This is the top level of the kernel's documentation tree. Kernel documentation, like the kernel itself, is very much a work in progress; that is especially true as we work to integrate our many scattered documents into a coherent whole. Please note that improvements to the documentation are welcome; join the linux-doc list at vger.kernel.org if you want to help out.
The following manuals are written for users of the kernel — those who are trying to get it to work optimally on a given system.
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 admin-guide/index
The user-space API manual gathers together documents describing aspects of the kernel interface as seen by application developers.
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 userspace-api/index
These manuals contain overall information about how to develop the kernel. The kernel community is quite large, with thousands of developers contributing over the course of a year. As with any large community, knowing how things are done will make the process of getting your changes merged much easier.
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 process/index dev-tools/index doc-guide/index kernel-hacking/index
These books get into the details of how specific kernel subsystems work from the point of view of a kernel developer. Much of the information here is taken directly from the kernel source, with supplemental material added as needed (or at least as we managed to add it — probably not all that is needed).
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 driver-api/index core-api/index media/index networking/index input/index gpu/index security/index sound/index crypto/index filesystems/index
These books provide programming details about architecture-specific implementation.
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 sh/index x86/index
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 translations/ko_KR/index
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 translations/zh_CN/index
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 translations/ja_JP/index