Linux is an open-source kernel that powers most of the machines forming the internet. Linux is a lot more powerful and flexible in comparison to other kernels making it the go-to kernel / OS choice
Linux is not an OS – OSes are built on top of Linux kernel, for example, Ubuntu
The Linux kernel provides interfaces to add new functionalities to the existing kernel. This not only makes it modular but also a very lightweight kernel
For example, we can add new file systems to the Linux kernel using the interface or create a host of network protocols and drivers
Components of Linux kernel
Linux kernel can be broken down into 5 major components
- Process management
- Memory management
- Device drivers
- File system
- Network
Process Management
This component of the kernel is responsible for creating and terminating processes and also performing all of the processes-related activities like inter-process communication and software interrupts.
A major component of process management is the scheduler. Scheduler decides when which process gets to run on the processor and for how much time.
Basically, anything related to a process is most probably handled by this component of the kernel.
Memory management
Memory is an important part of any operating system. The behavior and performance of a system depend highly upon the memory allocated to it.
Memory management is responsible for allocating each process its own memory. It also ensures that no process can access the memory allocated to another process.
Device drivers
Drivers are an interface between the hardware and the kernel. They enable the kernel (which is a software component) to access and work on the hardware. We can add or remove drivers to the kernel because of its modular architecture
Network
All the networking operation has to be performed by the kernel. The reason for this is the asynchronous nature of networking.
For example. two different processes sent a request and are waiting for a response. Now if process A is responsible for the networking and the response for process B arrived, it could simply drop the package.
To level the field and make it a fair game, the Linux kernel takes care of all the networking-related activities.
It then collects, identifies, and forwards the packets to respective processes
File system
Everything in Linux is a file. And that is why the file system is one of the central components of the kernel.
Using the Linux file system you can access details about different processes (/proc file system) or about different network drivers.
These files and information can come in handy during debugging.
