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

You're reading from   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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Product type Paperback
Published in Mar 2021
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781801079518
Length 452 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Kaiwan N. Billimoria Kaiwan N. Billimoria
Author Profile Icon Kaiwan N. Billimoria
Kaiwan N. Billimoria
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Table of Contents (11) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Section 1: Character Device Driver Basics
2. Writing a Simple misc Character Device Driver FREE CHAPTER 3. User-Kernel Communication Pathways 4. Working with Hardware I/O Memory 5. Handling Hardware Interrupts 6. Working with Kernel Timers, Threads, and Workqueues 7. Section 2: Delving Deeper
8. Kernel Synchronization - Part 1 9. Kernel Synchronization - Part 2 10. Other Books You May Enjoy

Does the kernel maintain separate IRQ stacks?

In the companion guide Linux Kernel Programming in Chapter 6, Kernel Internals and Essentials  Processes and Threads, in the Organizing process, threads, and their stacks user and kernel space section, we covered some key points: every single user space thread has two stacks: a user space stack and a kernel space stack. When the thread runs in non-privileged user space, it makes use of the user mode stack, while when it switches to privileged kernel space (via a system call or exception), it works with its kernel-mode stack (refer back to Figure 6.3 in the companion guide Linux Kernel Programming). Next, the kernel-mode stack is very limited and fixed in size it's only 2 or 4 pages long (depending on whether your arch is 32- or 64-bit, respectively)!

So, imagine your driver code's (let's say, the ioctl() method) is running within a deeply nested code...

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