Chapter 1: Linux Kernel Concepts for Embedded Developers

As a standalone software, the Linux kernel implements a set of functions that help not to reinvent the wheel and ease device driver developments. The importance of these helpers is that it’s not a requirement to use these for code to be accepted upstream. This is the kernel core that drivers rely on. We’ll cover the most popular of these core functionalities in this book, though other ones also exist. We will begin by looking at the kernel locking API before discussing how to protect shared objects and avoid race conditions. Then, we will look at various work deferring mechanisms available, where you will learn what part of the code to defer in which execution context. Finally, you will learn how interrupts work and how to design interrupt handlers from within the Linux kernel.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

• The kernel locking API and shared objects
• Work deferring mechanisms
• Linux kernel interrupt management

Let’s get started!