The book (Was: Re: Swap usage discussion)

[Alan Dayley]

Ed Skinner said:
> On Friday 18 June 2004 09:42, Alan Dayley wrote, in part:
>> ... The book I am
>> using as a code guide, "Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory
>> Manager" explains it like this:
>>
>> "Linux actually implements paging as modern hardware supports it, but
>> traditionally has called it swapping in discussions and documentation.
>>  To be consistent with the Linux usage of the word, we, too, will
>> refer to it as swapping." p. 179
>>
--[clip]--
>      Do you like that O'Reilly book? The VM area in Linux is one of the
> kernel's most challenging aspects (IMHO) and I have yet to find one book
> that  really does a good job of presenting it clearly. I've always
> suspected that  the other authors I've read either A) don't really
> understand it, or B) can't  communicate what they "grok". And I'm
> certainly not claiming to understand  it, either. I just find it a
> fascinating area and have learned a little here  and there. (And, yes, I
> certainly *do* illustrate the adage that a little  knowledge can be
> dangerous.)

The book is not from O'Reilly.  It is a book from the "Bruce Perens' Open
Source Series" from Prentice Hall.  Web site here:
http://www.informit.com/promotion/1041

It was published last April, I believe, under an open license.  The text
of the book will be available online a few months after the print edition.

It is an impressive book in it's approach.  The first half is narative
about what each part of the VM manager's code is designed to do.  The
other half is annotated sections of kernel code in appendicies referenced
by the narative.  So it does not have a lot of overview, focusing straight
on the code of kernel version 2.4.22, with some comments on 2.6 test
versions where there are differences.  So far I think that is good.  I'll
write a review of the book for the PLUG site when I feel I have read
enough to solidify my opinion.

Alan