Re: What was your first kernel hack?

[Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>]

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004, Tim Cambrant wrote:

> Now I was thinking about what you all did to get your hands
> dirty. It would be nice if you shared a bit of where you
> begun with kernel-coding and what you did. It doesn't
> necessarily have to be code that was accepted into the
> kernel, but just regular newbie-stuff that got you started.

I suspect that one of the best ways to get started is to apply
patches to your kernel. It is easy enough to get started with,
but after you've applied enough patches there are bound to come
up patch conflicts and more subtle breakage.

Fixing those is a good challenge, it will also help you get
more familiar with the code you just patched.

Another way is to dig into one particular subsystem and learn
about that.  I started that way because I didn't have access
to the internet when I started with Linux ... but I'm pretty
sure the "apply patches until it breaks" method will make you
familiar with the code quicker ;)

Rik
-- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan
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