chapter with a discussion on physical memory organization within Linux.

Chapter 8, Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors –Part 1, gets our hands dirty with the kernel memory allocation (and, obviously, deallocation) APIs. You will first learn about the two allocation layers within Linux – the slab allocator that’s layered above the kernel memory allocation engine, the page allocator (or BSA). We shall briefly learn about the underpinnings of the page allocator algorithm and its freelist data structure; this information is valuable when deciding which layer to use. Next, we dive straight into the hands-on work of learning about the usage of these key APIs. The ideas behind the slab allocator (or slab cache) and the primary kernel allocator APIs – the

kzalloc()

/

kfree()

pair (and friends) – are covered. Importantly, the size limitations, downsides, and caveats when using these common APIs are covered in a lot of detail as well.

Also, especially useful for driver authors, we cover the kernel’s modern resource-managed memory allocation APIs (the 

devm_*()

 routines). Finding where internal fragmentation (wastage) occurs is another interesting area we delve into.

Chapter 9, Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors– Part 2, goes further, in a logical fashion, from the previous chapter. Here, you will learn how to create custom slab caches (useful for high-frequency (de)allocations for, say, your custom driver). Next, you’ll learn how to extract useful information regarding slab caches as well as understanding slab shrinkers (new in this edition). We then move onto understanding and using the 

vmalloc()

 API (and friends). Very importantly, having covered many APIs for kernel memory (de)allocation, you will now learn how to pick and choose an appropriate API given the real-world situation you find yourself in. This chapter is rounded off with important coverage of the kernel’s memory reclamation technologies and the dreaded Out Of Memory (OOM) killer framework. Understanding OOM and related areas will also lead to a much deeper understanding of how user space memory allocation really works, via the demand paging technique. This edition has more and better coverage of kernel page reclaim, as well as the new MGLRU and DAMON technologies.

Chapter 10, The CPU Scheduler – Part 1, the first of two chapters on this topic, covers a useful mix of theory and practice regarding CPU (task) scheduling on the Linux OS. The minimal necessary theoretical background on what the KSE (kernel schedulable entity) is – it’s the thread! – and available kernel scheduling policies, are some of the initially covered topics. Next, we cover how to visualize the flow of a thread via tools like

perf

. Sufficient kernel internal details on CPU scheduling are then covered to have you understand how task scheduling on the modern Linux OS works. Along the way, you will learn about thread scheduling attributes (policy and real-time priority) as well. This edition includes new coverage on CFS scheduling periods/timeslices, enhanced coverage on exactly how and when the core scheduler code is invoked, and coverage of the new preempt dynamic feature.

Chapter 11, The CPU Scheduler – Part 2, the second part on CPU (task) scheduling, continues to cover the topic in more depth. Here, you learn about the CPU affinity mask and how to query/set it, controlling scheduling policy and priority on a per-thread basis – such powerful features! We then come to a key and very powerful Linux OS feature – control groups (cgroups). We understand this feature along with learning how to practically explore it (a custom script is also built). We further learn the role the modern systemd framework plays with cgroups. An interesting example on controlling CPU bandwidth allocation via cgroups v2 is then seen, from different angles. Can you run Linux as an RTOS? Indeed you can! We cover an introduction to this other interesting area…

Chapter 12, Kernel Synchronization – Part 1, first covers the really key concepts regarding critical sections, atomicity, data races (from the LKMM point of view), what a lock conceptually achieves, and, very importantly, the ‘why’ of all this. We then cover concurrency concerns when working within the Linux kernel; this moves us naturally on to important locking guidelines, what deadlock means, and key approaches to preventing deadlock. Two of the most popular kernel locking technologies – the mutex lock and the spinlock – are then discussed in depth along with several (simple device driver based) code examples. We also point out how to work with spinlocks in interrupt contexts and close the chapter with common locking mistakes (to avoid) and deadlock-avoidance guildelines.

Chapter 13, Kernel Synchronization – Part 2, continues the journey on kernel synchronization. Here, you’ll learn about key locking optimizations – using lightweight atomic and (the more recent) refcount operators to safely operate on integers, RMW bit operators to safely perform bit ops, and the usage of the reader-writer spinlock over the regular one. What exactly the CPU caches are and the inherent risks involved when using them, such as cache false sharing, are then discussed. We then get into another key topic – lock-free programming techniques with an emphasis on per-CPU data and Read Copy Update (RCU) lock-free technologies. Several module examples illustrate the concepts! A critical topic – lock debugging techniques, including the usage of the kernel’s powerful lockdep lock validator – is then covered. The chapter is rounded off with a brief look at locking statistics and memory barriers.

Online Chapter – Kernel Workspace Setup

The online chapter on Kernel Workspace Setup, published online, guides you on setting up a full-fledged Linux kernel development workspace (typically, as a fully virtualized guest system). You will learn how to install all required software packages on it. (In this edition, we even provide an Ubuntu-based helper script that auto-installs all required packages.) You will also learn about several other open-source projects that will be useful on your journey to becoming a professional kernel/driver developer. Once this chapter is done, you will be ready to build a Linux kernel as well as to start writing and testing kernel code (via the loadable kernel module framework). In our view, it’s very important for you to actually use this book in a hands-on fashion, trying out and experimenting with code. The best way to learn something is to do so empirically – not taking anyone’s word on anything at all, but by trying it out and experiencing it for yourself. This chapter has been published online; do read it, here:

You can read more about the chapter online using the following link: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781803232225_Online_Chapter.pdf.

To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book, we expect the following:

You need to know your way around a Linux system, on the command line (the shell).

You need to know the C programming language.

It’s not mandatory, but experience with Linux system programming concepts and technologies will greatly help.

The details on hardware and software requirements, as well as their installation, are covered completely and in depth in Online Chapter, Kernel Workspace Setup. It’s critical that you read it in detail and follow the instructions therein.

Also, we have tested all the code in this book (it has its own GitHub repository) on these platforms:

x86_64 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and guest OS (running on Oracle VirtualBox 7.0)

x86_64 Ubuntu 23.04 LTS guest OS (running on Oracle VirtualBox 7.0)

x86_64 Fedora 38 (and 39) on a native (laptop) system

ARM Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (64-bit, running both its distro kernel as well as our custom 6.1 kernel); lightly tested

We assume that, when running Linux as a guest (VM), the host system is either Windows 10 or later (of course, even Windows 7 will work), a recent Linux distribution (for example, Ubuntu or Fedora), or even macOS.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or, much better, access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

I strongly recommend that you follow the empirical approach: not taking anyone’s word on anything at all, but trying it out and experiencing it for yourself. Hence, this book gives you many hands-on experiments and kernel code examples that you can and must try out yourself; this will greatly aid you in making real progress, deepening your understanding of the various aspects of Linux kernel development.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Linux-Kernel-Programming_2E. If there’s an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository. (So be sure to regularly do a "

git pull

" as well to stay up to date.)

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/gbp/9781803232225.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText

: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The

ioremap()

API returns a KVA of the

void *

type (since it’s an address location)."

A block of code is set as follows:

static

int

__init

miscdrv_init

(

void

)

{

int

ret;

struct

device

*dev;

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

#

if

LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(5, 8, 0)

vrx = __vmalloc(

42

* PAGE_SIZE, GFP_KERNEL, PAGE_KERNEL_RO);

if

(!vrx) {

pr_warn

(

__vmalloc failed\n

);

goto

err_out5; } [ … ]

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo cat /proc/iomem

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: Email

[email protected]

and mention the book’s title in the subject of your message. If you have questions about any aspect of this book, please email us at

[email protected]

.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you reported this to us. Please visit http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, click Submit Errata, and fill in the form. We shall strive to update all reported errors/omissions in a Known Errata section on this book’s GitHub repo as well, allowing you to quickly spot them.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at

[email protected]

with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit http://authors.packtpub.com.

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1

Linux Kernel Programming – A Quick Introduction

Hello, and welcome to this book on learning Linux kernel programming! This book, now in its second edition, has been explicitly written with a view to helping you learn Linux kernel development in a practical, hands-on fashion, along with the necessary theoretical background to give you a well-rounded view of this vast and interesting topic. It deliberately focuses on kernel development via the powerful Loadable Kernel Module (LKM) framework. This is because many, if not most, real-world/industry projects and products that involve kernel feature and/or device driver development, are done in this manner.

The focus is kept on both working hands-on with, and understanding at a sufficiently deep level, the internals of the Linux OS. In this regard, we cover everything from building the Linux kernel from source through to understanding and working with complex topics such as synchronization within the kernel.

To guide you on this exciting journey, we have divided this book into three sections. The first section covers the basics of setting up an appropriate workspace for kernel development, building the modern kernel from source, and writing your first kernel module.

The next section, a key one, will help you understand the essential details of kernel internals. Its coverage includes the Linux kernel architecture, the task structure, user and kernel-mode stacks, and memory management. Memory management is a key and interesting topic to which we have devoted three whole chapters (covering the internals to a sufficient extent, and importantly, how exactly to efficiently allocate and free kernel memory). The internal workings and deeper details of CPU (task) scheduling on the Linux OS round off this section.

The last section of the book deals with the more advanced topic of kernel synchronization – a necessity for professional design and code on the Linux kernel. We devote two whole chapters to covering key topics within this.

The book uses the kernel community’s 6.1 Long Term Support (LTS) Linux kernel. It’s a kernel that will be maintained (with both bug and security fixes) from December 2022 right through December 2026. Moreover, the Civil Infrastructure Project (CIP) has adopted 6.1 as an SLTS (Super LTS) release and plans to maintain it for 10 years, until August 2033. This is a key point, ensuring that this book’s content will remain current and valid for years to come.

We very much believe in a hands-on approach, with some 40 kernel modules (besides several user apps and shell scripts, double that of the first edition!) on this book’s GitHub repository to bring the learning to life, making it fun, practical, interesting, and useful. (Link: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Linux-Kernel-Programming_2E)

We highly recommend you also make use of this book’s companion guide, Linux Kernel Programming Part 2 – Char Device Drivers and Kernel Synchronization: Create user-kernel interfaces, work with peripheral I/O, and handle hardware interrupts. It’s an excellent industry-aligned beginner’s guide to writing

misc

character drivers, performing I/O on peripheral chip memory, and handling hardware interrupts. You can get the eBook version for free along with your print copy, or alternately you can also find this eBook in the GitHub repository at: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Linux-Kernel-Programming/tree/master/Linux-Kernel-Programming-(Part-2).

We really hope you learn from and enjoy this book. Right, let’s get on to the topic at hand now and study how to set up an appropriate kernel workspace, so that you can get the most out of this book with some practical hands-on sessions.

Kernel workspace setup

To get the most out of this book, it is very important that you first set up the workspace environment that we will be using throughout the book. This chapter will teach you exactly how to do this and get started.

Keeping size constraints in mind, the full and enhanced content of this chapter can be found within this book’s GitHub repository, here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781803232225_Online_Chapter.pdf. I request that you download and read it in full. What follows here is an introduction to this first chapter of ours. Thanks!

In this chapter, we will install a recent Linux distribution (or distro) as a Virtual Machine (VM), and set it up to include all the required software packages. We will also clone this book’s code via its GitHub repository. Furthermore, this chapter also introduces a few useful projects that will help you along this exciting journey into the Linux kernel.

Right at the outset, something I would like to emphasize is that the best way to learn something is to do so empirically, hands-on, not taking anyone’s word on anything at all but trying it out and experiencing it for yourself. Hence, this book gives you many hands-on experiments and kernel code examples that you can and indeed must try out yourself. This will greatly aid you in making real progress, learning deeply, and understanding the various aspects of Linux kernel and driver development. So, remember:

Be empirical! Also, be bold, be daring, and try things out!

We will cover the following topics in this chapter in detail, which will help you to set up your working environment:

Running Linux as a guest VM

Installing an x86_64 Linux guest

Additional useful projects

Technical requirements

You will need a modern and preferably powerful desktop PC or laptop. Ubuntu Desktop specifies some recommended minimum system requirements for the installation and usage of the distribution here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements. I would definitely suggest you go with a system well beyond the minimum recommendations – as powerful a system as you can afford to use. This is because performing tasks such as building a Linux kernel from source is a very memory- and CPU-intensive process. It should be pretty obvious that the more RAM, CPU power, and disk space the host system has, the better!

Like any seasoned kernel developer, I would say that working on a native Linux system is best. However, for this book, we cannot assume that you will always have a dedicated native Linux box available to you. So, we shall assume that you are working on a Linux guest. Working within a guest VM also adds an additional layer of isolation and thus safety. Of course, the downside is performance; working on a high-spec native Linux box can be up to twice as fast as compared to working on a VM!

Cloning this book’s code repository

The complete source code for this book is freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Linux-Kernel-Programming_2E. You can clone and work on it by cloning the

git

tree, like so:

git clone https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Linux-Kernel-Programming_2E

The source code is organized chapter-wise. Each chapter is represented as a directory – for example,

ch1/

has the source code for this chapter. The root of the source tree has some code that is common to all chapters, such as the

convenient.h

and

klib.c

source files, among others.

For efficient code browsing, I would strongly recommend that you always index the code base(s) with

ctags

and/or

cscope

. For example, to set up the

ctags