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LINKS 》 Linux Kernel Data-Structures

Here is a quick reference of important Linux Kernel Data Structures of various assorted Kernel Subsystems such as: Process, Memory Management, Networking, File System, Device Drives, IPC and so on. So when you write custom Kernel code, it is often you may need to populate a new instance of one of these data-structures or just access the existing ones. Hence it is very important to know some of these and get familiarized with. You can bookmark this page, so that you can use this as a quick reference when you write your own custom Linux Kernel Modules.

Linux Kernel - Process and Memory Subsystems
struct task_struct - process/task data-structure
struct mm_struct - Virtual Memory (Memory management) data-structure

Linux Kernel - Networking Subsystem
struct sk_buff - socket buffer
struct net_device - The DEVICE structure
struct ethhdr - Ethernet frame header
struct iphdr - IP(IPv4) header
struct tcphdr - TCP header
struct udphdr - UDP header
struct tcp_congestion_ops - TCP Congestion Control registration data-structure
struct ethtool_ops - optional netdev operations
struct dst_entry - packet destination
struct sock - network layer representation of sockets
struct socket - general BSD socket

Linux Kernel - FileSystems Subsystem
struct file_system_type - file-system registration data-structure
struct inode - file and directory inode meta-data data-structure
struct file - file data-structure which holds inode and other file meta-data



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