Book Review: FreeBSD Device Drivers

Categories: FreeBSD, Sysadmin.

Joseph Kong strikes again! When I saw Designing BSD Rootkits I was quite excited because:

1. it was on some topics I had interests in but had not as much time as I would have liked to to dig in;
2. it was focussed on my main operating system.

I bought the book and although it was rather small (~140 pages) enjoyed learning quite a large amount of things about the FreeBSD kernel.

So, when I was contacted by No Stash Press to know if I would be interested in a review copy of their upcoming book FreeBSD Device Drivers by the same author in exchange of writing what I though about it, I had no hesitation and accepted the deal.

Just like the preceding book, this one is based on examples, each chapter focussing on a different aspect of device drivers, and going progressively further and further in the details of the kernel, explaining how things work and why they do work that way so that the reader can better understand the involved mechanisms, even if he is not an Operating Systems guru.

Precious information about the FreeBSD kernel (like what you have in The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating-System but in a more up-to-date and friendlier fashion) are spread all along the book, and — apart from the long C listings — the style is quite pleasant to read.

To sum-up, this book is definitively a must have for anybody interested in how are designed FreeBSD device drivers, not mentioning those who are interested in writing their very own ones for the FreeBSD operating system!

Many thanks Joseph for this awesome book!

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