Working with the kernel development community

So you want to be a Linux kernel developer? Welcome! While there is a lot to be learned about the kernel in a technical sense, it is also important to learn about how our community works. Reading these documents will make it much easier for you to get your changes merged with a minimum of trouble.

Below are the essential guides that every developer should read.

• Linux kernel licensing rules
• HOWTO do Linux kernel development
• Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct
• Linux Kernel Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct Interpretation
• A guide to the Kernel Development Process
• Submitting patches: the essential guide to getting your code into the kernel
• Handling regressions
• Programming Language
• Linux kernel coding style
• Subsystem and maintainer tree specific development process notes
• Kernel Maintainer PGP guide
• Email clients info for Linux
• Linux Kernel Enforcement Statement
• Kernel Driver Statement

For security issues, see:

• Security bugs
• Embargoed hardware issues

Other guides to the community that are of interest to most developers are:

• Minimal requirements to compile the Kernel
• The Linux Kernel Driver Interface
• Linux kernel management style
• Everything you ever wanted to know about Linux -stable releases
• Linux Kernel patch submission checklist
• Index of Further Kernel Documentation
• Deprecated Interfaces, Language Features, Attributes, and Conventions
• List of maintainers
• Researcher Guidelines
• Linux Kernel Contribution Maturity Model

These are some overall technical guides that have been put here for now for lack of a better place.

• Applying Patches To The Linux Kernel
• Adding a New System Call
• Linux magic numbers
• Why the "volatile" type class should not be used
• (How to avoid) Botching up ioctls
• clang-format
• arch/riscv maintenance guidelines for developers
• Unaligned Memory Accesses