.. _development_conclusion:
  
  For more information
  ====================

  
  There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
  related topics.  First among those will always be the Documentation

  directory found in the kernel source distribution.  The top-level process/howto.rst
  file is an important starting point; process/submitting-patches.rst and
  process/submitting-drivers.rst are also something which all kernel developers should

  read.  Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc
  mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those
  documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some
  distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents
  properly).
  
  Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail.  Your
  author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source;
  information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
  index at:
  
  	http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
  
  Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
  
  	http://kernelnewbies.org/

  And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive
  location for kernel release information.
  
  There are a number of books on kernel development:
  
  	Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
  	Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman).  Online at
  	http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
  
  	Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
  
  	Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
  
  All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
  somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
  the shelves for a while now.  Still, there is quite a bit of good
  information to be found there.
  
  Documentation for git can be found at:
  
  	http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
  
  	http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html

  Conclusion
  ==========

  
  Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
  document.  Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
  Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
  
  In the end, it's the participation that matters.  Any open source software
  project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it.  The
  Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
  been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
  working to make it better.  The kernel is a premier example of what can be
  done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
  
  The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though.  There
  is always more work to do.  But, just as importantly, most other
  participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
  kernel.  Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
  lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
  the direction of kernel development, and more.  It is a situation where
  everybody involved wins.  Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
  more than welcome.