Book Image

Mastering Linux Kernel Development

By : CH Raghav Maruthi
Book Image

Mastering Linux Kernel Development

By: CH Raghav Maruthi

Overview of this book

Mastering Linux Kernel Development looks at the Linux kernel, its internal arrangement and design, and various core subsystems, helping you to gain significant understanding of this open source marvel. You will look at how the Linux kernel, which possesses a kind of collective intelligence thanks to its scores of contributors, remains so elegant owing to its great design. This book also looks at all the key kernel code, core data structures, functions, and macros, giving you a comprehensive foundation of the implementation details of the kernel’s core services and mechanisms. You will also look at the Linux kernel as well-designed software, which gives us insights into software design in general that are easily scalable yet fundamentally strong and safe. By the end of this book, you will have considerable understanding of and appreciation for the Linux kernel.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Chapter 3. Signal Management

Signals provide a fundamental infrastructure in which any process can be notified of a system event asynchronously. They can also be engaged as communication mechanisms between processes. Understanding how the kernel provides and manages smooth throughput of the entire signal-handling mechanism lets us gain more grounding on the kernel. In this chapter, we shall pile on our understanding of signals, right from how processes can usher them to how the kernel deftly manages the routines to ensure signal events tick. We shall look at the following topics in great detail:

  • Overview of signals and their types
  • Process-level signal-management calls
  • Signal data structures in process descriptors
  • Kernel's signal generation and delivery mechanisms