Linux Device Drivers Ch01

First glance

1. The distinction between mechanism and policy is one of the best ideas behind the Unix design

• “what capabilities are to be provided” (the mechanism)
• “how those capabilities can be used” (the policy)

2. The role of the device driver

• some basic concept
• be as policy free as possible

3. Splitting the kernel

• process management; memory management; file systems; device control; networking

4. Loadable Modules

5. Classes of Devices and Modules

• decomposition is a key element of scalability and extendability
• so create a different module for each new functionality
• Character Devices — can be accessed as a stream of bytes
• Block devices — a block of device that can host a filesystem; like /dev
• Network interfaces — Not being a stream-oriented device; hard to be mapped to a node in the file system

6. Security Issues

7. Version numbering — stable and unstable